Block 71, the location of this design thesis, is within the Comox Valley, British
Columbia, Canada. Situated on Vancouver Island and four kilometers North of the City
of Courtenay. The site is 925 acres of cut-block, used for lumber, and owned by Raven
Forest Products. Raven Forest Products clear-cut the site as recently as the late 1970's.
Second growth has been allowed to persist on the site. In 1994, a development permit for
a proposed village was submitted to the Regional District of Comox-Strathcona and is
still pending. This proposed village was named 'View Ridge' and was intended to create
higher densities and preserve more open space than convention subdivisions. The
relevant proposed design for this property, View Ridge Revisited, endeavours to meet
and surpass the intentions of the its predecessor.
The View Ridge Revisited proposal allows for a minimum of eight hundred dwelling
units and a maximum of one thousand and one hundred. Sustainability is the ultimate
goal for View Ridge Revisited. The three parts of this goal are economic sustainability,
social sustainability and ecological sustainability. As a template for the structure of the
village, Transit-Oriented Developments and the principles of New Urbanism were
employed.
Economically, the proposed design should support a community of approximately two
thousand two hundred persons. Seven hundred of these should be employed within the
community itself. Appropriate retail, office and service-office space has been provided for this purpose. This assumes at least one job per household. At least seventy-five
percent of all the housing units in the village are within one thousand-three hundred feet
walking distance from the downtown commercial core, or a five minute walk.
These two thousand and two hundred people will live in medium density (12 du/acre) and
low-density (8 du/acre) areas. The latter housing type includes ancillary suites above
lane-access-only garages. The higher density housing types should be at least three
stories, with possible basement suites. All housing should meet some type of precedent
typology. The most likely typology sources come from older parts of Courtenay and
Comox. Adequate recreation space is provided for the residents. Approximately twenty
acres are located adjacent to the Recreation Centre and the Schools. The schools should
be adequate for the given population of the community. Additional green space is
included throughout the site, in the form of neighbourhood parks. Ten percent of each
block is designated to park space. These parks will also function as storm water channels
and filtration areas.
From an ecological perspective, the design proposal attempts to integrate the functioning,
natural environment with the cultural processes of its human co-inhabitants. In general,
the village is centred upon a sixty to eighty meter riparian corridor, a wetland area and a
community forest. All of these features should maintain their ecological functions, as
well as provide vital components to both the image of the community and its healthy
existence. The riparian corridor is a diverted stream from Seal Bay Park. It should be
engineered to follow its pre-logging path down into the Little River watershed Storm water is drained from the village into this stream, after being naturally treated within the
previously mentioned wetland area. All water from the site is treated in this manner.
Sewage is treated at a three acre solar aquatic treatment facility next to the commercial
core. The community forest will allow a habitat connection to the riparian corridor as
well as provide an educational component to the inhabitants. It is hoped that sustainable
logging practices will become a part of this forest's character.
The overall goal of sustainable community design is met at View Ridge Revisited by
satisfying the economic, social and ecological requirements. The transit-oriented design
of this village provides the template upon which this becomes possible.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/7985 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Sereda, David |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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