Public participation in the planning process is a well established concept and an important one to municipal planners as they deal with the question of how to most effectively involve citizens in planning. The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of techniques and processes used to involve the public in a specific planning process: the preparation of official community plans in British Columbia. Two principal methods are used to achieve this purpose: a literature review and a comparative analysis of the experiences of four municipalities located in the greater Vancouver region which have recently completed of official community plans. Data for this analysis came from municipal documents, interviews with planners and field observation. Six process-oriented objectives based on democratic principles are established as criteria of effective public participation. The six criteria are: (1) Accessibility - All citizens have the opportunity and are encouraged to participate; (2) Timing - The public is provided with information and opportunities to participate at crucial decision making points in the planning process. (3) Impartiality - No individual or group is permitted to dominate the participation process at the expense of others; (4) Comprehensibility - Important information is provided and is presented in such a way that it is understood by those whom it affects; (5) Alternatives - The public is presented with a range of alternatives; (6) Efficacy - Participators' views are considered in products of the planning process. The suitability of each participation technique and combination of techniques used in the four municipalities is assessed by these six objectives. Nine summary observations derived from the analysis are presented as suggestions to help planners effectively involve the public in future official community plan processes. It is found that effort to involve citizens in the preparation of an official community plan must go beyond the techniques required or suggested by legislation. A public hearing and an advisory planning commission are not sufficient to provide effective participation. It is not possible to state an ideal public participation program with a set of specific techniques that would be useful in all communities preparing an official community plan. However, by designing and implementing a participation program that strives to satisfy the process-oriented objectives, planners can obtain meaningful response from the public. Achieving these objectives depends foremost on administrative commitment. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

This paper explores urban design possibilities for the enhancement of the Vancouver Art Gallery landscape. It is understood that urban public places are necessary for not only the daily functioning of society, but as venues of and for celebrations, demonstrations, and communication. All public urban spaces have the potential to serve as significant locations of human experience. The designed urban landscape should have the capacity to elicit response and heighten our perceptions, thereby furthering our understanding of the world. Understanding the Vancouver Art Gallery landscape as a central urban space of significant civic importance, it is necessary that its design illuminate the interactions between humans and the physical world - the actors, the audience, and the stage. A literature review is conducted in order to discern possible connections between museum processes and designed landscapes. Analogies are drawn between the processes and display of art within and around galleries and museums, and the cultural meanings associated with these displays. These processes also reveal themselves in the designed landscape. Second, museum-landscape analogs are proposed, and from these, precedents are researched in order to identify criteria that support and reinforce these analogs. These analogs are typologies that may serve to inform the urban design, and landscape architectural process. In response to the research, the Vancouver Art Gallery landscape is designed according to one of the types (analogs) identified - Landscape as Theatre. The design provides a model for the expression of the theatrical aspects of urban life that contribute to the vibrancy and cultural richness of the urban landscape. The conclusions drawn herein are suggestive of urban design enhancement opportunities that exist within central downtown Vancouver, in particular the Vancouver Art Gallery landscape. It is recognized that significant investment in our urban spaces is a requirement for ensuring the successful evolution of urban life. In addition to the enhancement of human experiences within the city, successful urban projects that elicit international acclaim and recognition further the economic growth of, and investment in the city. Certainly, when public spaces are used and enjoyed steadily and repeatedly the experiences of places are enriched, and human experience is enhanced. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

