qathet Climate Alliance

MEMO
Date: August 16, 2022

To: Mayor & Council

From: Chair CaroleAnn Leishman, in collaboration with the Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Committee

Subject: Clean BC Roadmap to 2030 Recommendations
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Background
The Province of BC recently released the Clean BC Roadmap to 2030, which is a plan for how we can meet our carbon emission reduction targets Province-wide. As stated in the Executive Summary of the plan; “The need to take urgent action together to reduce the impacts of climate change and build a strong clean economy for everyone has never been clearer than it has this past year. Two international reports outlined the challenge ahead and called for faster action. The landmark study from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change provided the latest scientific consensus on climate change and was characterized as a ‘code red for humanity’ by leading scientific and climate experts.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/environment/climate-
change/action/cleanbc/cleanbc_roadmap_2030.pdf

The City of Powell River’s Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Committee (CCMAC) has taken it upon themselves to go through the plan in detail cross referencing with our municipality’s plans, bylaws,
policies, and strategies to come up with some key recommendations to the City of Powell River for what things the municipality can do both for corporate and community carbon emission reductions as per the Pathways outlined in the plan.









The Pathways include Low Carbon Energy; Transportation; Buildings; and Communities; as well as some other pathways that may not fall as easily within municipal control. However, several of the pathways
outlined are directly related to municipal services and operations as well as policy development, bylaws, land use planning and infrastructure design. By way of this memo, the CCMAC is providing
recommendations for Council’s consideration of how the City of Powell River can implement the strategies outlined within the Province of BC’s Clean BC Roadmap to 2030 to help the City meet its own carbon emission reduction targets, make further headway on becoming carbon negative in corporate operations as per the City’s Strategic Priorities, work towards reducing community emissions and make this a more resilient, safe and cohesive community to live in.




A Pathway – Low Carbon Energy

A-1 Explore opportunities for solar, wind, and other renewable energy projects including cost sharing agreements and community benefit models.

A-2 Explore opportunities for community revenue benefits from local renewable energy generation if surplus energy is being exported out of Province/Country prioritizing benefits to Tla’amin Nation and embracing potential partnership opportunities between the local governments.

A-3 Advocating to the Province to demand a faster transition away from fossil natural gas to renewable gas by Fortis BC and any other providers. (BC Ferries)









B Pathway – Transportation

B-1. Recommend the continued funding of On-Demand Transit by expanding the Zunga Bus Service in partnership with BC Transit and including the entire municipality in the service route and reducing large fixed-route buses on off-peak times, make routes more efficient and implement the recommendations in the Powell River Transit Analysis and Recommendations Report from Feb/March 2022.

B-2. Recommend incorporating BC’s Active Transportation Design Guidelines into the update to the Infrastructure Design & Construction Bylaw integrating continuous sidewalks and bicycle lanes
as a priority as per City of Nanaimo’s award-winning Street Design Standards Bylaw.

B-3. Recommendation to reduce the road width required for cars on all municipal roads to allow for proper separated bike lanes with a curb separating the bike lane from the vehicle roadway.

B-4. Expropriate necessary property frontages where the City Road allowance was not adequately taken and dedicate the road allowance to active transportation corridor widening.

B-5. Implement Complete Streets Design into Infrastructure Design & Construction Bylaw by planting trees and incorporating raingarden swales where applicable in a buffer between the bike lane/pedestrian walkway and vehicle traffic as well as public gathering amenities like benchesand traffic calming devices and the narrowing of the car travel lane bringing the painted crosswalk edges closer to the edge of the travel lane.

B-6. Adopt Vision Zero principles in all street design and traffic bylaw considerations including lowering the speed limit throughout the municipality to 30km/hour on all non-arterial streets.








B-7. Recommendation to provide proposed amendments to the Zoning Bylaw to eliminate the requirement for off-street parking.

B-8. Require car shares and enhanced bike storage/end-of-trip facilities be designed into new and existing developments.

B-9. Support more compact urban planning design – more services, retail amenities, workplaces, childcare within active transportation distances.

B-10. Increase mode share targets for walking and cycling in the OCP (again).

B-11. Encourage “mode shifting” to walking, biking and use of transit by City employees setting examples and the City publicly promoting mode shifting.

B-12. Create a plan for implementation of the Bicycle Network Strategy including a funding strategyand timeline for building out the necessary changes to street infrastructure.

B-13. Reduce bias of zoning for cars and prioritize active transportation and transit in community design and new development.

B-14. Accelerate switch to Zero Emission Electric Vehicles in Corporate operations and also in community design.

B-15. Require all new residential, multi-family, commercial, institutional & industrial buildings toinstall Electric Vehicle Charging infrastructure and encourage/incentivize existing buildings and
businesses to add charging infrastructure.

B-16. Expand public EV charging network within the community.









