Much has been written about both brownfield redevelopment and infill development as
methods of improving the urban landscape. Barriers to these forms of urban and suburban
development are all too often just superficially noted, and seldom subjected to critical
analysis. Large metropolitan centres receive most mention; in fact, small, former
industrial cities are rarely contemplated in the existing literature. To address
shortcomings of critical analysis and the lack of attention on smaller cities, this study
focuses on Nanaimo, British Columbia, a former coal mining and lumber processing
community turned regional distribution and educational centre. The research is
contextualized by a comprehensive review of the existing literature. Then, applying a
qualitative research strategy, it was found through both a review of planning policies and
in-depth interviews that Nanaimo was impacted differently than large metropolitan
centres, and specifically in terms of the barriers that affect infill and brownfield
redevelopment. As a result, Nanaimo suffers from additional economic challenges that
render commonly-accepted strategies for encouraging infill and brownfield
redevelopment less effective. Further, an examination of British Columbia’s program that
was designed to support increased levels of brownfield redevelopment revealed that the
program is essentially ineffective. Provincial funding models designed to induce
redevelopment passively prioritized sites with little or no contamination, offering little
financial aid to remediate seriously contaminated brownfield sites. / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/6882 |
| Date | 30 November 2015 |
| Creators | Beasley, Steven |
| Contributors | McCann, L. D. |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/ |
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