November 25, 2016

Got a Spare 30 minutes? Let's Plan Jericho!!

The owners of the Jericho Lands have a new web site with a few new things, like this partial list of documents that will inform their plan for developing the Jericho site:

  • Healthy City Strategy Action Plan (2016)
  • Rainwater Management Plan and Green Infrastructure Strategy (2016)
  • Renewable City Strategy (2015)
  • Rezoning Policy for Sustainable Large Developments (2013)
  • Vancouver Neighbourhood Energy Strategy and Energy Centre Guidelines (2012)
  • Transportation 2040 Plan (2012)
  • Priority Action Plan from the Mayor’s Task Force on Housing Affordability (2012)
  • Greenest City Action Plan (2011)
  • Vancouver’s Housing and Homeless Strategy 2012-21 (2011)
  • Green Buildings Policy for Rezonings (2010)
  • West Point Grey Community Vision (2010)

It is anticipated that the east and west Jericho Lands, totaling 90 acres, will be planned in one collaborative and comprehensive process.

We understand that the community is eager to hear and engage with us about the future of the sites, and we are committed to providing opportunities for the community to get involved. 
Anticipated to begin in 2017, an extensive multi-phase, multi-year engagement process will provide local communities and the general public a forum to discuss ideas and views about the future of these lands.

Get direct updates by registering HERE.

Posted in

Support

If you love this region and have a view to its future please subscribe, donate, or become a Patron.

Share on

Comments

  1. Build it and built big as the market will bear with as minimal amount of parking as can be gotten away with.
    8,000 inhabitants would be a nice, livable, vibrant West End density for the area. 🙂

    1. Have parking underground at the edge and make the interior car-free. Without surface roads, there would be much more greenspace and it will be more affordable.

      1. No roads in the interior? So, I can’t get a pizza delivered to my door. Which means I’ll have to walk to the car park and drive to pick it up myself. Then drive back, park at the exterior and walk back to my flat.. and my pizza will be cold and wet.
        Of course, forget about having my 80 year old mom visit, since I can’t drop her by my door.

        1. False Creek South was designed as a car-free area and it works very well. There still are roads for emergency vehicles, city crews and to drop off your 80 year old mom. Some deliveries get made too but general “lazy” deliveries are discouraged.
          It could work very well at Jericho. Unfortunately car owners behave like the NRA.

        2. Venice, several mountain towns in the Alps as well as many islands work without cars. All doable.
          The bigger issue is traffic to and from the site from afar. Buses alone won’t do.
          Broadway #UBCLine needs to go to at least Alma, ideally through it and up the hill to Sasamat @ Broadway then continue (perhaps above ground) to UEL Block F and UBC.

        3. Re RV 9:46 am:
          SWFC works very well because, as you yourself said, “there are still roads”. And as I can drop off my 80 year old mom, they must be publicly accessible. In fact, each building has an entry accessible by car.
          SWFC is, also, a much smaller and narrower site. So perimeter roads are nearer.
          Jericho site is very much larger than SWFC, twice the width. The idea that only the perimeter will allow car access and no access into the large interior will not enhance liveability.
          Permeability, connectivity, accessibility and modal choice are ALL important in creating a great neighbourhood. This is achieved by creating a fine grain network of streets that distributes all modes of traffic and doesn’t concentrate it.

        4. @RV: Very interesting. Thanks for posting. More on this former French barrack site here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauban,_Freiburg and here http://www.dac.dk/en/dac-cities/sustainable-cities/all-cases/transport/vauban—an-environmentally-friendly-and-almost-car-free-city/ and of course tons more in German ..
          As it happens I will be near Freiburg late February 2017 and will make a point of visiting it. Certianly doable in Vancouver such as Jericho lands.
          Note the non-Canadian construction of 4 story buildings with no parking garages below and no highrises, yet very dense. Tons of solar panels, recycling features and passive solar systems too.
          Did you know that the German government decided after Fukushima’s nuclear accident in 2001 to turn off their nuclear reactors (EnergieWende) not so much due to nuclear risk but because the fringe Green Party won the most votes and thus got their own Premier (Miniterpraesident) of the most conservative province in Germany Baden-Wuertemberg where this suburb Vauban-Freiburb is located ? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/27/german-green-victory-fukushima
          More in March.

        5. @ RV 4:27 pm. The article posted is misleading. Vauban is not ‘car free’. There is a fine grain grid that is simply discontinuous to cars, but continuous for bikes/peds. Car accessible roads reach all building blocks. In other words cars can still get into the interior and to each building block. Which is great and would suit Jericho lands well.
          Vauban is also a neighbourhood – not a town. It’s about 200m wide X 700m long, so no one is more than a city block from the perimeter roads.
          Jericho Lands are 4 times the size. Not allowing any car roads to circulate through the site at all, but instead pushing them on to the perimeter roads wouldn’t be friendly re: adjacent neighbours.
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauban,_Freiburg
          Map showing traffic pattern;
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauban,_Freiburg#/media/File:VaubanTraficNetwork-Schematic.png

        6. If you want a neighbourhood that is car lite you need to start with the idea that it will be car free. The practicalities of emergency access, garbage and recycling pick up, deliveries and 80 year olds will assert themselves without even trying.
          It will become just another car dependent subdivision if people/planners don’t work very hard to keep it otherwise. No doubt there would be the need for some internal roadways – I never said otherwise. But if you start with the premise that we need roads you’ll get the same old same old. Creative ways to circulate with the fewest of roads will only come if it is a demand from the start.

  2. Traffic chaos is guaranteed without a subway to at least Alma.
    Look at UEL’s block F for anticipation density.
    Both links are missing in the blog.

    1. There’s no good reason why we have to bundle permitting more housing with permitting more cars. Past practice of doing that has been a great way to limit a car crisis be turning it into a housing crisis.

  3. Here is my 3 minute plan. Put top priority on walking and cycling by having most car traffic go underground soon after leaving arterials. Extend Jericho Park over 4th Ave by creating a lengthy tunnel which is covered by green space. (Similar to Laurel/6th only much wider). A diagonal parkway featuring a wide bike path would extend from 4th/Highbury to Trible/8th. Improvements to cycling routes to UBC and downtown would provide safe and convenient cycling highways to UBC and downtown Vancouver. Improvements to shopping precincts on 10th Ave and Broadway would allow walking and cycling for most shopping. This could be an awesome community where people could easily be car free. Nirvana!

    1. yes, at a minimum. But people come and go from/to afar too. As such you need to give them rapid transit options, too, not just more buses on an ever more congested road network if you want them out of cars – for example to get to downtown, airport, hospital etc. I can only hope the Broadway subway will not end at Arbutus, but will continue to at the very least Alma (closest N/S street to this new development), then eventually go through this new development and continue up to 10th @ Blanca, then UEL’s Block F then UBC.
      Study Block F as it is native land too (within UEL) and as such will be a guideline how to maximize benefits.
      More on Block F here: http://www.universityendowmentlands.gov.bc.ca/businessservices/blockf.htm
      More on Broadway-UBC benefits here: https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/KPMG-UBC-Broadway-Corridor-2013-02-26.pdf

Subscribe to Viewpoint Vancouver

Get breaking news and fresh views, direct to your inbox.

Join 7,284 other subscribers

Show your Support

Check our Patreon page for stylish coffee mugs, private city tours, and more – or, make a one-time or recurring donation. Thank you for helping shape this place we love.

Popular Articles

See All

All Articles