Welcome to the latest issue of our newsletter! Once a month we compile the most timely and interesting articles on issues and trends shaping our communities.
Brought to you by the indefatigable staff at the Columbia Institute.
In this Issue:
School District to Ban Bottled Water
Food Secure Communities in BC: Resource Guide for Local Governments
Implementing Transit in Small Communities
The Politics of Parking
Langley Draft Water Management Plan
Ontario School Builds Straw Addition
School District to Ban Bottled Water
School District 42 is considering banning the sale of bottled water in its schools because of the carbon tax and the environmental impact of the bottles. Trustee Stepan Vdovine is looking at getting the school board extricated from its contract with Coca-Cola and is planning to file a Freedom of Information request in order to obtain a copy of the contract. This article also makes mention of other jurisdictions that have banned or are looking at banning bottled water: the Waterloo Region school board plans to phase out the bottles by 2009; school districts in Ottawa-Carleton and Toronto are voting later this year on the matter; and the City of Nelson, which has banned bottled water in municipal offices, recreation areas, and parks.
Food Secure Communities in BC: Resource Guide for Local Governments
The BC Provincial Health Services Authority has just released this new guide, designed to help local governments create more food secure communities. According to the guide, improving food security involves integrating health, economic, ecological, and social factors. The guide includes such topics as community gardens, farmers' markets, making food access easy through neighbourhood planning, supporting local food production, and creating community capacity for building food security and details for each topic how communities benefit and how specifically local governments take action.
Implementing Transit in Small Communities
The Town of Canmore has released a report, entitled Transit Implementation Guidelines for Small Canadian Municipalities. The report, which was prepared as part of the Town of Canmore's transit feasibility study, includes chapters on cost considerations, figuring out who would use the system, designing routes, operational guidelines, and revenue collection. The Canmore Financial & Implementation Plan is included in the appendix. The report also contains a useful table of transit cost comparisons for selected Canadian transit systems, including Whistler, Stratford, Belleville, and a BC provincial average.
The Politics of Parking
There is compelling evidence that free parking causes urban decay and suburban sprawl, since parking is the single biggest land use in almost any city. Low meter rates cause congestion and pollution as motorists drive around looking for spaces and research shows that charging just the right amount will prevent this without scaring away customers. Charging more for parking can have a profound effect on the transportation patterns of a city. A 1990 study done in Los Angeles and Ottawa showed that when employers eliminate free parking, the number of commuters who drove alone dropped 41%. In 2000 a survey of the San Francisco Bay Area showed that public transit is used more often by workers who do not have free parking. The introduction of a "Cash Out Law" in California, where employers are required to offer their employees the cash value of their parking spot if they choose not to use it, saw a reduction in driving by 13% in Los Angeles. Read more about parking expert Donald Shoup's fascinating research on how increasing the price of parking can revitalize a city's urban core in these articles in the Toronto Star or in the Los Angeles Times.
Langley Draft Water Management Plan
Due to rapid growth in Langley that is causing tremendous strain on aquifers, Langley has developed a draft water management plan that is currently going through a public consultation process. The draft plan is the first comprehensive groundwater planning document in BC and aims at reducing water demand by 30% over the next decade. BC is the only province that does not regulate groundwater to prevent overuse and the data indicate that water level declines in Langley are indeed due to overuse, not lower precipitation levels. Read an article about the Langley initiative here.
Ontario School Builds Straw Addition
Island Lake Public School in Orangeville, Ontario is building an environmentally-friendly addition to its school which will be made out of straw bale covered in plaster. Other enviro-friendly features include a rain barrel collector for toilets, a thermal heat exchange system (which will reduce heating costs), solar panels on the roof, and a small wind turbine. 90% of the building materials will be from within 100km of Orangeville. The initial building costs are approximately $660,000 but the school will earn some income from selling excess energy from the solar panels back to the grid. The school will also incorporate the addition into the curriculum as students will be able to measure energy generated by the solar panels. Read an article about the planned addition or click here for the school board's project approval report, which includes detailed construction specs and budget.