Greater Vancouver tries new approach to sustainable development planning

September 2012 edition of the Environmental Science & Engineering featured the Partington Creek Integrated Watershed Management Project and the innovative approach used for the project by the City of Coquitlam and Kerr Wood Leidal.  Read the attached article to find out more about the approach.

The Partington Creek watershed is an undeveloped and ecologically rich watershed located on Burke Mountain in Coquitlam.  Partington Creek is one of the last ecologically healthy streams in Metro Vancouver and a prolific salmon spawning stream.  As part of Metro Vancouver’s Regional Growth Strategy and Coquitlam’s Official Community Plan, the lower third of the Partington Creek watershed is planned for greenfield development.  Over the next 20 years, what is now forested land will become a new town centre, home to about 12,000 people.

Coquitlam’s goal is to create a sustainable, economically viable, and low impact development that will preserve the natural creek system and environmental values in the watershed.  To accomplish this, watershed planning, land development planning, and financial modelling for this greenfield development were conducted concurrently.  This deviated from the current approach to land development, which is to first develop land use plans and then engage civil engineers to mitigate the impacts of development.  The new approach resulted in engineers, planners, and financial analysts developing plans that not only provide a high level of environmental protection, but also meet the financial and sustainability objectives of the project.

Click on the following link to read the article.
Greater Vancouver tries new approach to sustainable development planning