In order to deal with the current unsustainable pattern of growth and development, the City of Vancouver is advocating intensification as a means for developing more complete communities. Promoting this strategy to the public may, however be problematic when there is little or no empirical evidence documenting the outcome or experience of intensification. To better understand the issues, challenges and opportunities associated with using intensification to create complete communities, the City of Vancouver's experience with this strategy was analysed, across a range of planning initiatives within which intensification policies were deployed. Through the use of interviews and a case study comprising an analysis of several City policies and initiatives, the benefits, costs, and barriers of intensification were documented. In total 18 people were interviewed which included City Staff, councillors, developers, and members of planning organizations. This process revealed what the City has been able to achieve through intensification, the lessons they have learned and the direction this strategy must take in the near future in order to create more complete communities. To date, the City has had the most success with intensification when it has been applied to existing multi-family neighbourhoods or to the redevelopment of industrial lands. As a result, the City has been able to create new neighbourhoods that have many of the characteristics of a complete community. However, when this same process is taken to existing single family neighbourhoods, it is met with opposition as a result of the public's resistance to change and the conflicting views regarding intensified urban living. Despite this failure, Vancouver's experience has provided a number of valuable lessons regarding how intensification can be used to create more complete communities. For example, there are a number of conditions that must exist in order for intensification to be promoted, which relate to the planning, market, and political environment of an area. Once these conditions are in place then, strategies should be developed to ensure that intensification is designed to be responsive to a community's needs. Finally, Vancouver's experience with this strategy reveals that the best way to understand what a community needs and what tradeoffs they are willing to make in order to create more complete communities is through a political process that involves a consensus approach to planning and public discussion. The findings of this thesis indicate that the success of future intensification initiatives lies in the City's ability of making intensified urban living fashionable. To do this it will be imperative to establish a common understanding of its limits and benefits by learning from past experiences and by building on the successful intensification initiatives that have occurred. Once this is done, the City can then use the successful examples of intensification to educate the public about how it can be used to create complete communities. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Greenways are linear open spaces, sometimes called "Green Links" which connect parks, Nature preserves, cultural features, historic sites, neighbourhoods, schools and shopping areas. They are often located along either natural corridors like ocean fronts, rivers, stream valleys, ridgelines, or built landscapes such as rail rights-of-way converted to recreational use, canals, trails, scenic roads, lanes or dedicated or shared streets. In the city of Vancouver there is a great opportunity to establish a link between Trout Lake, located in East Vancouver, and False Creek, located in the heart of Vancouver. The mission for this thesis project is to design a greenway connecting Trout Lake to False Creek with special focus on ecological enhancement and stormwater management. The Route itself has already received citywide support in City Plan approved in 1995. The Greenway, as indicated in the report, will connect Trout Lake to False Creek via the Grandview Cut. With city policy supporting the greenway, the bulk of the thesis is incorporating ecological enhancement and stormwater management into the design. Stormwater from the Trout Lake watershed will be brought to the surface, cleaned through biofiltration by wetlands, and used to sustain a stream, which flows year round to False Creek. By design the stream will be able to support a number of fish habitat, such as Coastal Cutthroat, Coho Salmon, and the endangered Salish Sucker, to name a few. As the Greenway reaches False Creek Flats there is an opportunity to daylight (bring to the surface) two of Vancouver's historic lost streams: China Creek, and Brewery Creek. The study begins with a series of large-scale context analyses, looking at how the proposed Grandview Greenway fits into the city of Vancouver as a whole. The analyses include topography, hydrology, watershed boundaries, utilities, openspace, circulation, structures, zoning, and how cultural views and perceptions of the environment have changed over the past 50 years. Trout lake watershed in its built form is the next area of focus. Starting at the individual lot, an analysis of the current condition is identified as it relates to stormwater management. Suggestions are made to increase the amount of groundwater infiltration, while reducing the amount of surface runoff collected in the watershed. Runoff calculations for the watershed illustrate the limits to the proposed system ie. the maximum size of wetland needed to store and treat all stormwater runoff before it enters Trout Lake, and the minimum flow the creek will require during summer dry periods. All calculations support the feasibility of the proposed greenway in its entirety. Route options are explored to connect the stream to the Grandview Cut, followed by the detailed design of the Grandview Cut to accommodate the stream, pedestrians, cyclists, the existing rail line, and wildlife. Once in the False Creek Flats, route options are once again explored to link the stream to False Creek. Now in the industrial section of the greenway route, the form of the stream changes from a model of a natural system to that of an urban canal. This allows the system to accommodate more water, while using less total land area. China Creek Park is the next detailed design focus. The goal is to daylight China Creek through the park and connect it to the Grandview Greenway system. It is proposed that for this section of the greenway, the initiative be entirely derived through community groups as well as special interest groups, rather than by the City of Vancouver. What is proposed is at a smaller scale with less intervention to the Landscape. The final stage of the proposed greenway is the estuary as it enters False Creek near Science World. Detailed design shows how the canal enters False Creek and how it relates to Science World, the Sea Wall, and to the proposed Sustainable Community of Southeast False Creek. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

Industrial land use and economic policy created by the City of Vancouver between 1968 and 1991 is analysed within a context of economic restructuring to illustrate how these types of policies may be improved. Within this time frame, the City of Vancouver had three distinct periods of policy development that were largely delineated by local political and economic factors. The first period was characterised by a liberal-based civic party in control of the local administration, a healthy urban economy, and a post-industrial sentiment that did not support the industrial community and resulted in a significant decrease in the city's supply of industrial land. In the second period, an increasingly left of centre local government was forced to contend with the poor economic conditions of the early 1980s; consequently, the industrial sector and the economy as a whole received considerable attention and support from the local government. The third period was characterised by the re-birth of post-industrialism and a right of centre administration with little interest in economic planning or maintaining an industrial sector in the City of Vancouver. The main lessons to be drawn from this policy analysis are (1) that the modern economy will continue to change rapidly and generate significant consequences and challenges for civic governments, (2) there are benefits to planning for the future rather than simply accommodating change as it happens, (3) the short sighted agendas of politicians need to be tempered by an assessment of the long term consequences of policy development and implementation, (4) there needs to be co-operation between the region's numerous public bodies to ensure complementary policy development across municipal boundaries, and (5) governments need to be proactive and engage in economic planning during both growth and recessionary economic periods in order to embrace new economic opportunities as they arise, mitigate the negative consequences that change often generates, and help produce strategic visions for planning purposes. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

