ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, August 26, 1996 TAG: 9608260098
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
LIKE WESTERN Virginia, the region around Vancouver, Canada, has mountains, forests, farmland, and a way of life that residents want to protect.
Unlike Western Virginia, Vancouver has a regional strategy to preserve them.
Maintaining neighborhood integrity, air quality, open country: These goals are tackled piecemeal in the Roanoke region, with mixed success at best. When Not-In-My-Back-Yard activists perceive a threat to their own slice of real estate, they protest. They win or they lose.
But larger forces driving change, for better or for worse, go unaddressed and unchallenged.
This region has too many localities, each jealously guarding its domain, to marshal unified support for growth management, you say? Greater Vancouver includes 20 local governments.
This region can't manage growth and prosper, you say? Greater Vancouver is booming, and expects its 1.8 million population to reach 3 million in the next decade or so. Failure to control sprawl, its leaders believe, would make the region less efficient, and put it at a disadvantage in a competitive global economy.
So Vancouver, a metropolis on the Pacific in the Canadian province of British Columbia, has made itself some promises, reports nationally syndicated columnist Neal Peirce.
In 25 years, highway traffic will be 20 percent less than projected without growth management. Vehicle pollution will be reduced 37 percent. Capital outlays for roads and transportation will be down 30 percent. Development of rural land will be slowed by one-third.
To achieve their goals, Peirce reports, municipalities have agreed to nominate land to add to the region's "green zone," setting boundaries for urban growth. They pledge to encourage the development of housing around transit-connected town centers, promoting efficiency and community rather than sprawling subdivisions. And they will support more light rail and bus service, and retrofit local streets to encourage mass transit, bicycles or walking.
How has Vancouver mustered the political will to challenge the convenience of the car and the attraction of large suburban lots?
The region's leaders analyzed the impact that unmanaged growth would have on traffic, land use, roads, air quality and economic outlook for the entire region - and an initially resistant public put its support firmly behind "concentrated growth."
It's one region that has faced tough choices squarely - in a serious effort to take charge of its destiny.
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