Ben's E-News: Protecting forests and farmland from urban sprawl
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- Published on Tuesday, 03 February 2015 09:00
- Written by editor
Friend --
Right now, the Capital Regional District (CRD) is consulting residents on the Regional Sustainability Strategy (RSS), to guide land use decisions from the Saanich Peninsula to Victoria to Port Renfrew on the west coast.
The RSS will either strengthen the policy of urban containment, mandating that new housing and development be concentrated in existing population centres, or it will provide a green light to urban sprawl, extending pavement and development into the wilderness areas and farmland of the capital region.
I strongly support a policy of urban containment.
Protecting forests and farmland from urban sprawl makes sense for a number of reasons. It conserves wilderness areas for the ecological value of maintaining plant and animal habitat, protecting... water quality, sequestering carbon and providing opportunities for outdoor recreation.
Urban containment also conserves farmland for present and future
generations, with the capital region having a finite supply of arable
land (due to mountainous terrain, constraints of the coastline, and
existing development patterns). Local food systems are essential in
the context of increasing global transportation costs, a changing
climate and instability in the global capitalist economy.
Compact land-use patterns are also important from the standpoint of
transportation, with sprawling suburbs being heavily reliant on
private motor vehicles, gridlocked highways and the consumption of
fossil fuels, which impacts air quality and contributes to climate
change. Infrastructure of sprawling suburbs is costly to maintain,
with vast networks of roads, sewers and water lines. Suburbs are also
often dominated by big box and corporate retail and (because of
auto-dependency) have lower rates of community participation.
I hope you will take the opportunity to contact the CRD Board expressing your views on regional land use and urban containment, by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or completing this survey before Feb. 15. Together, we can build a sustainable region that leaves no one behind and protects the natural environment. Doing so requires saying no to development in some areas and concentrating new housing within existing population centres.
Ben Isitthttp://www.benisitt.ca/ -=-=-
Ben Isitt ยท 2547 Prior St, Victoria, BC V8T3X5,
Canada
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