The project began with a comprehensive investigation to discover and define the crucial elements of design in high density housing that foster a strong and rich sense of community. Both historical precedents and current Vancouver projects were studied to determine their attitude toward community in dense housing situations. I found the designs that were most successful in preserving a traditional sense of community demonstrated a far greater respect for one's individuality. They provided a strong frame for variable urban living, which reflects the pluralism of urban life. The program for this thesis was a live/work community and one live/work building within that planned community. The site for this exploration was South-East False Creek. The resolution of my proposal began with developing a new housing fabric, a prototype that could be used at South-East False Creek or in other areas of the city. The fabric I developed is a more intimate, finer slice of the existing Vancouver city grid. By maintaining some of the critical dimensions of Vancouver's city grid, the design of the new fabric can either fit into the existing grid or occur next to it. The community plan provides several distinct adjacencies for the buildings: live side, work side, park side and street/parking side. My concern with the design of the building was to identify a set of possibilities that are inherent in the community fabric, which show the diversity of the building itself as well as the flexibility of the space within the units. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

[No Abstract] / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

The primary objective of this thesis is to examine the opportunities and constraints for transforming "contested" public space into "shared" place in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. This examination is informed by: a literature review of public space theory; a review of City of Vancouver policies pertaining to public space conditions in the Downtown Eastside; a case study of community-driven public realm initiatives in Pioneer Square in Seattle, Washington; personal experience both working in, and observing conditions in the Downtown Eastside, and a review of current initiatives in the area that are working towards improving the public realm in the area while building consensus between opposing community groups. This research indicates that public spaces play an important role in the everyday lives of city dwellers, particularly for those who, due to homelessness and poverty, rely on public space for recreation and socialization, and in many cases, to live. However, as the central city is becoming an increasingly attractive place to live for middle and upper income households, conflicts can ensue over who has the "right" to use the public realm. What often occurs is the exclusion of the poor and marginalized segment of the population to "make way" for amenities that serve higher income residents and visitors. Conditions in the Downtown Eastside have deteriorated, yet at the same time, development both within and around the area has created distrust and hostility between different community groups. However, recent initiatives are working to make improvements while building trust between different, often hostile community groups. Ideally, planning for the public realm should have a significant amount of community involvement and control. The case study of Pioneer Square indicates that this is possible, although a sufficient amount of trust and consensus is needed from the outset. While the Downtown Eastside possesses many attributes which provide opportunities for public realm improvements, planners from outside the community should play a significant role in any initiatives, due to the lack of consensus and tension between community interests. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

The north-south rail line known in Vancouver as the Arbutus corridor (Figure #1) is currently under-used but not yet abandoned, and its future use is in debate. As owner of the corridor, the Canadian Pacific Rail Co. has publicly announced its desire to change the corridor into a multi-use development. According to the wishes of residents and reflected in the City of Vancouver's policy, however, the corridor will be preserved for transportation use. An alternative design solution would be reactivating the rail line as a much needed north-south transit route, with an adjacent greenway for pedestrian and bike use, as a more responsible and sustainable vision for this corridor. The feasibility of this design, tested at a smaller scale in three Kitsilano neighbourhoods, revealed it is a viable solution. The issues surrounding this case study are the value of a fair public process to ensure a common vision; the validity of the policy preserving existing transportation corridors in urban areas; and the actual effect of rail transit and greenway upon the adjacent, as well the regional environs. Future directions are toward considering transit as a vital element in promoting sustainable communities.

In recent decades a large number of new single-industry resource towns have been professionally planned, designed, built and populated. In spite of improvements in the physical design and development of new resource communities, obtaining "the good life" in these communities is still very much in doubt, particularly for women. Little information on the women residents of single-industry resource towns - their needs, desires and aspirations - has been collected or analyzed. The purpose of this thesis' is to provide a clearer picture of what it means to be a women in a single-industry resource community. This study examines the quality of life in the most recent single-industry resource town in British Columbia, Elkford, as perceived and experienced by its women residents. It attempts to determine aspects of the community with which the women are most satisfied, aspects with which they are most dissatisfied, and recommends policies which are aimed at improving the future planning and development of resource-based communities with women's needs in mind. The methods for approaching the study included a review of the relevant literature on single-industry resource communities, as well as a mail questionnaire survey of the women in Elkford fifteen years of age and over. The data were collected and results presented under the following five broad subject areas: employment; housing; geographic and natural environment; socialization and perceptions of community life; and community services and facilities. The results of the survey indicate that, on the whole, the majority of women were satisfied with living in Elkford. Factors linked with community satisfaction include employment, satisfaction with dwelling unit, enjoyment of the natural wilderness setting and the recreation it affords, knowledge of "the state of the community" prior to moving, residency in the Kootenay Region prior to moving to Elkford, participation in community activities, and the ability to enjoy a small, new community. Factors which contribute to dissatisfaction include limited employment opportunities, limited desirable housing, limited community services and facilities (with the exception of recreation) for shopping, health care, education, transportation, communication and non-sports-oriented recreation, and the absence of a common informal meeting place. Recommendations for improving or influencing those factors which are related to satisfaction are suggested. They provide planners, resource companies, governments, and residents with guidelines for the provision of physical environments and delivery of social services in single-industry resource communities which respond to the needs of the women residents, and which are sensitive to the unique geographic, demographic and economic characteristics inherent in new resource communities. Women have a special role as resident experts of the quality of life in resource communities, and whose expertise should be incorporated into the planning, implementation and evaluation of these communities. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate