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Build Paris, not Los Angeles

By Neil Salmond Apr 13, 2011

Tsawwassen First Nation has announced plans to develop the largest mall in British Columbia, in south-west Metro Vancouver. The Tsawwassen Mills mall (plans here) is inspired by the success of Cross Iron Mills and Vaughan Mills near Calgary and Toronto respectively, and will cover an area larger than Metrotown.

It came as quite a shock to me that such a classic suburban mall could be built, on undeveloped agricultural land and in the second decade of the twenty-first century, as we battle the high economic and environmental costs of fossil fuel dependency.

Across North America, the tragic mistakes of twentieth century car-centric development are plain to see and the race is on in the other direction: to retrofit developments for a more sustainable future. To take just two local examples, Richmond is enthusiastically encouraging mall owners to redevelop with mixed-use zoning, and Larco has applied to rezone the Arbutus Centre in Vancouver, putting townhouses where there was once surface parking. The Globe and Mail just last week reported on ”a new breed of suburbanites … demanding better transit. They want cafes, shops and schools within walking distance.”

Shopping malls, single-use zoning, car-dependent communities and low-density sprawl are relics of an age now past. And yet this is the plan for south-west Metro Vancouver.

The human and economic costs of such development are well known. Children raised in car-dependent neighbourhoods suffer higher levels of obesity and are less independent than those able to walk, bike or take transit to school, to friends etc. Car dependency costs individuals more, in traffic jams and commuting times, and in fuel costsas oil prices rise. Municipal services, from water and electricity to policing and fire protection, cost more in spread-out and inaccessible cul-de-sacs. (For more, see this excellent photo-series from The National Geographic and the video “Built to Last“.)

Furthermore, by developing the area as surface car-parking and commercial units, TFN is failing to maximize the economic value of their land. Studies in Florida and North Carolina suggest that a community of “three- to four-story, mixed-use buildings containing spacious apartments could generate … more than five times as much per acre as [a] mall.” The legacy of the Tsawwassen First Nation could be like the landowners of historic West London, who built a mixed-use grid outside the main city. Or for a more local example, Westbrook Village near UBC (Google map) is an attractive 100 acre community built around a grid of walkable streets, for both residential and commercial use.

Instead, this 175 acre space is to be developed as just another North-American shopping mall. And on top of some of the best farmland in beautiful British Columbia to boot.

There is a little more back-story. Ivanhoe, TFN’s development partner, has been itching to develop a mall in BC since at least 2005. Concerns over unhealthy and unsustainable development were raised in 2007, but the Vancouver Sun assured readers that “Tsawwassen First Nation would develop its land in a way that fits into the broad plans” of Metro Vancouver, including the non-sprawl, sustainability goals of the region. Chief Kim Baird is quoted in that article: ”Yes, we’ll develop our lands. But don’t forget, we live there, too. We want to do it right.”

All indications are that within two generations the climate and fuel supply system of British Columbia will have changed to such a degree as to be barely recognizable. By then today’s tragically shortsighted design choices will be painfully obvious.

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