Complete Connected Communities

  • 2022 Complete Connected Communities Platform - PDF

The Challenge

Vancouver needs complete communities that are walkable, rollable, cyclable and affordable: neighbourhoods where people can live, work, play, and easily access services that meet all their daily needs, no matter their age, family size or income.

Every Vancouver neighbourhood should have decent affordable housing, grocery stores, shops, and a wide range of public and private sector services within easy walking distance. Unfortunately there are neighbourhoods where population has declined, schools are half-empty and there’s almost no housing that average Vancouver families and workers can afford. In other neighbourhoods, schools, recreation facilities and parks are overflowing.  Meanwhile, closures of beloved local stores, restaurants, professional services and cultural venues are happening too often. 

We need more Greens elected to Council to ensure the City delivers on the promise of the Vancouver Plan. This will take residents’ involvement in the plan, to help shape complete communities throughout our city – with the affordable housing, public amenities, green spaces, active transportation routes and local shopping and services that make every neighbourhood healthy, affordable and liveable. It also means developing the plan to mitigate and increase every neighbourhood’s resilience to climate change. 

Top Priorities

  • Create a 5 minute city: Where public amenities like daycares, schools, accessible public washrooms, parks and community centres, as well as locally owned shops, services, and daily needs are all within a five minute walk or roll of home or work.
  • Connect and complete Vancouver’s safe cycling networks & greenways within four years. Greens at City Council, Park Board, and School Board will work together to connect safe cycling routes to schools, community centres, parks, transit, and employment areas.
  • Expand public amenities and services to meet growth and public needs. Accurately assess the impacts of growth on infrastructure, public amenities, and City Services to ensure sufficient budgets to upgrade and expand public amenities to meet people’s needs in their community. 
  • Deliver Increased housing choices and social equity in every neighbourhood through zoning for affordable co-op and non-profit-owned housing for all life stages. Plans will ensure seniors can age in place and workers and lower income people can live in all neighbourhoods.
  • Incorporate schools & childcare in planning: City planning must take into account the current capacities of schools and childcare as well as future needs. That means including childcare as a public amenity in new developments, zoning to increase family-oriented housing density near schools, and setting aside land for anticipated needs.
  • Resilient local shopping streets and economies. A vibrant mix of smaller retail and commercial units that support local job creation, disincentivizing big-box retail that can dominate and hollow out a high street.

Solutions

DELIVER ON THE VANCOUVER PLAN

IMPROVE PUBLIC SERVICES AND AMENITIES

CONNECT THE FIVE MINUTE CITY

INCREASE GREEN SPACES, FOOD PRODUCTION AND TREE CANOPY

INCORPORATE SCHOOLS IN PLANNING 

WORK DONE BY GREENS

DELIVER ON THE VANCOUVER PLAN

With the help of residents, Greens will finalize the Vancouver Plan and start delivering complete, liveable communities where everyone can meet their daily needs within a 15-minute walk or roll. This means every neighbourhood will have secure affordable housing, accessible public amenities, green space and local shops, services, arts and culture, and entertainment. The Plan will:

  • Include meaningful public involvement. The plan will include where to add affordable housing, active transportation routes and neighbourhood amenities and how best to convert at least 11% of neighbourhood streets from car-focused to features like food gardens, shaded areas for seniors to sit and child play areas to enhance safety and liveability.
  • Deliver Increased housing choices and social equity in every neighbourhood through zoning for affordable co-op and non-profit-owned housing for all life stages. Plans will ensure seniors can age in place and workers and lower income people can live in all neighbourhoods.
  • Fund new or improved public amenities and services to ensure an equitable quality of life in every neighbourhood. 
  • Protect cultural heritage and places that matter. The Plan will build on neighbourhood strengths and stories as well as unique local features like character buildings, well-loved local shopping districts and streetscapes, and other treasured parts of the city, both tangible and intangible.
  • Adopt a collective commitment in lockstep with First Nations to incorporate the values, history and art of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations in every neighbourhood throughout the City.
  • Cut carbon emissions by reducing car use, prioritizing wood and low carbon construction, adding greenspace and tree canopy, and restoring natural ecosystems.

IMPROVE PUBLIC SERVICES AND AMENITIES

Public services and amenities meet the needs of residents, workers and visitors alike. As senior governments increasingly download the cost of housing onto the City, Greens will fight to ensure we are still properly investing in the public assets that complete communities. Here’s what we need to improve:

  • Expand public amenities to meet growth and public needs. Green Councillors will work to accurately assess the cumulative impacts of growth on infrastructure, public amenities, and City Services. A thorough understanding of growing gaps must lead to  sufficient budgets to upgrade and expand public amenities including community and seniors centres, neighbourhood houses, childcare facilities, libraries, parks and recreation facilities, and fire services. Greens will ensure new development pays a greater share for growth-related service expansions. 
  • More childcare. Green Councillors will push to incorporate affordable, quality childcare as a public amenity in as many multi-family developments, new public buildings and large commercial buildings as possible. We will also work with Vancouver School Board and Park Board colleagues to incorporate childcare in schools and community centres. (See section 4 for more details.)
  • More accessible and permanent public washrooms. Accessible public washrooms should be a community amenity in targeted new developments, required at rapid transit stations, and distributed city-wide.
  • Prioritize equity and access to city services and public buildings. Ensure buildings and streetscapes city-wide are accessible for people with varying abilities by enhanced wayfinding, complete intersection designs, installation of 100% curb cuts, and fully accessible City communications channels, including websites. 
  • Ensure complete communities are age-friendly and services, programs and facilities for seniors and families remain well-funded with housing and amenities that enable people to age and grow in their communities.

