Communities in Transition Information Resource: local government

Showing posts with label local government. Show all posts

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Anna Milner talks about planning in the South Okanagan-Similkameen region

Anna Milner is an environmental planner contracted through the South Okanagan-Similkameen Conservation Program (SOSCP) to provide planning services to small communities in the region. A unique partnership agreement between local governments, facilitated by SOSCP, and funded in part by a grant from the Real Estate Foundation of BC enables Anna to do planning work and "capacity building" in communities facing significant land use challenges. Without this partnership approach these communities would be unable to do imporant environmental and developmental assessment work in one of Canada's most sensitive ecosystems.

For more information about SOSCP visit www.soscp.org. CITinfoResource recently interviewed SOSCP coordinator Bryn White here. CITinfoResource also features Bryn's overview of Anna's project here.

©Real Estate Foundation of BC / 2010. We encourage the reproduction of articles on this website non-profit educational purposes. Please notify the Foundation and the author of all reproductions, including in-house uses.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Engaging the "sustainability conversation"

I've been involved in sustainability related topics since the mid-90s. Back then, local governments were wary of "sustainability" – the "3-legged stool" of economy, social, and environment was threatening to the "old business as usual" approach. Only a few organizations – one of them was the Real Estate Foundation of BC – seemed to understand that talking about sustainability was a way to get past ideological growth vs. no-growth polarizations.

We've come a long way

Sustainability isn't a dirty word anymore. Asking questions about growth, where and how it happens, whether or not it's sustainable – these are now part of what most politicians, civic staff, citizens, and even developers see as due diligence.

On the road to the "mainstreaming" of sustainability, however, we seem to have lost some of our passion for public meetings on the topic. Last year, for example, my once highly-charged, highly-participatory community by and large failed to get excited by a region-wide sustainability strategy process.

Apathy and its discontents

Do we fail to fill the halls because of process burnout? Or process suspicion – "they" never follow through on what we've wanted in the past, why should I participate now? Or is it because things like "sustainability" and "regional growth strategy" are just too vague, too far removed from the everyday issues most of us are dealing with?

I'm not sure. But, as one of my mentors used to say, "Local government is the 'hell's kitchen of sustainability." Engagement with local processes is how we do real work around sustainability. It's how we protect our investments in our families, homes, neighbourhoods, and communities. We can't afford to stay away from the kitchen, no matter how hot the fire, for a number of reasons:

because we the citizens are footing the bill for expensive planning processes;
because we the citizens as taxpayers deserve better results than we're getting;
because, if we don't get better results, we the citizens (as taxpayers) will be footing expensive bills for failing infrastructure, for inadequately preparing our communities for the impact of climate change preparation; and, finally,
because – as homeowners – if we don't engage meaningfully, we aren't protecting our investments in our homes and properties.

You can't spin authenticity

That said, I don't see any quick fixes on the road to civic participation. Open houses, public meetings – I'm not the only person they fail to engage. But I don't think we should stop using them. Face to face, real-space contact is important. But as recent case study work for the Real Estate Foundation of BC is showing, there are many ways to engage people when it comes to planning the future of our communities.

One of these ways is via new technologies and media. When these are applied to civic engagement they tend to be labelled as GOV2.0 or OPENGOV. Across the globe there are exciting examples of governments are using new technologies to share information and, generally, make real-time conversations between government and citizens possible. But they aren't a silver bullet. As far as I can see, there is no short cut to animating people and getting good information and ideas into the flow of governance and decision-making. Whatever we do, it'll take time – and "authentic" investment in trust-building.

This means that local governments can't expect miracles from either a consultant or a sexy new technology. No consultant can use social media to deliver engagement if local government isn't committed to being honest, open, and "authentic" online. You can't – as one of my communications mentors puts it – "spin" authenticity.

When it's real... it's about leadership, not technology

I work with local government on an ad hoc, as-needed basis to provide various communications related services. I'm watching examples of GOV2.0 grow and change in a host of places across the globe. What am I learning? That GOV2.0 isn't just about using social media. And it certainly isn't about having a consultant drop in and set up online presence for 3-12 months.

GOV2.0 – where it's real and working – is about civic leadership. It's about chutzpah and starting real conversations in a variety of places. It could be through a regular column in the local newspaper. Or a regular blog online. Or a regular online video on YouTube. Or a regular podcast.

Regular. Consistent. Every week, or every month. In a space that encourages (ie. makes it super easy) for we the citizens to comment and respond. And (this is critical), responsiveness. To respond to every (every!) comment. Promptly. As in, Now.

What if local government isn't taking the great leap forward?

If your local leaders aren't stepping into the risky business of authentic engagement there is still a lot that citizens can do to generate the needed conversations about sustainability in community. The regional sustainability strategy (rss) in my area is an example. It may not work in all communities; in our region it generated an informing parallel conversation to the rss. More than that, it's continuing to stimulate conversations about sustainability months after the official process finished. We now have a number of lively conversations about buildings, land use, conservation, transportation, and the future taking place across a variety of (mostly Facebook) sites.

Meet people where they are. Speak with your own voice.

Are more people going to turn up for public meetings related to sustainability in the Comox Valley because of this? I don't know. Conversations take place in different venues, through different media. Some take place in open houses. Many take place via letters to the editor in the local paper. Growing numbers are online. The beauty of online venues is the opportunity for authentic, direct conversations that aren't heavily structured or mediated, and that can't be "managed."

Civic engagement is the blood that flows through the veins of our governance structures. If we're serious about meeting sustainability challenges, we need healthy flow. Local governments can help by using a range of media to talk about changes in the community, about possible responses, and about policy directions. If people are not coming to meetings, don't expect them to come to meetings. If they're talking about sustainability online, join the conversation online.

Yes, this is risky. But the return on investment of honest, open engagement is proving to be high in jurisdictions that are taking the risk. Which is why local government needs to be doing it's own social engagement. Sure, hire someone to help walk you through the process, maybe even to kick things off. But in the end, high visabilityz folk need to be active (sometimes it's the Mayor, or a Councillor, or a CAO or Director or Planning). Then, when the sustainability roadshow comes to town, the channels are already open and conversation bubbling. There's no trick to it.

...and in the end... stop fretting!

Let's stop fretting about empty chairs at public meetings. Instead, let's get active in other ways of engagement, from local newspaper columns to cable TV columns to the wide and expanding options online. If local government isn't picking up the GOV2.0 ball, lets create our own channels and invite them in. I like what people like Councillor Michele Rule in Kelowna, Arjun Singh in Kamloops, Naomi Devine in Whistler (to name a few) are doing online and in real-space. Take a look at their various channels.

Be inspired, not disappointed. We have new tools. People are making them work in lots of places. And they're fun to use!

hanspetermeyer

Editor, CITinfoResource

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Tim Pringle talks about "performance" and "prescriptive" approaches to land use and development

Tim Pringle is Director of Special Programs at the Real Estate Foundation of BC. Since 1988 he's been working with land use practitioners (local government, non-governmental organizations, land owners, developers) on a range of issues related to sustainable land use, conservation, and development.

In this conversation with CITinfoResource editor hanspetermeyer, Tim talks about policy, regulation, community, and performance and prescriptive approaches to managing what he calls "settlement change."

This is the second in a series of conversations on this topic at CITinfoResource. The first took place in January 2010 and featured Kim Fowler, Sustainability Planner with the City of Victoria in BC. You can listen to hanspetermeyer's conversation with Kim here.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Mark Holland talks about his Resilient Cities Manifesto

Mark Holland is a highly-regarded sustainability planner and thinker with a practice in Vancouver and Nanaimo. Mark and his colleagues have contributed significantly to the practice of sustainability in communities throughout BC, Canada, and internationally. He was invited to give a summary address to the October 2009 Gaining Ground summit on "Resilient Cities."

Mark talks to CITinfoResource editor hanspetermeyer about the Resilient Cities Manifesto (click to download a pdf) and its significance several months after GGRC09.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Kim Fowler talks about "prescriptive" and "performance" based approaches to sustainability

Kim Fowler is Director Sustainability with the City of Victoria. Her background includes work with local governments, and with the private sector, on innovative projects and approaches to community sustainability. CITinfoResource editor hanspetemeyer talked to Kim about local government and performance based and prescriptive approaches to community sustainability and sustainable land development. This interview was recorded on January 22, 2010.

Local Government and Social Media – Use me. Please.

Media that Matters, Hollyhock, Cortes Island, ...

by hanspetermeyer

There is a movement inside government at all levels in Canada to become more transparent – and cost-effective. It's called GOV2.0, and developments are very uneven. In spite of the unevenness, however, the implications are
generally positive for community sustainability.

A lot of people, especially of my generation and older, are suspicious of things like Twitter and Facebook. If you are reading this you are, nevertheless, using one of the various social media tools. Either you're reading it via a "traditional" social medium – the printed page – or you're reading it via one of the "new" social media: one of several blogs, circulated via email, Facebook, or Twitter (or perhaps tagged on bookmarking sites like Delicious). Or you may be holding an in-office "small press" version (ie. photocopy).

There is nothing special about this column; it's just an example of how one writer reaches an audience via a continuum of media, all of which are "social" - that is, shared by people. We are, at least as far back as the days of cave paintings and drums, a "sharing" species. What has changed is our ability to do more than consume. We are now sharing and shaping the stories and information flows – and the actions that emerge.

What does this have to do with land use and community sustainability, local government and NGOs? A lot.

Working Hard in the Hell's Kitchen of Sustainability

For a number of reasons both local governments and local NGOs get no respect. Ironically so, because they represent our most direct contact with agencies of change, regulation, and action. Local government has been called "the hell's kitchen of sustainability" exactly because it is the agency closest to on-the-ground community land use decisions. Our local NGOs are in a similar kitchen as the deliverers of a range of social and environmental services that local government is not well-equiped to deal with. But for these two channels of action to be most effective, they need to be well-connected to the passions and energies of us as citizens of our community, our place.

In some jurisdictions – the cities of Victoria, Kelowna, Guelph, and Edmonton are some examples – elected officials and staff are actively opening up channels of communications with citizens. The topics being covered are varied, as are the means used (online radio, video, blogs, Twitter, etc). They include explaining street closures, tax increases, providing transit updates, and street snow removal scheduling. In some cases the online presence doesn't make two-way communications easy – but it's always easier than writing a letter to City Hall. People see the posts, and they comment on them.

"To be an effective CEO you've got to be the Chief Listening Officer" (from this morning's Twitter feed). Consistently, corporate "best practices" have to do with willingness to listen to what people are saying and responding quickly before problems escalate. This gives those "listening" an opportunity to build relationships to make exciting things happen – drawing on the energies and resources in the community at large, not just those of civic staff and officials. Another of this morning's posts talks about how social media is helping a municipality deal with its debt. As a taxpayer, very cool news.

PnPP – A (neglected) History of Building Community

Local NGOs are, despite their sometimes testy relations, local governments' greatest resources. With their street cred and volunteer base, who better to manage or oversee projects related to affordable housing, stream stewardship, land trusts, community foundations, social services? We hear a lot about PPP (Public Private Partnerships), and very little about PnPP (Public non-Profit Partnerships). Most of our communities were built on PnPP, which were typically informal arrangements. That's why today they're under the radar and largely under-valued.

Local governments and local NGOs face chronic underfunding (and downloading from senior levels of government) and few have good communications channels. These are among the reasons that both are sometimes publicly perceived as being removed from the democratic process ("you can't fight City Hall" or "it's all an old boys' club" syndrome).

Even good local NGOs doing excellent work have the appearance of being outside an accountability structure. Which is why they are sometimes dismissed as "special interest groups." A big loss – for all of us.

Yes, the local land trust is a "special interest group." But their special interest – identifying and holding land in trust for non-market uses, ie. sensitive habitat, water quality, etc – has huge positive benefits for all who live in a region. Similarly the local family services organizations' special interests – a focus on the well-being of vulnerable families – benefits the community at large. Without a way to interact with these organizations, however, I don't know their story, I can't voice my appreciations or grievances. Importantly for them, they can't tap into my knowledge or passion on a particular issue.

The social media opportunity for both local government and local NGOs? Creating a social media presence may help you be more effective and efficient in what you want to achieve – without burning out volunteers and/or staff. It may help you positively engage your constituents, members, voting citizens. It may give you the support you need to do critical – and amazing – things.

2-way Tools

They're just tools – with a difference, because they work two-ways. The conversation that can ensue when organizations commit to using social media creates the opportunity for positive change to happen, quickly. The evidence is everywhere today. Literally. Rescue efforts in Haiti are moving more quickly via citizen-directed social media information than via official aid and government channels. Some municipalities are finding Twitter a faster emergency response channel than 911.

There is a body of social media best practices emerging. It's mostly about being patient, courteous, generous, setting clear expectations – and trusting folks to respond in kind. The evidence to date indicates that most of us do respond in kind. At a time when we face significant challenges in our local organizations – governmental and NGO – we do well to engage the growing number of us who are going online. We are a significant, if latent, force for creating better communities and neighbourhoods. Use us. Please.

- 30 -

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Beyond urban agriculture and farm land preservation

Editorial preface

We invite you to propose your own "guest column" with CITinfoResource. Currently we are hosting a discussion about food and sustainability.

Food production, access to affordable and arable land for food production – these are only part of a successful strategy for community sustainability. In our last CITinfoResource post we featured a guest column by George Penfold, BC's Community Economic Development Regional Innovation Chair at Selkirk College. There is currently great passion for local food self-sufficiency. George posed some sobering questions about our willingness, even our capacity, to seriously live out this passion. He suggested that there are significant choices facing us as consumers of food-stuffs and as local decision-makers if we are serious about developing locally self-reliant food systems.

The following article by Janine de la Salle and Mark Holland adds another challenge – and opportunity – by suggesting some of what urban areas – even small urban areas, including the many small cities and towns of BC's non-metro regions – can do to support existing local food production. We hope encourage you, both as readers of CITinfoResource and as consumers of food-stuffs, to chime in with your own experiences of supporting or working with the food systems in your communities.

Beyond urban agriculture and farm land preservation

by Janine de la Salle and Mark Holland

Food and agriculture have finally caught the attention of the planning and other professions – perhaps for the first time in modern history. At least that's what the 2009 summer issue of Plan Canada (Vol 49: No. 2) suggests.

This is a good thing. It shows that, as a profession, we are in a receptive mode, constantly learning how to balance the tools we have right now with the need to develop new ways to think about problems and their solutions. For example, urban agriculture and the protection of farmland are priority issues; but other opportunities and approaches are beginning to present themselves, and we must be quick to add them to the "food planning toolbox."

A comprehensive approach
The strategies for creating sustainable food systems in a city must take a comprehensive approach and consider the full range of elements of a food system – not just the current favourites like urban agriculture (eg: community gardens). Improving the food system has values beyond the production of food. We suggest that such improvement begins to give food the power to be an economic driver, a potent community building agent, and a key opportunity to decrease energy demands.

In order to capture these benefits, sustainability in food and agriculture must be approached with a systems perspective. This includes: addressing food processing, packaging, distribution, wholesaling, retailing, restaurants, procurement, education, culture, and food security. Easily 75% of the economic value and climate emissions associated with food come after its agricultural production. If we, as planners, fail to invest as much of our time looking at these other aspects of the food system as we spend on local food production and farmers markets, then we miss the biggest opportunity of all.

Agricultural Urbanism
A movement called Agricultural Urbanism is emerging based on planning cities and neighbourhoods around sustainable food systems. At it's outset, 10 principles have been identified for this movement:

Address the whole food system – Promote the greatest range possible of the elements of the food system in community planning and design;
Foreground the food experience – Make food visible and enhance the experience of the greatest possible range of the food system in the city;
Build the local and regional food economy – Build this food economy through land use planning, education, economic development, and cultural enhancement and celebration;
Provide access to food – Provide access for all everywhere, including food stores, restaurants, food banks and others;
Promote education on food – Embed food education in every aspect of urban life, both formally in the school system, and informally through wherever people access food;
Integrate sustainable food into institutions – Integration into all levels of government policy, programs, and institutional mandates;
Address food for other species – Incorporate urban habitat into all food production areas wherever possible to maintain a healthy ecosystem;
Waste no food – Support and develop the infrastructure and organizations to recover food that might be unnecessarily wasted from wholesalers, retailers, restaurants, and others and channel this food both to the poor and to composting and nutrient recovery programs;
Organize for food – Develop strong partnerships, stewardship groups, collaboration, and overall social capital to support a sustainable urban and regional food system;
Develop sustainable infrastructure amongst food systems – Develop innovative energy, water, wastewater, and solid waste management infrastructure and systems integrated with urban food systems.

When considered in the context of a food system, these 10 principles have many applications, with elements spread across an entire region. However, a concept is emerging in urban planning around creating special places in cities that are dedicated to sustainable food – food hubs and precincts.

Food hubs and precincts are a tangible way to address multiple food system elements and improve food system sustainability in a community. Increasingly, local governments and members of the development community are seeing great potential in food hubs and precincts. This is driving planners and designers to create new methods and techniques to implement food-inclusive or food-focused visions of vibrant cities – in a context where food has become an uninvited guest in city building practice.

What are food hubs and precincts?
Food hubs and precincts are centrally-located facilities that bring together the full spectrum of land uses and programs to support sustainable urban and regional food systems. These have largely been part of the urban fabric in cities and larger metropolitan areas. However, this concept may be appropriately scaled for the neighbourhood and/or town size. For instance, in any food hub or precinct, storage and processing space would need to be built to meet the needs and demands of the local agriculture, resident, and food industry needs. The fundamental characteristics of a food precinct include:

Commercial storage and processing facilities for local farm products;
A centralized distribution hub where multiple farmers may combine and distribute their goods. Among other benefits, this enables wholesale purchasers to obtain the quality and quantity of local foods necessary for restaurant operations and institutional procurement;
A permanent farmers' market where retail and direct marketing of locally farmed products may be sold;
Office space for non-profit organizations and small businesses associated with the local food and agriculture program of the precinct;
Visible community kitchens, labs, and community education areas for facilitating seminars on how to grow, process, prepare, and maximize fresh, healthy local food experiences;
Café and/or restaurants that have locally sourced menus and provide a social environment for people to gather and enjoy delicious foods, generating community vibrance;
Community event areas that provide space for celebrations and special event around food and agriculture;
Authentic architectural and landscape character where buildings, public realm, and landscape visibly demonstrate elements of each community associated with the precinct uses;
Residential features in areas where a neighborhood food precinct has been built into new development;
Food recovery and waste collection.

Benefits of food hubs/precincts
Food precincts are a central element of complete, resilient, and vibrant communities. Through establishing the necessary infrastructure and programs the food precinct/hub enables communities to connect not only to purchasing and experiencing local food, but also to learning how to grow, preserve, and prepare foods. Benefits of the food precinct and hub include:

Re-centre food in our lives through increasing active participation in the food system;
Contribute to a more resilient food economy through strengthening city-to-farm and farm-to-city linkages;
Serve as a resource centre for a wide range of community activities that develop and reinforce the role that local food plays in every aspect of our city life and culture;
Increasing capacity in essential food and agriculture infrastructure, such as processing and sales capacity to the small to medium farm economy;
Centralized distribution point(s) that enable purchasing by wholesalers, grocery stores, and restaurants from multiple farms and producers;
Community, professional, and academic learning opportunities around food and sustainability; and
A conscious planning and design approach to sustainable food cities.

Launching the New City Market, A Food Hub for Vancouver
In some cities, like Montreal and Halifax for example, food hubs and precincts are an important characteristic of the city fabric. In cities like Toronto and Vancouver, food hubs and precincts are just emerging as part of the urban scene. The Stop in Toronto is a new facility that provides a permanent home for farmers' markets and offers a full suite of education opportunities around growing and preparing foods for people of all ages and backgrounds. While city markets have historically been part of Vancouver and present day examples such as Granville Island offer much in the way of learning what works, a new vision for a food hub is emerging and generating a lot of excitement. Building on successful Canadian models like the Stop in Toronto, community champions are gearing-up for an all-in effort to vision, plan, and establish the New City Market, a food hub for Vancouver.

About the authors:

Janine de la Salle is Director of Food Systems Planning with HB Lanarc Consultants Ltd. in Vancouver/Nanaimo. Janine recently developed a plan for an urban-farm park and a guide that will connect local farmers to schools.

Mark Holland is a Principal with HBLanarc. He is a LEED™-accredited planner who holds professional degrees in both Landscape Architecture and Community and Regional Planning. He recently authored and delivered the "Resilient Cities Manifesto" at the October 2009 Gaining Ground: Resilient Cities summit.

©Real Estate Foundation of BC / 2009
We strongly encourage the reproduction of articles on this website non-profit educational purposes. Please notify the Foundation and the author of all reproductions, including in-house uses.

