Sustainable checklist

One of the things that the City of Langley is doing to increase the visibility of sustainable development is the introduction of a sustainability checklist. The checklist will be required for all rezoning, development permits, and subdivision applications.

Example from the checklist. Click image to enlarge.

While the items in the checklist are mostly voluntary, the idea is really to make decision makers like council and developers more aware about what the City is looking for in a sustainable development. The next step the City should take is to incentivize developments that meet a certain sustainability threshold by either providing faster turn around times for permits or other cost/time savings. I know that the Township of Langley was looking at something like this a few years ago, but in the end decided against it. This is a great first step for the City and I hope that this checklist will cause council to question developments that don't embrace sustainable design.