Hesperia Lands – Guiding Principles
In setting out on the Hesperia Lands Vernon Real Estate Development project, Vernon City council has established the following Guiding Principles:
1. Concentrated growth
Permitting areas of higher density will facilitate a variety of building types and the creation of neighbourhood nodes
2. Neighbourhood amenity
Support the needs of the residents with local daycare centres, services and various types of open spaces
3. Support a complete community
Consider community needs, existing infrastructure and services and include appropriate amenity spaces to support the neighbourhood
4. Include live-work opportunities
Include housing forms that permit the integration of a variety of home-based businesses
5. Mixed housing forms
Provide a range of housing types to balance a desire for attainable home prices and high-value properties to offset development costs
6. Design for attainable housing prices
Incorporate strategies to offset and balance construction costs to achieve a variety of housing prices and overall attainability for middle-income homeowners
7. Limit traffic
Design access and movement patterns to minimize disruption to this and surrounding neighbourhoods
8. Reduced Parking Demand
Design to promote walking and effective transit alternatives. Decrease costs associated with inhabitable spaces to achieve greater economies in housing development
9. Environmentally sustainable neighbourhood and building design
10. Moderate Densities (1000 housing units on 69 acres)
As I was typing them in – my thoughts were along the lines of “Wow! That is quite a list!” and ... “I wonder how they are going to do all of this?” Now... given that I have some experience in working on projects (especially a few government ones) – I know enough not to even ask the “HOW” question now. You see – that is, I believe one of the great things about the process the city is undertaking here... Let me explain what I mean.
By setting up Guiding Principals Council has created some “elastic-band” boundaries. By that I mean that the project can stretch them or remain well within them. Remember way back when the world as we knew it was going to end because of Y2K?? There was a lot of talk about “The New Economy” yet very little explanation about what this “new economy” was going to be or what was so new about it. To me – the economy is “NEW” because – we can no longer only look at history to project and predict the future... .which we could reliably do in “the OLD days.” Not to say that we have abandoned the practice entirely – but past performance is not the single most important indicator any longer. In that same way of thinking – we no longer constrain ourselves by what we currently know and “the way it has always been.
Why is that?
Well – the fact that you are actually out there reading my thoughts is a big part of it... The marriage of technology and communication is poised to change everything. Never before in history could we actually send out our thoughts – and have them reach out and connect with others so easily. Never before could complete strangers link ideas virtually –making the opportunity for the Sum to become SO MUCH MORE than the total of all the parts.
Does this make any sense to you?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.