Real Estate Foundation aligns efforts with Province to foster ‘green value’ development
NOTE TO READERS:
Following release of Living Water Smart in 2008, the government of British Columbia maintained livingwatersmart.ca as a stand-alone portal to support the Living Water Smart program. Implementation was a provincial government priority that involved 11 ministries and many water and land managers and users.
In the early years, the Living Water Smart portal showcased the stories of those leading change on the ground in British Columbia. Some projects were complete, or had a short life of two to three years, while other commitments were to be implemented over a much longer time period. The article below was posted on the Living Water Smart website.
On the BC Ministry of Environment website (in 2020), Living Water Smart is now just a dropdown under the topic area “Water Planning and Strategies”. This reflects the fact that Living Water Smart way-of-thinking is fully integrated into the business as usual.
Doing Business Differently
Living Water Smart contains a key message – green development makes sense. Fostering new thinking about development leads to more green spaces, more water and fish in the streams, improved community vitality, reduced demand for water, and reduced expenditure on infrastructure.
Balance Settlement Change and Ecology
“The program goals for Living Water Smart and the companion Green Communities Initiative constitute a ‘call to action’ on the part of British Columbians to manage settlement change in balance with ecology,” states Tim Pringle, Director of Special Programs for the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia.
“The Province has put in place a policy framework that enables local governments to commit to doing business differently: This is what we want our communities to look like in 50 years, and this is what we will do starting now to ensure it happens.”
An Integrated Package
“Living Water Smart and the Green Communities Initiative must be viewed as an integrated package. Living Water Smart presents the vision, and the Green Communities Initiative provides enabling tools to achieve the vision. The solutions and commitments go beyond what government does. Living Water Smart supports planning that is as much about land as water,” observes Tim Pringle.
CAVI-Convening for Action on Vancouver Island
Together with the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Community of Community & Rural Development, the Real Estate Foundation works to advance green value approaches to managing the built environment. Commencing in 2007, the three agencies have co-funded Convening for Action on Vancouver Island, known by the acronym CAVI.
“Through CAVI, we are promoting a regional team approach, which attempts to align actions at three scales – provincial, regional and local. The term ‘regional approach’ has been part our vocabulary for a generation or more, but it has never resonated the way ‘regional team approach’ has resonated this past year,” emphasizes Tim Pringle.
Regional Team Approach
“It is revealing that inserting the word team could have such a profound impact on how practitioners view their world. Inclusion of the team word implies there is personal commitment – that is why the regional team approach is fundamentally different than a regional approach.”
“The team concept also resonates with the notion that it is important to build local government talent to cope with demanding issues pertaining to settlement change.”
To Learn More:
Download a copy of the discussion document released by the Water Sustainability Action Plan in December 2009 titled Backgrounder: Shared Responsibility Underpins a Regional Team Approach to Creating Our Future in British Columbia
One Market Concept
In order to more fully understand development realities, the Foundation though Tim Pringle has undertaken research about real estate projects in the Mid-Island region and presented it as part of the curriculum for the 2009 Comox Valley Learning Lunch Seminar Series.
A key conclusion finds that large-scale real estate development on the east coast of Vancouver Island is a common market, from Cobble Hill to Campbell River. The working paper notes that
- “Vancouver Island offers large tracts of privately owned land, communities with urban/rural character, and unique natural amenities, in particular access to waterscapes, which attract large-scale development. We have observed that development proposals for complete communities, resort-based and mixed-use developments rely on these assets.”
As part of the curriculum for the 2009 Comox Valley Series, Tim Pringle wrote an article that introduced this question: What are key factors that drive large-scale real estate development projects on Vancouver Island?
To Learn More:
Download a PDF version of his article titled What Drives Settlement on the East Coast of Vancouver Island.
Communities Can Control Their Destinies
“The one market concept suggests that communities can choose from among development proposals, and can therefore control their destinies,” continues Tim Pringle. “They need only accept ones that are aligned with community values, that is: the right development in the right place.”
“A key finding from our research is that overnight Green Value development has moved from market-niche to market-share on Vancouver Island. The Real Estate Foundation uses the term Green Value as a generic reference to use and conservation of land and real estate that achieves social and economic goals while minimizing harmful effects on ecological assets. The concept emphasizes a holistic approach managing use and conservation of land.”
“The notion of ‘sustainable communities’ begins with a discussion of values that communities declare or reflect as changes occur in their landscapes,” concludes Tim Pringle.