The Resilient Cities Interviews 1: Michelle Rule, City of Kelowna Councilor talks about Resilient Cities

In October 2009 about 600 people gathered in Vancouver for Resilient Cities, the 6th Gaining Ground summit (GGRC09). As with previous GG summits, the emphasis was on how we are "gaining ground" on the sustainability front. Communities in Transition Information Resource will be conducting and posting a series of interviews over the coming year looking at the impact of GGRC09. These will be posted as audio, video, and transcripts whenever possible.

In this edited version of their conversation, CITinfoResource editor hanspetermeyer talks to Kelowna City Councilor Michelle Rule about her impressions of GGRC09, and how "Resilient Cities" makes a difference to non-metro BC communities like Kelowna. An audio version of this interview is available here at CITinfoResource.

hanspetermeyer: Michelle, how long have you been on Kelowna's City Councill?

Michelle Rule: This is my second term, so going on four years now.

hpm: What got you involved in local government?

MR: It was an interest in developing the community in a sustainable manner. It's interesting, I've lived here all my life and over the years I've watched the community grow and it's more than doubled in population since I was a teenager. I saw that we were putting a lot of effort into our economy here, but not paying much attention to the environment or social issues. I thought we needed a voice that could speak to that on our council, so I ran.

hpm: You recently attended the Resilient Cities conference, the 6th Gaining Ground summit, in Vancouver. Is that the first Gaining Ground conference you have participated in?

MR: Yes it is.

hpm: What prompted you to get to Resilient Cities?

MR: When I saw the agenda for the list of speakers, I thought, "What a great way to learn about what is really going on in sustainability and resiliency for cities in a short period of time." There was just so much to listen to and so many people to meet, which is what drew me to it.

hpm: So there were obviously some big names on that agenda. Were there some surprises, people that you hadn't expected to get what you thought from?

MR: I thought all the speakers were excellent. I had never heard Sam Adams speak before, the Mayor of Portland and I was really interested in what he had to say at the conference. I think it's very exciting, the work they are doing in Portland. That was one of the surprises for me. I was also very interested in Sarah Severn www.focusthenation.org/about-us/board.../sarah-severn of Nike, who talked about business the "one planet economy." I thought that was an excellent presentation about corporate responsibility.

hpm: A lot of what Resilient Cities is about is cities, and while Kelowna is certainly a city it's a small city. The Communities in Transition program at the Real Estate Foundation focuses on the non-metropolitan parts of BC. How do you see the "big city" topics and speakers at Resilient Cities relating to smaller cities and non-metro area, like Kelowna?

MR: It was focused on the big cities, but in Kelowna we feel like we are a little bit on the verge of being a big city. We have an opportunity to do things right from the beginning, so a lot of the topics at Resilient Cities gave me information on what Vancouver of Portland or big cities have done. It's an opportunity to think about how we better start planning for things like this. For light rapid transit, and other things we don't quite have the population base for yet, but we will, and we need to plan now if we are going to have that in the future.

hpm: It's been 3 weeks since you got back from Resilient Cities. I imagine you have talked to other Counselors, city staff. What kind of response are you getting on these ideas in Kelowna?

MR: People I talk to are very interested in what we learnt from the conference. Especially our staff. I bought back tons of information for them and linked them up with a number of people. I was able to link with all kinds of people from different communities while I was there. I've gone back now and emailed those people and we've started conversations so my Council certainly see the value in sending me to the conference. I think what we are going to see next year is a few more from my Council are going to want to go.

hpm: That's good to hear. Did any of your staff attend?

MR: No, unfortunately none of our staff were able to attend but again I think that based on what I was able to tell them we will possibly see some more interest in the future.

hpm: One of the things that I've noticed that happens at these events, and at Gaining Ground particularly, is what you just said: People connecting, not just with information from the speakers but with each other. Were there other local government, councillors and mayors from BC communities there that you connected with?

MR: Yes certainly there were some elected officials. I connected with a lot of staff from other communities. It's just who I ended up sitting next to. I met the Social Development Manager from Prince George. We made a very strong connection. We both have an interest in youth engagement so we had great conversations.

hpm: If there were 3 things to take away from Resilient Cities that really spoke to you about things that Kelowna is dealing with, what would they be?

MR: One of the things that really jumped out me was Jim Dier's talk on neighborhood power from Seattle. That just totally – his neighborhood planning program, where the plans were made available to the community groups based on how many in the community were interested and then the neighborhood really took ownership of the plans and took responsibility. That was amazing to me. One of the examples he gave from San Francisco, with the parking spots where they put parks on parking spots and people put money in the meters. I just thought, "Wow, what an incredible way to engage the local neighborhood in the planning of their community and then the implenation of that plan." So that was one of the things that I took home where I thought, "We could easily do something like that here."

I have a whole bunch of things starred on my notes, things like listening to Eva Kras from CANSEE [Canadian Society for Ecological Economics] and her talk about trust and co-operation, that really came home to me. Again, everybody has to be working together. We have a regional district here for central Okanagan, and we also have a north and south Okanagan regional district. When she was talking it really spoke to me about the need to pull the three together so even though we don't have any connection in terms of ability to govern or anything like that, as a large group we could be working better. That then broadens our population base. We go from the 160,000 we have in central Okanagan to over 300,000 if we were able to connect the three and work through that process. That really got me thinking about that, and again with an eye to the future and the planning that we need to do now.

hpm: About 6 months ago I interviewed Victor Cumming, who hales from Vernon. He was talking about regional economic development on that basis, and he specifically cited that the three Okanagan districts actually have a lot more in common than they are allowed to have because of their jurisdictional separation, and the strength from working together like that is not something that is tapped into enough.

