Open Space Plan

Due to Longlands’ central location with good existing road, bicycle, and pedestrian links to the surrounding areas of Comox, Courtenay, Kye Bay, and Goose Spit, the new Longlands community will function as a unifying “crossroads” that will help to link these presently dislocated nodes and encourage the use of non-automotive transportation. Longlands' centralized location on the Comox Peninsula affords the project potential to function as a social gathering place that connects surrounding neighbourhoods and encourages alternative transportation within the community. The Mattick’s Farm development in Saanich, BC is a good example of a development that successfully integrates both of these functions into a similar landscape context as that existing around the Longlands site.

The Longlands open space plan is the product of a strategic characterization of the site’s and surrounding areas’ natural systems, ecological habitats, viewscapes, and socially significant areas – as well as an evaluation of opportunities to improve landscape function and integrate natural systems with recreational amenities and service infrastructure elements. Island Coastal Ventures has designed Longlands to service the social, aesthetic, and recreational needs of many different types of resident and non-resident users. The development will host a wide variety of community amenities designed to retain and enhance the site’s “woodsy” charm, “fun-for-all-ages” atmosphere, and strong sense of place, including:

• Large, connected forest bands around the site’s built areas;
• Welcoming gathering places and event-friendly areas (specifically programmed to host activities of different scales) between and adjacent to the site’s new structures;
• High-quality educational / interpretative opportunities;
• A sustainability-oriented golfing experience;
• Interesting nature trail networks within the site’s wildlands that will be accessible to people with a wide range of mobilities; and
• Easy public access to and from those portions of the site that will be dedicated as municipal parkland through easements or common right-of-ways.

Numerous landscape innovation and sustainability concepts will be incorporated into Longlands’ open space plan, which may include:

• Use of harvested rainwater from building rooftops to irrigate community gardens and open spaces adjacent to new buildings and create vibrant, dynamic landscape features;
• Use of treated effluent from the development’s wastewater management plant to eliminate the use of potable water for landscape and golf course irrigation, augment summer low flows currently being experienced by virtually all of the site’s aquatic ecosystems, and create / maintain new water-based features and amenities;
• Innovative management and use of stormwater runoff from all storm intensities and durations using living, landscape-based Best Management Practice (BMP) elements to best approximate pre-development hydrological conditions and create new aquatic amenities;
• Systematic removal of invasive vegetation species throughout the site to promote the re-establishment of native plant species and communities;
• Restorative and new plantings of native, drought-tolerant plants adapted to the site’s dry summer conditions within the golf course and newly-created open areas to help with water conservation, enhance biodiversity, and reduce pesticide use;
• Strategic use of vegetation or vegetated structures around buildings to reduce indoor energy consumption, provide shade to reduce urban heat island effects, and cover traditionally non-vegetated surfaces such as walkways, roofs, or parking lots;
• Strategic cultivation of vegetative buffers and the integration of landscape trees, features and plazas with the building program to screen the development from its surrounding neighbours and provide aesthetically-pleasing views to and from the site; and
• Education and engagement of residents and visitors on the merits of a well-designed open space system through interpretative and interactive elements. The site will function as a “living classroom” for people to learn about how rainwater, wastewater, buildings, roads, and trails can function within an integrated landscape, and how sensitive ecosystems can co-exist in harmony with low-impact infrastructure elements.