Official Development Plan for East Fraserlands Wins Award of Excellence

Project is a case study for 'Beyond the Guidebook'

NEWS RELEASE: The City of Vancouver has won the 2007 Canadian Institute of Planners Award for Planning Excellence in the neighbourhood-planning category for the East Fraserlands Official Development Plan (ODP). The CIP Awards honour significant planning achievement in Canadian communities annually. The East Fraserlands ODP was one of 67 entries this year.

The ODP is the development blueprint for this area over the next 25 years. The East Fraserlands is the former site of a mill and made up of 53 hectares of industrial land south of Marine Way and east of Kerr Street to Boundary Road.

The East Fraserlands ODP was recognized as an exceptional neighborhood plan that sets the physical and policy foundation for the transformation of one of the city's last major former industrial sites into a mixed-use, sustainable and complete community. Unanimously approved by City Council in November 2006, the ODP reflects the collaborative efforts of City staff, the developer ParkLane Homes, the East Fraserlands Committee, and other members of the community.

The ODP provides for a diversity of housing types, a commercial centre and a wide array of public amenities including affordable housing, schools, a community center, parks and daycare facilities. It also incorporates some of the most current green technologies and approaches such as the use of a neighbourhood energy utility, an integrated rainwater management plan, a green building strategy, and innovative ecological strategies for fish and wildlife habitat enhancement.

The East Fraserlands ODP has been lauded for breaking new ground in the field of planning by integrating social, economic, and environmental sustainability objectives. As it develops over the next 25 years,13,000 residents will be able to enjoy living in the East Fraserlands.

The East Fraserlands project demonstrates how to apply performance target objectives and the Water Balance Model in a high density development, and is a case study for Beyond the Guidebook, an inter-governmental initiative. The East Fraserlands project may well be the most rigorous and sophisticated application of the Water Balance Model undertaken to date.

Posted May 2007