 Metro Vancouver municipality will debate whether to officially adopt 15-minute city model | | |  | | | The difference between the rhetoric and the reality of how a “15-minute city” becomes reality could be seen in New Westminster later this month.
Councillors Nadine Nakagawa and Tasha Henderson have put forward a motion asking the city to “endorse the concept of becoming a 15-minute city and create a plan to implement it by 2030.”
The idea — have city policies that make it easier for people to work, live and play within a 15-minute walk or bike ride from where they live — is nothing new in urbanist circles.
New Westminster is already relatively small, with strategies around more bike lanes and greater density, but Nakagawa says there’s more that can be done.
“The principles are deeper than just how big the city is geographically. It's about making it livable in every neighbourhood,” she said.
But a movement has grown in recent months to brand the phrase as a Trojan horse of globalist thinking, with evidence-light claims it will lead to people being under constant surveillance and banned from leaving their designated zones. It could make for a tense public hearing, though Nakagawa says she’s not thinking about that.
“There's all sorts of wild theories out there about all sorts of things that I care about,” she said.
“I can’t spend too much energy on that … the best way to describe these kinds of things is we actually build them, and then people learn that way.”
Nakagawa and Henderson were given this proposal from a local middle school class, and the list of examples for improvement in the document includes wider sidewalks, more benches, trash cans, water fountains and streetlights, improved bike lanes, better playgrounds, public washrooms and public Wifi.
If council is in favour, they’ll have to decide how to embed the ideas behind it into its Official Community Plan, dedicate space in future operating and capital budgets, and debate how best to engage the public on what priorities to move on first.
You might think this sounds like Local Government 101: politicians campaign on improvements to their city, which then becomes a motion, which then becomes layers of process and bureaucracy before becoming reality.
Or you might think it sounds like something else entirely.
One way or the other, what happens if Nakagawa and Henderson’s motion passes will be of interest to some — even if, local government being local government, it might take a lot longer than 15 minutes for anything to actually happen. | | |  | | | 1. Housing targets | | | The province put forward its long-awaited list of municipalities that will be given explicit targets for how much housing to build, with a mix of responses from mayors and councillors who are now forced to work proactively with Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon or face yet-to-be-explained consequences, sometime in early 2024. While speculating on why different municipalities made the list is certainly fun, we’ll note that it’s been a while since David Eby first started talking about this concept … and there’s still no concrete action that has taken place as a result.
Read more | | |  | | | 2. Vancouver | But it’s likely Vancouver won’t have much problem reaching its targets, given the ABC party's enthusiasm to build, build, build. Changing the city’s permitting process to prioritize high-unit developments was one thing council did this week, along with adding Komagata Maru to the name of a street and kiboshing a motion by an opposition councillor to ban natural gas in new buildings — all while a (new) decision on 105 Keefer got delayed for two weeks.
Read more | | | |  | | | 3. Kamloops | It’s been a while since we checked in on Kamloops, but we return this week for a truly strange twist: the mayor apparently isn’t signing legal documents necessary for the city to collect property taxes or transfer a property to B.C. Housing, and in the latter case said he wanted to talk things over at a hockey game before giving the green light. He also had his latest initiative shot down by the rest of council in an 8-1 vote. It's hard to imagine all this ending happily.
Read more in Kamloops This Week | | | | | |  | | | 4. Of Golden Arches... | B.C.’s best small town has set a public hearing date for the rezoning proposal that could bring a McDonald’s to town, with a final vote likely happening in the late summer. CBC News spent some time in Kimberley this week talking to residents about the issue, and it seems clear a lot of people don’t want, as one put it, “big city bullshit” coming to their mountain community.
Watch more | | | |  | | | 5...and giant hockey sticks | How is a debate over the Cowichan Community Centre potentially rebuilding its Giant Hockey Stick so it can still be the biggest after Lockport, Illinois, completes its Giant Hockey Stick a municipal government story? When the stick is overseen by the Cowichan Valley Regional District, and they’ve asked the public to weigh in on its future — which could cost millions. Read more in the Times Colonist | | | | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
forwarded to you. | | | | That's it for this this week! In the meantime, check out the latest headlines at cbc.ca/bc and follow our municipal affairs reporter Justin McElroy on Twitter. And if you have any questions you might want answered in a future mailbag, drop Justin a line at metromatters@cbc.ca. | | | |