B-17. Install EV charging infrastructure at all Civic Facilities in preparation for transition to electric vehicles for all Corporate Operations.

B-18. The City as a corporation create a plan to transition the vehicle fleet over to electric by 2030.

B-19. Shift all transit vehicles to Zero Emissions Electric Vehicles by 2030.

B-20. Create a bike shelter program with an open source “free” approved design for covered bikeshelter structures with EV charging capability for homeowners and businesses to build on their
private property with expedited approvals, approved variances for setbacks, and incentivegrants for construction to encourage private homeowners and business owners to construct enhanced bicycle amenities which will encourage more people to get on bikes for daily
transportation.

B-21. Provide municipal grants for equity-deserving groups to be able to purchase a bicycle or e-bike to use as their primary mode of transportation.

The CCMAC feels that by the City of Powell River providing more opportunities for safe, reliable, andaffordable ways for people to move around the community, will help more people reduce the use of
their personal vehicle trips, will increase equity within the community,
will lift up residents with mobilityand other challenges, and will make life more affordable for those with lower incomes, all while reducing the community’s ghg emissions. These recommendations all work together cohesively in creating a more resilient community for all.









C Pathway – Buildings

C-1 Implement a heat pump, pv solar & energy efficiency retrofit financing program in collaboration with Provincial Programs (PACE) to assist homeowners & businesses to retrofit their buildings
and finance the improvements over longer terms and with lower interest rates and incentives.

C-2 A phased approach and plan in place to swap out all fossil fuel heating appliances in civicbuildings by 2030.

C-3 Plan to retrofit all civic facilities to meet the higher steps of the Energy Step Code/NetZero emissions by 2040.

C-4 Rapid enactment of all stages of the Energy Step Code.

C-5 End the use of natural gas as a primary heat source. Can be retained as back-up.

C-6 Deconstruction bylaw and restrictions on demolition of existing buildings as per a Circular Economy Strategy.

C-7 All new buildings Zero Carbon by 2030.




D Pathway – Community

D-1 Incentivize/prioritize multi-family dwellings and developments. Depending on the size, layout, and design, the space heating requirements for dwellings can be reduced by as much as 40-50%
compared to a conventional single-family home.

D-2 Shift to higher density residential areas vs urban sprawl.






D-3 A program for second homes (duplex) or carriage homes on lots with several free plan options available from the City available to homeowners with expedited building permitting approval if
they build the second home on their property, agree to rent it out for 10 years min with a housing agreement and build it to Net Zero (Passive House or Step 5) standards incorporated
into cost-effective design plans.

D-4 The City to organize & host Net Zero building & retrofit seminars for homeowners & builders.

D-5 As noted in the City’s Land Management Strategy, several vacant City-owned parcels are listed as potential for single family residential development. Recommend rezoning any newly developed parcels to multi-family and/or complete neighbourhood Mixed-Use and more intensive comprehensive development zones which would reduce urban sprawl and increase density in a responsible manner.
D-6 Support and investigate natural asset approaches for replacement of municipal infrastructure
where possible.

D-6• Reduce the restrictions on carriage homes (ie: increase the max height of carriage homes in certain zones or lot sizes, increase the max sq ft to allow more flexibility and allow them in front yards.

D-7 Create new zones with zero side yard setbacks for fee simple ownership of rowhouse-style developments on smaller lots that adjoin the neighbouring dwelling with a fire separation wall.

D-8 New intensive single family developments being considered should require analyzing increased potential vehicle use due to proximity of services with restrictions on how many homes per acre
and limits to fossil-powered vehicles, especially if considering expanding at the edges of the current municipal boundary or







annexing into the rural areas. Calculate increased ghg emissions for these new developments and if they are single family developments, create criteria for number of homes per acre and at what point does the development require to have additional mixed use added ie: a small corner shop for basic amenities, encouragement for farm gate sales, encouragement for larger developments to implement a car share program into the development, require bicycle infrastructure be designed for each home – covered, lockable bike shelters with plug-ins for e-bikes, all homes to be solar-ready and net-zero energy ready, all homes to have level 2 charging stations for EV’s. Create a central playground for children. Dedicated access through developments for pedestrians and bikes to connect through an affordable housing reserve fund and then also create required contributions to climate action fund if development
density is to exceed a certain number of homes with fossil fuel-powered cars per acre outside a certain distance from the City core (discourage urban sprawl).

D-9 Moratorium on drive-through restaurants; limit the total number of them and only within the main commercial core near arterial corridors. (Only allow them where they currently exist.)

D-10 Adopt pollinator programs and preferred tree & shrub planting lists (native, drought-tolerant, non-invasive) for parks, civic properties, boulevards, and rain swales, and also for developers, businesses and homeowners to encourage increasing pollination, carbon sequestration and adding green spaces throughout the community for mitigating urban heat island effects in the downtown core.



Thank you for your consideration on all the above.