Mapping industrial land use (or not) in Metro Vancouver

Back in September, I posted about the shrinking industrial land base in Metro Vancouver. Because industrial land is in short supply due to the high demands for more retail and residential space, the regional district commissioned a high-level Industrial Land Inventory in 2010.

Metro Vancouver is now in the process of completing a detailed inventory of all land-uses that are occurring in regionally-zoned industrial land. The inventory will help Metro Vancouver and municipalities gauge how successful they have been in preserving land for industrial and light-industrial purposes. This inventory will hopefully help local governments update plans and bylaws to support the protection of the industrial land based.

While the full detailed inventory is not yet complete, detailed maps for the industrial area in Newton has been released.

There is both a detailed map and a consolidated map. The detailed map show some 23 land-use designations. The consolidated map reduces those designations to seven: building-intensive industrial, natural resources, land-intensive industrial, large-scale infrastructure/transportation, retail use, other commercial use, and other land use.

As you could imagine having a large amount of land-uses that preclude industrial uses, in an industrial area, would be a concern.

Draft consolation thematic map for Newton of industrial land base. Selection map to enlarge.

Draft detailed thematic map for Newton of industrial land base. Select map to enlarge.

As you can see in the preceding maps, there is a fair amount of red on the map. This red indicates that there are retail stores operating in the central Newton industrial area. With this information, Surrey could address the proliferation of retail shops in industrial zones.

For more information, I suggest you check out the Metro Vancouver Industrial Lands Inventory Presentation that was prepared for Metro Vancouver’s Regional Planning Committee.

Langley City Homelessness Strategic Plan will need provincial and federal support to succeed

When I ran for Langley City Council last fall, one of the things that I heard from many residents in the community was that they were concerned about the increase in people who are homeless in Langley, especially in Downtown Langley.

Total counted people who are homeless in the Langleys, 2014

Shockingly, the amount of people who are homeless in Langley has increased from under 25 people in 2002, to around 100 people in 2014. 15% of people who are homeless are also Aboriginal. 16% of people are children and youth, and 15% of people are seniors. Homelessness impacts other vulnerable groups of people including people who are queer, people with disabilities, people with addictions, people with mental health issues, and new immigrants.

Last fall, Langley City launched the Langley Homelessness Task Force. The primary outcome of the task force will be to deliver a Homelessness Strategic Plan that will outline strategies and solutions to address and prevent homelessness in Langley. The draft document is currently scheduled to be released this year.

While having a strategic plan is great, implementing the action items in the plan is the only way that it will succeed. Back in 2008, the Langley Action Plan on Addressing Homelessness was released. It included 12 actionable items. I will outline the items, and what concrete progress has been made on them to date.

1. There is a need for an adult drop-in centre. Status: United Churches of Langley offers 200th Street Drop-in
2. There is a need for low-barrier supported housing for individuals with complex needs, such as those with mental health and/or addictions concerns, and especially those with concurrent disorders diagnosis. Status: No concrete progress
3. There is a need for affordable sustainable housing. Status: No concrete progress
4. There is a need for proactive prevention services for those at-risk of homeless Status: No concrete progress
5. There is a need for more transportation options to enable the homeless to access services. Status: No concrete progress
6. There is a need for a coordinating entity for resources to the homeless and for those at-risk of homelessness. Status: No concrete progress
7. There is a need for a youth safe house. Status: No concrete progress
8. There is a need for daytox services in Langley. Status: Outpatient service delivered by Fraser Health.
9. There is a need for residential long-term support recovery housing for those who having completed alcohol/drug rehabilitation. Status: Some services are offered at Wagner Hills for men, and Campbell Valley House of Hope for women.
10. There is a need for accommodation for clients with mental health issues and/or addiction who are waiting to access residential programs. Status: No concrete progress
11. There is a need for outreach workers for youth and women trading sex for shelter. Status: 2 FTE homeless outreach workers provided by Stepping Stones (funded by BC Housing).
12. There is a need for an integrated case management system for the homeless. Status: No concrete progress

I look forward to the recommendations coming out of the Langley Homelessness Task Force later this year. Looking at the list of items identified in the 2008 plan, and seeing that most of the items where not actioned, it seems to me that the challenge is around funding. The support of the provincial and federal governments will be critical for any action plan or strategic plan to succeed. The City of Langley on its own will not be able to address these complex issues.

Are you critical of TransLink? For a fresh perspective, take Toronto's TTC

TransLink —our regional transportation agency in Metro Vancouver— isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, but since I've been traveling to Toronto for work this year, I’ve come to the conclusion that some people in Metro Vancouver make mountains out of mole hills when it comes to issues with our transportation agency.

The SkyTrain has become less reliable, there is no arguing about that, but TransLink is also replacing many of the core components of the system to improve its reliability. Along the Expo Line, TransLink is almost finished replacing all of the power rails. They are also replacing many sections of worn-out running rail along the Expo Line. TransLink is refurbishing all of the original SkyTrain cars. All combined, this should result in SkyTrain reliable going back to near perfection.

Toronto's transit system, the TTC, is less reliable than Metro Vancouver's. Breakdowns on the subway and on the streets, and buses that just don’t show up are a fact of life in Toronto.