MR: Exactly. One of the other things that I took home has to do with something we've been having a big discussion about: electric cars and preparing our streets for electric cars and plug-ins where people can recharge their cars. It was interesting that one of the speakers, I think it was Richard Register, and he said even a better car isn't good enough because you are still paving the world. That was one of the real take-home ones for me. I thought, "Wow, we are putting all this focus on hybrid cars and electric cars and then he said that, and I thought he was right because you still have to build more roads". There won't be less cars, they are better for the environment in the sense of GHG emissions but you still have to build roads.

hpm: is the GHG emission thing something that Kelowna City Council is really wrestling with? Does that come up as a big topic for you folks?

MR: It has, because provincially we've been told that we have to be carbon neutral by 2012. Kelowna was one of the first cities to sign on to the Climate Charter. We absolutely agree that we need to do something about climate change and reducing our carbon footprint, but it's a struggle for our community to figure out how to do that. Again, a lot of it is because we are still so automobile focused, just because of the way we have developed over the years. We are having the discussion and looking for solutions.

hpm: My last question for you Michelle, I think it's my last question, is who were your 3 stand out speakers at Resilient Cities?

MR: In one of the workshops I heard Gian-Carlo Sairrenen speak from Calgary and he was amazing. His discussion around the sustainable neighborhood that he's been working with in Calgary, and the way that they pulled all that together. I was really impressed by him. Of course, Mike Harcourt is always entertaining and I know him personally so it was nice to hear him and hear his continued passion for taking care of all our communities, big and small. And not just our communities, but the people who live within them, including the marginalised.

Mark Holland has done work for Kelowna with our Official Community Plan, and I thought his "Resilient Cities Manifesto" was amazing. I'm hoping they did an audio of that, and that it will be available to hear because that is something I would like to play here for my council. So, those three were great. And Nola-Kate Seymoar from Sustainable Cities, she was fantastic. She spoke to the larger group and she also spoke at one of the smaller workshops that I was at. Her intelligence and her breadth of experience is always so impressive. I guess I named 4! And I could go on, because as I said earlier, that the thing that drew me to the conference was the amazing array of speakers and no-one was disappointing. I thought they were all great.

hpm: I do have another question and it has to do with your colleagues across the province. When you go to places like UBCM or your regional local government association, are the kind of topics addressed in Resilient Cities becoming more and more part of the conversation or are they still marginalized?

MR: No, I think it becoming more of the conversation and part of that is from the urging of the province with the carbon neutral goals. We are all faced with similar predicaments in the rural areas where we are so automobile based. So there is a lot of discussion around that and some of it is not so happy because the smaller municipalities feel like they have been told to do this, but not necessarily provided with the tools. We do talk a lot about it at UBC. There were a number of sessions on climate change and reducing GHGs. They were well attended. I think generally we all want to do the right thing. There aren't too many people anymore, at the municipal government level anyway, who don't think there's a problem. We kind of got passed that stage. Now it's just a matter of figuring out what we can do about it. How to message that to our population and get the buy-in from the grassroots level, because that's where it really all needs to start. We need to be leaders, and we have to have the tools to get that message out. Those are a lot of the discussions we are having.

hpm: If you had one thing you wanted to see at the next Gaining Ground summit in light of what you have just said, what would it be? Do you have any thoughts on that?

MR: Yes, I think depending on your audience, if you are hoping to attract more elected officials to the conference, then a session on how to get that message out in a positive way to our citizens. That would probably be really helpful. And maybe a common social marketing plan that we could work on together. Maybe have a workshop at the conference where we could sit down and plan together and then that way the citizens would be hearing the same kinds of messages, whether they live in Kelowna or Cache Creek or Smithers. I think that would be a really helpful session.

hpm: Thank you very much for that Michelle.

MR: Thank you Hans.

©Real Estate Foundation of BC / 2009.

We strongly encourage the reproduction of articles on this website non-profit educational purposes. Please notify the Foundation and the author of all reproductions, including in-house uses.

The Challenge of Gaining Ground: Bringing the Resilient Cities Conversation Home

by hans peter meyer

This past October the Gaining Ground team did it again: delivered "Resilient Cities" as an amazing, sobering, and inspiring conference on how we are, in many places, "gaining ground" on the global "sustainability project" – making our communities better places to live. This shouldn't have any of us feeling smug, however. As voices from around the world keep telling us – via 350.org, #tcktcktck, hopenhagen to name a few – we're not in good shape.

Resilient Cities (GGRC09) did show how there is lots of the "right stuff" happening, much of it not particularly expensive or difficult. It just takes doing it. Now. Right now. In my town and yours. Did I say "now?" I'll say it again: Many of the things that need to be done for our communities to "get resilient" and become sustainable are doable and they need doing now. Right now.

And that's the challenge: How to take the energy and insights of 3 conference days and make it real in a place like Whistler, Kelowna, or the Comox Valley? How do we take this stuff home and apply it, when so many people are just struggling to deal with 2008's moment of financial reckoning?

