Community-wide

The University Village Sustainable Local Area Plan (UVSLAP) sets land use and urban design guidelines for the area just north of downtown Duncan, near the Vancouver Island University Campus. It includes land within the Municipality of North Cowichan and the City of Duncan.

In 2007, North Cowichan and Duncan signed a Memorandum of Understanding that committed both municipalities to developing a local area plan for the University Village area. The two municipalities recognized that despite the fact that the area had evolved into a regional hub, it had been subject to inconsistent and ad hoc planning in the past. With development pressures mounting, and the increasing importance of sustainability to both municipalities, the time was right to initiate a comprehensive, sustainable and innovative planning process for the area. 

In 2013 North Cowichan and Duncan selected a private sector consulting team to prepare the Plan. Both municipalities then agreed to Terms of Reference and an extensive public engagement process that included consultation with the neighboring Cowichan Tribes. The Plan was adopted by North Cowichan as a Bylaw in July 2015.  The City of Duncan followed soon after, adopting a separate bylaw to implement its component of the Plan in September 2015.

Within the context of each community’s Official Community Plan, UVSLAP provides a finer level of planning and urban design for a unique, high-growth neighborhood for the next 30 years.  A major focus of UVSLAP is climate change mitigation. The Plan follows the climate action objectives of the OCPs of the Municipality of North Cowichan and the City of Duncan by creating a land use framework that prioritizes walking, cycling, and public transit; directs growth in an environmentally sustainable and efficient manner; and utilizes development concepts that contribute to the reduction of GHG emissions and create opportunities for greater energy efficiency and renewable energy adoption.

The Plan’s policies promote sustainability and GHG reductions in several distinct elements of urban design, including:

• built form (i.e. architecture and building design),
• street design,
• utilities servicing, 
• water conservation,
• recycling, and
• erosion and flood management.

The Plan’s policies for built forms are particularly notable for their innovative energy efficiency and sustainability policies.  The Plan specifies that at least 10% of the estimated energy consumption for new and retrofitted buildings should come from on-site or community-based renewable energy generation.  Building designs should include passive heating, lighting, and cooling features, and ensure that buildings can be adapted to future sustainable energy and grey water reclamation technologies.  The Plan also specifies that, if a district energy system is built in the area, the municipalities must adopt service area bylaws requiring most buildings to be connectable to the district energy system.

The City of Kelowna has been very invested in supporting a vibrant cycling culture in the city. Kelowna has an extensive bicycle network (the largest one in Canada for a city its size), a very effective cycling to work program, and a pilot project to monitor pedestrian and bicycle activity around the downtown core. The latest addition to Kelowna’s list of initiatives that support active transportation in the city is a creative technological solution to detecting cyclists at road intersections.

Staff at the City of Kelowna discovered a cost-effective way to increase cyclist safety through an innovative use of existing technology, originally intended for a very different application. After much internal discussion, the city decided to launch a pilot project to test the use of piezoelectric push button capable of converting mechanical push of the button into electrical energy and transmitting the signal wirelessly without requiring any direct electrical power or batteries. This new technology can be deployed without the need for digging up the road or island for underground conduit and wiring, significantly reducing installation costs associated with the traditional approach.

The City started with a pilot project at KLO Road and Gordon Drive, and has since expanded to install 22 push buttons at 12 different locations selected based on greater cyclist activity, installation suitability, and available options for observation.

The piezoelectric push button could be used for any application (i.e. pedestrian or cycling). However the city has used this technology strictly for cyclist detection.

This project supports the city’s effort to achieve one of the ten main goals outlined in the Kelowna’s OCP to “Feature a Balanced Transportation Network - Increase the attractiveness, convenience and safety of all modes of transportation by implementing “complete streets” that are designed to serve broader range of transportation modes, focusing on pedestrians, cyclists and transit service, and function in the context of surrounding land uses.”

The City has also recently adopted a Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan.