Site Adaptive Planning

Site Adaptive Planning and Design is a straight-forward planning principle that facilitates a ‘Design with Nature’ approach to development. Design with Nature was a seminal book authored by the late Ian McHarg in the 1960s. McHarg’s book deals with the importance of recognizing site, analyzing natural processes, and respecting the inherent qualities that make places special, while trying to integrate development that does not deteriorate or interrupt these values. Site Adaptive Planning has been developed, largely by William Marsh, Professor Emeritus from the University of Michigan (now a Comox Valley Resident and Professor of Landscape Architecture at UBC), as a process that has the ‘Design with Nature’ tenets at its core.

In order for Site Adaptive Planning and design to be successful, a thorough understanding of a given site and its context is necessary. Longlands engaged a diverse team of consultants to undertake the following studies and initiatives to provide background for the Site Adaptive Planning and Design process:

• Land Capability Assessment
• Environmental Baseline Inventory
• Urban Forestry Analysis
• Geotechnical Analysis
• Contaminated Sites Review
• Public Consultation
• Regional Planning Strategies Review
• Municipal Planning Bylaw Review

All of these reports and initiatives were instrumental in guiding the Site Adaptive Planning and Design process at Longlands, and helped in the development of the Framework Plan.  The key deliverable or product of the Site Adaptive Planning and Design process that has evolved from over a year of working with and studying the Longlands site is the ’Framework Plan’.  The Framework Plan helps to bridge site analysis with site design.

The Framework Plan is a generalized site layout scheme that attempts to synthesize opportunities and constraints on a proposed development property learned through rigorous site analysis work. The Framework Plan typically shows a balance between developable areas and open space areas. It is not intended as a final layout of a development scheme, but rather, a critical intermediate step that links site analysis (science-based site inventory work) with site planning and design. The Framework Plan is a ‘first approximation’ of how building zones, circulation, infrastructure elements and open space can be arranged on a site to best respect key site opportunities and constraints. It serves as both a bridging tool and a reference point that can be used as development planning and design progresses to test development concepts.

The final Framework Plan for the Longlands project illustrates a successful balance between development and natural feature preservation, respect of community amenities and consideration of neighbourhood concerns. This balance has been carefully orchestrated by respecting constraints discovered through site analysis, and through capitalizing on site opportunities. The following key drivers or major influencing factors and decisions have shaped the Framework Plan:

• Retain the golf course as a community amenity and a development anchor;
• Retain 100% of designated wetlands;
• Retain as much high value second growth forest as possible;
• Arrange the development so as to maximize the amount of building edge that backs onto green space;
• Minimize traffic impacts to neighbouring properties by providing a single dedicated access to the site;
• Provide generous buffers around property margins to mitigate potential neighbour impacts; and,
• Allow space in strategic areas for stormwater management and potential discharge of reclaimed water (mitigate impacts on site where possible).

Although we believe the balance achieved in the Framework Plan can be successful from an economic and development perspective, it will require support at the political level. This is so since respecting site constraints means that there is less land to build on and alternative forms of development must be pursued that have a smaller footprint on the land and still generate necessary economic returns, presumably through higher development densities.  Likewise, it is recognized that the balance achieved in the Framework Plan will only be fully realized if alternative infrastructure design and more site-adaptive approaches to dealing with waste and energy are pursued.

The Framework Plan effectively sets the stage for a project that is truly designed with nature and that contributes in a positive way to the function of the Brooklyn Creek Watershed and the surrounding landscape. It sets the stage for a project that also becomes a key asset for the surrounding community by retaining and enhancing the inherent character of the Longlands site that already makes it a special place to be.