The provincial government's push to have municipalities be carbon neutral by 2020 is an opportunity. Many places are scratching their heads on how they're going to get there. GGRC09 had lots of good ideas about this. We need to find ways to have the conversations in our communities about what GGRC09 was about. Conversations about sustainability can be sobering; but they are also about making our neighbourhoods and communities richer, more vibrant places.

In my community, the collection of small urban spaces and rural hamlets known as the Comox Valley, we have a golden opportunity. For a number of reasons we have... a Comox Valley Sustainability Strategy (CVSS), Regional Growth Strategy (RGS), a Regional Conservation Strategy (RGS), and a regional water planning process (don't know the name or the acronym of that one). When opportunity rains it pours here.

In this context, GGRC09 is a rich resource for any of us who attended. However, there weren't a lot of us Comox Valley folks taking advantage of the GGRC09 banquet of ideas. Jack Minard from the Comox Valley Land Trust was there (listen the CITinfoResource interview with Jack here). So was Chris Bowers (he did some very cool video interviews with participants – take a look here). Anyone else? Raise your hands all ye citizens of the Comox Valley, particularly you from local government – staff or elected folks: Did you make it to one of the richest sustainability learning events of the year? Well, please make it a priority for next year. (You might want to listen to what Kelowna Councillor Michelle Rule said about this year's GGRC09 and why she's hoping more staff and pols attend the next GG summit.)

I write about sustainability, land use, real estate, and community development topics. It's what I've been doing on and off for about 17 years. I'm also connected to some good folks here in my town, people with lots of energy and imagination. With their help I pitched a project about "stimulating the conversation about sustainability in the Comox Valley" – and we're doing it! I look at this as my opportunity to carry the GGRC09 conversation home.

It's a curious little venture, this thing we're doing. Related to the CVSS, but not part of it. Paid for by the consultant, but outside the CVSS budget. Why is it this way? Because my imaginative friends suggested that, irregardless of the outcomes of the CVSS, its legacy and that of the many, many volunteers who put many, many hours into CVSS would depend more on an extended, generalized conversations about sustainability in the community than on a strategic document that local government might or might not pay much attention to. It's a bit of what Majora Carter referred to at GGRC09: too many great strategic and planning docs sit gathering dust because there isn't the leadership to push them to happen. So we're taking the "conversation about sustainability in the Comox Valley" outside the policy process. Online. Over lunch and dinner. Outside of "official communications." As the property and responsibility of us as residents, taxpayers, and citizens of this place.

We're at an interesting time right now in terms of "leadership" and "responsibility" in our communities. We need immediate and collective action on changing behaviours and assumptions about how live in our corners of paradise. Traditional forms are slow to respond and awkward. At the same time, we have communications tools that enable rapid exchange and development of ideas, knowledge, and action: the extension of word-of-mouth that is "social media."

It's not magic. It's just a conversation. With the help of YouTube, Facebook, blogs, Twitter, etc we're able to sit around a "campfire" with our friends and acquaintances. We swap stories and anecdotes, we share pictures of family adventures, talk about our passions – and concerns. But we get to do it across huge gaps in space/time. I take part in "conversations" that span hours or days, and bridge tens or thousands of miles. It's word of mouth to the power of 10. When I hear through people I know and trust that they're taking action on climate change because they're connected to someone on the Maldives whose island is sinking... well, it means more to me than if I watch it on TV. Is word of mouth more reliable than the network news station? In my guts, yes. And it's in my guts that real change starts to take place.

Our little Comox Valley project is about building a campfire conversation about sustainability in our community. We're using video and audio interviews, posted all over the 'net. We came up with a simple, replicable process. We encourage people to pick it up and play. As they pick it up, do their own interviews, tag them (so all of us can find them and participate in them), and post them online they're making it a bigger, more inclusive campfire convo.

There is no end-point to what "sustainability" is or means to any one of us our community. We talk about it, or various aspects of it. We do some things. We learn a few things. And then we talk and do and learn some more. We move towards a better, more wholistic relationship to the ecological systems on which our lives, our families, and our communities depend. We become more resilient and responsive as we participate in the conversation. As we take into our guts what those we know, love, and trust tell us is important to them. That's how we figure out what is right to do, and what is right to do now.

Thanks Gene Miller, to you and your crew. The campfire you lit several years ago with the first Gaining Ground summit is a good fire. And with over 600 of us taking embers from this year's event, I'm imagining many campfire convos all around the province, sparked by the ideas, knowledge, and connections generated by #GGRC09. I'm imagining that these conversations will lead to myriad and diverse actions and changes, all of it helping us "gain ground" on the sustainability project we all need to be working on.

My take-away from Resilient Cities? To extend the convo about sustainability from the GGRC09 campfire circle to the campfire circle called home, to make our fire burn brightly, inspiring many voices – and many actions, large and small!

Endnote:
To learn more about the Comox Valley conversations about sustainability project, go to www.CV2050.com or www.facebook.com/CV2050

©Real Estate Foundation of BC / 2009. We encourage the reproduction of articles on this website non-profit educational purposes. Please notify the Foundation and the author of all reproductions, including in-house uses.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Staff Report: Current Law & Urgent Action ~ A workshop on Local Government & Climate Change

by Jen McCaffrey

On March 6, 2009 the Centre for Global Environmental and Natural Resource Law at UBC's Faculty of Law hosted a one-day workshop at Robson Square. The workshop was focused on actions available to local governments in BC to address the impacts of climate change.