Toronto's current streetcar fleet went into service between 1977 and 1987; and is at the end of life. The TTC signed a contract with Bombardier in 2009 to replace the fleet, unfortunately due to a host of problems, the streetcars aren’t being delivered on-time.

Speaking about on-time, back in 2004 the federal government, Province of Ontario, and City of Toronto announced that the Presto Card would replace all the various forms of payment on the TTC. It will also be an accepted form of payment for other transit agencies throughout Ontario.

Unlike Metro Vancouver where TransLink delivers all transit service, if you live in the Greater Toronto Area, you are likely going to have to use more than one transit agency during your commute. For example, you might use GO Transit commuter trains and the TTC subway system. This means that you may have to carry around multiply fare products, and become an expert on the fare structures of the various transit agencies in the regoin.

The Presto Card will increase the ease of use when taking transit in Toronto. All people need to do is make sure they have enough money on their card, and the Presto system will figure out the rest. The Presto system was first announced in 2004. The TTC was originally going to be fully converted to the system by this year, it is now being promised to be fully deployed by the end of 2016. Assuming that they actually complete the roll-out in 2016, that will have been about 12 year!

The TransLink Compass Card was launched back in 2009 and was originally planned to be in service by the spring of 2013. TransLink wasn’t able to make that target, but the system did go live in October. The Compass Card roll-out took 6 years.

Unlike the TTC which charges one price no matter where you travel, TransLink is a multi-zone system and is moving towards a distance-based fare system. Even though the Compass Card roll-out was delayed, TransLink rolled-out a system that is handling a more complex fare structure, in a short time than it is taking the TTC to roll-out the Presto system with its simpler fare structures.

Now even though the TTC has a simple fare structure, it is actually more complex to use the system. With TransLink it is easy to use your credit card, debit card, or cash to get a new Compass Card, load up a Compass Card with cash or a pass, get a single-use ticket, or buy a day pass.

Example of a TTC pass product, and adult fare tokens.

While you can use cash on the TTC with no issue, using debit or credit isn’t as simple. Three different webpages are required to explain how to purchase tokens or passes for use on the TTC with debit or credit.

The TTC isn’t a horrible system, but when I use Toronto’s transit system, it reminds me of how good the transit system in Metro Vancouver really is.

TransLink's South of Fraser Performance Review Released

TransLink created a transit plan for the South of Fraser back in 2007 focusing up to the year 2013. The plan outlined how TransLink will deliver and enhance transit service in the South of Fraser.

One of the problems with many transit plans, and planning visions in general, is that they don’t have any required monitoring or follow-up. Without monitoring, it is difficult to keep organizations accountable on their plan’s deliverables. It is also difficult for organizations to gauge the success of their plans, so they can find where they did well, what constraints they ran into, and how they can improve.

For example, the City of Langley has a great plan for it Downtown Core. Unfortunately, there is no monitoring or follow-up for the plan. The City has not made any public documents available on the success of its implementation.

TransLink, on the other hand, follows up on its area transportation plans. So how did TransLink do in delivering what it outlined in its 2007 South of Fraser Area Transit Plan?

TransLink recently released a report which outlined the progress made towards implementing the plan. The report covered the period from 2007 through 2013.

One of the targets set in the area transit plan was to see transit mode share in the South of Fraser increase to 7% by 2011. Transit mode share increased from 4.5% in 2004 to 8.5% in 2011. This is a marked increase, and really shows how TransLink has been investing in transit service in the South of Fraser.

One of the key priorities in the area transit plan was to introduce B-Line service along Fraser Highways, along 200th Street, and along the King George/104th corridor between White Rock, Downtown Surrey, and Guildford. Unfortunately, TransLink was only able to implement B-Line service between Newton Exchange and Guildford along King George/104th due to funding constraints.

TransLink also planned on implementing frequent, all-day transit service along Highway 1 between Carvolth, Guildford, Lougheed Town Centre, and Coquitlam Town Centre. Due to funding constraints, TransLink was only able to implement the 555 express bus service.

While not as sexy as B-Line service or light rail, transit service that runs every 15 minutes or better all day, is key to increasing transit mode share. While TransLink wasn’t able to fully implement its envisioned frequent transit network due to funding constraints, it was able to build out most of the vision. This is one of the main reasons why transit mode share has increased sharply in the South of Fraser. During the reporting period, TransLink was able to almost double the amount of people and businesses within a short walk of the frequent transit network.

One of the areas where TransLink wasn’t successful in implementing, between 2007 through 2013, was building-out transit service in new, growing communities. For example, transit service is lacking in areas like Clayton, South Surrey, and Willoughby. Not to sound like a broken record, but the only reason why TransLink wasn’t able to delivery these planned improvements was because of a lack of funding from the province/local governments.

The following tables show that TransLink was able to increase ridership during the reporting period, while keeping the cost of delivering that service stable.

2010-2013 South of Fraser transit performance statistics. Select tables to enlarge.

If you want to dive into more details, I suggest you check out the full monitoring report. While TransLink wasn’t really able to deliver rapid transit service in the South of Fraser, it was able to build-out the frequent transit network which has shifted more people onto transit.