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The impact of the Knight Street Bridge on the allocation of industrial land

University of British Columbia

A variety of impact methodologies exist today to assist the planner in his role as advisor to policy makers. Many of these methodologies, however, are not always available to a small municipal planning staff charged with the responsibility of formulating impact statements concerning a possible municipal-sized undertaking. This study attempts to formulate a method of inquiry for an impact study on this municipal scale. Specifically, it studies the impact of the Knight Street Bridge on the allocation of industrial land. The inquiry contains three interrelated elements; the structure of the relationships one is attempting to study, a selection of data to measure the impact, and an awareness of the cultural environment which interprets the data. Applied to this study the structure is seen as a land use conflict ignited by the newly created accessibility to hundreds of acres of raw land. A quantitative measurement of the impact is achieved by data relating to the location and amount of industrial land consumed from 1960 to 1972. The changing sentiments within our society with respect to economic growth and the expression of this in the Land Commission Act serve to alter the findings of the data. In Chapter One the land use conflict is studied as a result of past failures to coordinate transportation planning with land use planning. Failures of this nature place land use planning at the mercy of transportation planning. This chapter concludes with a discussion of the changing sentiments about the continued economic expansion of the region. These emerging sentiments are challenging past policies which reserved for industry large areas of the region's shoreline and agricultural land. The literature review in Chapter Two is designed to display the lack of usable material and techniques for the measurement of impacts of the type attempted in this study. However, the literature does point out the importance to industry of proximity to urban transportation routes. Within the GVRD this relationship is studied in Chapter Three through the measurement of the location of industrial land acreage from 1960 to 1972. This data establishes that consumption is heaviest in areas containing at least two of the following features: proximity to a regional roadway, an industrial park, and in an area intermediate between the regional core and the periphery. It is shown that this consumption pattern has closely paralleled the development of the regional roadway system as it was formed from 1955 to 1965. The industrial areas that developed with the roadway system are now almost exhausted, and the region is on the verge of a new era of industrial land development in the periphery. Within this context the lands around the new bridge have a particular significance. Their industrial potential is displayed in the existence of all three features mentioned above. In addition, the potential for expansion of this industrial area offers the only location for expansion within the intermediate zone. This makes the land all the more valuable for industry. The direct clash between the agricultural and industrial use of these lands is faced in Chapter Four. An industrial use is recommended for land immediately adjacent to the bridge and roadway. It is recommended that other lands be secured for agriculture. The intent of this allocation is to capitalize on the industrial potential of the new bridge but limit the industrial area in harmony with the imperatives of the Land Commission Act. Three recommendations conclude the papers that industrial plant and park design be altered to accommodate land shortages; secondly, that industry's radial connection with the region's core be reconsidered as a location criteria; and finally, in view of the provincial government's entrance into the industrial land development industry, it is recommended the government establish and implement itself, policies for industrial development on the flood plain either by design alterations or minimum elevation requirements.

Text

2010-01-22

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/18968

Planning

University of British Columbia

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