With a mandate to support sustainable real estate and land use in BC, the Real Estate Foundation has not traditionally been involved in targeted greenhouse gas reduction projects.Nevertheless, the Foundation recognizes the connection between climate change and land use decision-making and in this regard has supported many initiatives throughout its 21 year history to help land use practitioners achieve more sustainable land use decision-making. Our participation in the March workshop is part of the Foundation's ongoing interest in better understanding how we can support CIT partner communities to meet sustainable land use goals.

One of the common concerns for many speakers was the human inclination to address issues in isolation - in this case concerning climate change - in effect creating a climate change silo. The issue is real, and must be addressed; but we should be mindful of the need to maintain a broad view of all the pillars of sustainable development and tackle the challenges in a holistic manner in our communities.

The day opened with Dr. John Robinson looking at climate change on a global scale and how this translates to the BC setting. He expressed strong support for the provincial government’s climate change policies to date, particularly regarding the carbon tax. He wanted to dispel what he called the "erroneous information" being produced by the media about BC’s climate change policies, saying we have the best and most innovative suite of policies in the world right now to address climate change. Nevertheless, Robinson argues the current policy suite still won’t enable BC to achieve the 2050 targets set by the provincial government. He calls for “transformative change,” arguing that we should use public policy to achieve a new economy that meaningfully incorporates sustainability principles. In his view, the world will never achieve the necessary changes required to reduce our GHGs if we continue to focus on individual behaviour change. In addition to promoting a new kind of economy, the kind of transformative change needed also requires cultural change at the institutional level.

Alan Osborn and Lois-Leah Goodwin of the provincial Ministry of Community Development presented on current department initiatives including
• Community Energy and Emissions Inventory reports (CEEI) are now available to assist local governments with establishing greenhouse gas targets, policies and actions in official community plans or regional growth strategies. a measure community GHG emissions. The 2007 CEEI Reports offer high level estimated community energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from on-road transportation, buildings, solid waste and land-use change and are publicy available to anyone interested in tracking local government GHG emissions.There are some concerns about whether the methodology can be applied consistently and fairly in every community. Recognizing this concern , the CEEI's will follow an iterative process each year.
• Guide to Green Choice: a guide to help local governments with decision-making on settlement patterns, transportation planning, and sustainable economic development

Sean Pander of City of Vancouver and Russ Fuoco of the District of Saanich talked about what has been accomplished to date in their communities to address climate change. The formula for success is familiar: a combination of political will at the top and staff interest internally to drive the necessary changes – the institutional change referred to by Dr. Robinson. Nevertheless, local governments continue to struggle with lack of staff and financial resources. Questions from the audience also indicate there is continued desire for a step-by-step how-to guide: how to get started, how to build support, how to implement the kinds of changes achieved in Vancouver and Saanich. Participants said case studies are good, but detailed first steps are also valuable in understanding what to do first and how to make change happen.

Alex Boston of HB Lanarc Consulting was very positive about the broad scope of options available to local governments to mitigate and adapt to climate change. He reiterated some of Dr. Robinson’s message, saying that communities need to think beyond climate change, to engage all components of sustainability. He noted that most projects that have been successful in reducing GHGs or adapting to the impact of climate change were not motivated by concern about climate change. Rather, these projects, such as Smart Growth on the Ground, were motivated by some broad set of interests, often around the desire for better quality of life. With this in mind, he urged communities to think local and act local to find the right solutions for their community. Communities also need to look on the ground- not up in the clouds- for climate change solutions, primarily in our choices about settlement patterns.

Deborah Curran of Deborah Curran & Company and UVIC Faculty of Law was also very positive about the broad scope of bylaws and regulations already available to local government to reduce GHGs. From a long list of tools, she highlighted biodiversity conservation and sustainable water management as important adaption tools, the latter encouraging an important shift to watershed-wide zoning measures. Curran also noted the barriers to change that typically arise, and spent some time discussing how to tackle institutional and individual resistance to change. Her preferred methods: fostering collaboration and establishing meaningful and long term engagement with stakeholders.

Cheeying Ho of the Whistler Sustainability Centre provided an overview of the City of Whistler’s Whistler 2020 award winning strategy plan. She also talked about the purpose of the newly established Whistler Sustainability Centre. This non-profit consultancy is working with interested communities that would like to draw on Whistler’s expertise in sustainable resort development and sustainable tourism.

Jason Emmert manages the Community Assistance Program at Smart Growth BC (SGBC). He put forward the importance of connecting infrastructure financing to land use planning and sustainability goals. He noted that traditional infrastructure financing is an exclusively economic evaluation without consideration for environmental factors such as GHGs reduction targets and the cost of carbon emissions. SGBC will soon be releasing a report with recommendations on this subject.

Donald Lidstone of Ratcliff & Co, and the Law Institute of UBC wrapped up the conference with a detailed look at options available to local governments under Bill 10 and 27 and within their Official Community Plans. This was a very dense presentation and I won't be able to do it justice here in a summary. Nevertheless, the message was good - there are lots of existing legal tools available to local government and its' worth reviewing Lidstone's presentation for full details.

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JEN McCAFFREY is a Grants Officer with the Real Estate Foundation of BC.

©Real Estate Foundation of BC/ 2009. We encourage the reproduction of articles on this website non-profit educational purposes. Please notify the Foundation and the author of all reproductions, including in-house uses.