CONNECT THE FIVE MINUTE CITY

Vancouver – a city of neighbourhoods – has the opportunity to revitalise and build out complete communities on the existing framework of high streets and naturally forming clusters. Where public amenities like daycares, schools, parks and community centres, as well as locally owned shops, services, and daily needs are all within a five minute walk or roll of home or work. In turn, these clusters are connected by good reliable public transit and active transportation routes.
This means:

  • Connect and complete Vancouver’s safe cycling networks & greenways within four years. Greens at City Council, Park Board, and School Board will work together to connect safe cycling routes to schools, community centres, parks, transit, and employment areas.
  • Resilient local shopping streets and economies. A vibrant mix of smaller retail and commercial units that support local job creation, disincentivizing big-box retail that can dominate and hollow out a high street.
  • Built form that is responsive to local needs. Neighbourhoods should be for everyone, but they aren’t homogenous. Different communities, their context and intangible cultural heritage should inform how we build and where. 
  • Accessible transit and mobility. High streets are benefitted by good transit and infrastructure that enables walking, cycling and rolling, including covered stops for frequent transit, good pedestrian realm with generous sidewalks, curb cuts and bulges, slowed streets, and convenient, safe cycling routes and secure lockups.
  • Public spaces and places. Allowing more places for people to meet and congregate with street furniture, plazas, and covered areas that are open and accessible. Places to meet, greet or eat can foster stronger connections, combat social isolation, and support local economic development.
  • Amenities in community for community. Local communities and their support networks are anchored by public amenities like community centres, libraries, schools, and recreation facilities. Prioritizing delivery and renewal of significant capital assets responds to the five-minute criteria.

INCREASE GREEN SPACES, FOOD PRODUCTION AND TREE CANOPY

The City has failed to add new green space to keep pace with population growth and demand, which was highlighted during the COVID Pandemic as people sought spaces where they could enjoy themselves while socially distancing. Green Councillors will enhance our city with more trees, parks, greenspaces, and urban farms to help make our communities more climate resilient and boost our quality of life. Smart, green planning will also help neighbourhoods  withstand challenges like food insecurity, flooding, and extreme heat brought on by the climate crisis. Here’s how Greens will help the City get on track: 

  • Improve food security by creating locations for community food gardens and food production in every neighbourhood. Local food assets can protect our communities from inflation, climate shocks and global supply chain issues.
  • Convert at least 11% of Vancouver streets from car to community use that includes more tree canopy, parklets and dog parks, active transportation, places to grow food,and green spaces for children, families and seniors..
  • 3-30-300 rule for a healthier, greener city: every household should be able to see 3 trees, be in a neighbourhood with a 30% tree canopy, and be 300m from a green space.
  • Require that rezonings increase the urban tree canopy and green spaces, including green roofs and at ground level.
  • Expand our green spaces by buying land with the restored park acquisition developer cost levy, support land back, align with the new Vancouver Parks Foundation for land donations, and partner with other orders of government for land acquisition partnerships including regional greenway expansions and renewed coastal ecosystems.

INCORPORATE SCHOOLS IN PLANNING

Historically, the Provincial Government funded the building of new schools to keep pace  with development of new housing and urban expansion. More recently, however, new schools have not kept up with population growth, especially in denser urban centres. As a result, there are insufficient schools to meet demand, and school capacity is unevenly spread throughout the city; straining families, students and teachers. Jurisdictions that are over capacity force some children to attend different schools than their siblings, other children are forced to attend schools outside of their community, and many families are leaving the city all together. In addition to supporting planning and advocacy by the Vancouver School Board (VSB), Green Councillors will: 

  • Work with the School Board on land use and population growth projections to plan for our children. Greens established a City Council-VSB Joint Planning Committee to collaborate on development applications, population projections, and requests to the Province for timely construction of new schools. Greens will ensure that committee continues its work.
  • Work proactively with the School Board to lobby the Province to fund schools to match increased density and population growth.
  • Incorporate Schools in planning: City planning must take into account the current capacities of schools and future needs. That means zoning to increase family-oriented housing density around schools, especially schools that have more spaces for students, as well as setting aside land for anticipated needs.

WORK DONE BY GREENS

In 2018, Vancouver elected three Greens to Council who worked collaboratively across party lines and deliver the services and amenities people need in their communities. Greens have worked hard this term to change our City’s policies to better meet the needs of residents. Unfortunately, too much of our important work has been slow to come back from staff to Council or has not been implemented at all. We need more Greens elected to ensure our solutions are implemented in a timely fashion and in a way that best serves the people of Vancouver.