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Zoning for comprehensively planned developments : a case study

University of British Columbia

Rigid zoning by-laws that were a logical solution to land-use control in the North American social milieu resulted in an equally logical wish for more flexibility in land-use controls. Experiments resulting from this brought about various devices to make zoning more flexible in its application. One of these devices was zoning for comprehensively planned developments. The need to improve this zoning device is important because an increasing number of large-scale developments are built in our cities as they seem more suitable to modern living conditions than the single house on a single lot. In Vancouver, the city of the case study, such a zoning device for large-scale developments of mixed land-uses has existed since 1956 in the form of the CD-I district schedule. Since that time various criticisms have been levelled against it. These criticisms were collected in this paper and an attempt was made to rectify what was found at fault in the CD-I schedule. Means to rectify these faults were taken from planning experiences in Vancouver, B. C.; Canada, the United States and Great Britain. Several major solutions were found suitable as a result of this study. It was seen necessary to have a general development plan for the city before any rezoning to CD-I projects should be allowed. Without such a plan it would not be possible to assess the impact of each development, and rezoning decisions would, as a result, be very arbitrary. A general development plan does not exist in Vancouver. A further fault was found in the absence of any guide-lines in the CD-I schedule. Developers, property owners, planners and City Council cannot properly assess what constitutes a proper CD-I project without them. Much misuse of the CD-I schedule results from this. Suggestions to rectify these misuses are to clarify the objectives of CD-I zones. Out of these objectives certain standards should be set in respect to land parcel sizes, requirement of a minimum of two land-uses, completion dates of the project, placing of performance bonds for fulfilment of imposed conditions and others. It was also suggested that a clause be inserted in the existing zoning schedules which would permit comprehensively planned developments of a similar land-use as in the respective schedules. Because the CD-I schedule leaves much discretionary power to civic officials, certain needs to check these were also found to be important considerations. Suggestions were made to have each alderman record his reasoning for permitting a rezoning and to provide a cooling-off period after a public hearing before decisions were made. Finally, it was found that with the increasing complexity of planning a provincial review board of planning experts should be established to hear appeals of aggrieved citizens.

Text

2011-06-21

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/35633

Planning

University of British Columbia

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