Category Archives: Urban Villages Project

Shifting development to the urban village

October 3, 2012 By in Planning and Development, Urban Villages Project Tags: 3 Comments

Downtown Port Coquitlam

I subscribe to a news service called Better Cities & Towns.  I neglect most posts and feel guilty about it, but recently I tripped over an item by Geoff Dyer from July, 2012 [since deleted from Better Cities] that gathers some of this site’s musings on urban villages into a single list.

Waterfront walkway, Comox, B.C.His key point is an obvious one: the best customer base for business in an urban village is made up of the people who live within easy walking distance; and so housing is the basic ingredient in reviving an old downtown or a commercial dead zone.  The appetite for medium-density housing is limited in any market; city governments get maximum benefits, in terms of spin-off economic development, from focusing apartment development in urban villages. Continue reading →

In search of the village at Edgemont Village

September 3, 2012 By in Days Out, North Shore, Urban Villages Project Tags: , 2 Comments

Edgemont Drive, North VancouverFew neighbourhood shopping centres in southwest B.C. are as cute and prosperous-looking as Edgemont Village.  Set deep in an affluent residential zone of the District of North Vancouver, Edgemont offers 90 or so shops and services — a kids’ bookstore, gift shops, a high-end produce market, and a dozen banks and financial offices to help residents manage their money.

My co-tourist, Fred Armstrong, used to live down the hill and he brought me here for the Fred Armstrong at The Bakehouse, North Vancouverfirst time in my life.  We ate a fresh, home-made lunch at The Bakehouse, looking out on the front lawns of some detached houses, and enjoyed it.  As a tourist from faraway Maple Ridge, I decided that I can recommend Edgemont as a place to visit and stroll through.  Fred pointed out that even the Edgemont Drive gas station, with its two-bay car repair shop, manages to fit into the charming streetscape. Continue reading →

Comox Village, municipal amalgamation and fresh vegetables

August 14, 2012 By in Around B.C., Urban Villages Project Tags: , Leave a comment

The Within its region, the Town of Comox on Vancouver Island is equivalent to New Westminster in Metro Vancouver or Oak Bay in Greater Victoria.  Comox is hemmed in by a bigger urban neighbour (Courtenay) and prevented from sprawling; it is forced to focus on how to densify its neighbourhoods, especially its downtown, building on its history and waterfront location, and boosted by regular non-stop commercial flights between Comox Airport and Calgary, Canada’s oil and gas capital. Continue reading →

Port Coquitlam — working the plan

August 6, 2012 By in Tricities, Urban Villages Project Tags: , 1 Comment

The cover of Port Coquitlam's 1998 downtown plan

Measured by its regional media profile, Port Coquitlam is a city that most people ignore.  There’s not really a port here, as I mentioned in an earlier post; there are railyards, trucking companies, a jail, and a recent proliferation of big box stores on the eastern fringe.

Apartment housing near the Coquitlam River, Port CoquitlamUp close, though, the local government has done a decent job of delivering on its 1998 plan [no longer available online] to build an urban village around the downtown core.  The plan is more detailed than most of its counterparts around the region, and more focused on the value of village residential development. Continue reading →