Towns and cities scattered around the globe are quietly joining a transformative grassroots movement called Transition Towns. Threatened by climate change and an unsustainable dependence on finite fossil fuels, these towns search for a new, holistic way to operate. They realize that an external transition must be matched with an internal transition that reunites the community with itself and with nature.

UTOWN@UBC, GROWING A COMPLETE COMMUNITY

UTown@UBC is a vital example of a town in transition. Our transformation involves an external transfomation of dramatic growth and development, and an internal transformation of renewed connections within our campus. As we adapt to change and the sustainability challenges of our time, we become a vibrant, resilient, complete community.

From Commuter Campus to a Live, Work, and Learn Community

UBC began over 100 years ago as a collection of people united by a common desire to build a community of higher learning. Over time, that small community grew into a population of approximately 50,000 people, most of them coming and going to campus by car every day.

By the late 1990s, the University was internationally recognized as a leading educational institution and research centre. It had also grown into a large, sprawling commuter campus, complete with the growing pains of modern urban life–disconnection, loss of community and a significant commuter-generated carbon footprint. At the same time, enrollment continued to grow, and with it, the need to attract and retain top-quality educators and researchers. Increased and improved campus housing options became essential to the University’s continued success.

Setting the Stage

UBC embarked on an enormous planning exercise that would set the stage for a dramatic transformation from a commuter campus to one where people live, work and learn in harmony with the environment. The revitalized UBC would be a diverse and stimulating place, where the 1,000 acres owned by UBC would be planned, developed and administered as an integrated and complete community.

The Official Community Plan (OCP) in 1997 came first, to guide the transformation. It was developed with involvement from the UBC community, Metro Vancouver, interest groups on and off campus, and the public. The Comprehensive Community Plan (CCP) was the next step. Completed in 2000, the CCP interprets the policies and objectives of the OCP, and together with individual neighbourhood plans, serves as a framework for development approval processes.

Neighbourhoods Blossom

UBC had experience in residential development on campus. Completed in 1989, Hampton Place, was the first major family housing neighbourhood constructed at UBC and pre-dated UBC’s Official Community Plan.

Four new neighbourhoods sprouted over the next decade as a result of the community planning process, as part of a development called UTown@UBC. Hawthorn Place, a compact neighbourhood in the mid-campus area, was completed in 2007. Construction is still underway at Chancellor Place, a partnership with four theological colleges, and at East Campus and Wesbrook Place, three projects in the south campus area. Each community has an individual neighbourhood plan that was informed by community consultation and lessons learned from previous developments, and that honours the natural landscape and environment that define the campus.

In addition to providing affordable rental housing for students and faculty in the residential communities, the University plans to build new student residences, to enable up to 50 per cent of students to live on campus. These residences will accommodate the changing needs of UBC’s evolving student population, and provide the largest supply of on-campus child care services in North America.

Grassroots Facilitation through civic administration

The University Neighbourhood Association (UNA) provides municipal services and helps to create a vibrant, engaging, and sustainable community atmosphere for the people who live in UTown@UBC neighbourhoods. As both a civic administrator and a grassroots community facilitator, the UNA plays a unique role in fostering a mutually-beneficial relationship between the communities and the university. 

When all the development projects are completed, the combined community of neighbourhoods will comprise a village of about 15,000 people. Normally, a community of this size could not support the amenities necessary to provide a rich cultural and recreational experience for residents. Through formal and informal relationships with various areas of the University, the UNA provides residents with outstanding amenities. These include special agreements with the UBC Botanical Gardens and Aquatic Centre, access to turf and grass fields, and teen-oriented physics lectures on Saturdays at neighbouring TRIUMF, one of the world’s leading subatomic physics laboratories. Greenways allow residents to walk or cycle to a local restaurant before visiting the Museum of Anthropology or attending a performance at the Chan Centre or the Frederick Wood Theatre.

REAP for Smart Growth

Since 2004, over 2 million square feet of family housing has been built on campus. Construction on such a large scale provides an opportunity to develop progressive ways to manage waste, energy, water and other ecological factors.

When UBC first began to build these projects, no comparable rating systems existed, especially for its four-storey wood frame structures. So the University established its own rating system, the Residential Environmental Assessment Program (REAP), to steward development in the UTown@UBC neighborhoods.

REAP encourages construction of higher-quality family housing projects than those built using standard industry practices. It is similar to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED ®) rating system, and the Built Green residential building rating system, but reflects UBC’s hands-on commitment to sustainability more effectively. By using our own rating system, UBC encourages developers to earn more mandatory credits than would otherwise be required by LEED or Built Green.

REAP also enables UBC to change requirements as needed, to ensure that construction continues to address the most pressing environmental concerns as they emerge.
Smart Growth principles, consistent with LEED Neighbourhood Development standards, are embraced in all the UTown@UBC neighbourhood plans. These include well-planned compact developments, preservation of green space, alternative transportation options and a variety of housing types mixed with retail, business and recreational opportunities.

Cut Cars, Cut Carbon

Smart Growth principles also support the concerted campus effort to reduce the number of cars that travel to and from campus every day.
New cycling routes, pedestrian walkways, greenways and a campus shuttle service encourage more sustainable transportation choices. New construction excludes or limits parking and designates spaces for co-operative car sharing. Since 1997, one third of the commuter parking stalls available on campus have been eliminated.
Students are also encouraged to leave cars at home through the U-Pass program, an integrated, comprehensive transportation package that provides students with universal, accessible, and affordable access to public transit and other sustainable transportation programs.

PERPETUAL SUPPORT FOR HIGHER LEARNING

Where there is development, there are jobs and people at work. The community transformation at UBC has not only created construction jobs, but it has also generated new businesses and associated employment. It contributes intellectual, cultural and recreational stimulation to the region, and attracts investment and talented people.
Once they arrive, people won’t stay without affordable housing. All family housing development initiatives focus on multi-family homes, so that more students, faculty and staff can live on the UBC campus.

The innovative Co-development Model is one way for faculty and staff to own their homes in Vancouver’s high-priced real estate market. UBC Properties Trust brings like-minded University affiliated individuals together, then acts as their project manager to guide design, construction and completion. The projects use the co-developers' equity to fund the required working capital, and avoid the developer's profit, sales and marketing commissions. As a result, co-developers can achieve savings of up to 20 per cent of the appraised value of a home.

A pivotal decision made by UBC in the early neighbourhood planning process was to not sell the residential land and lease it for 99 years instead, so that it generates perpetual support for students, teachers and researchers.

Thanks to that decision, the UTown@UBC development not only revitalizes the University community, but it also provides critical financial support. To date, the UTown@UBC residential development has contributed $282 million towards UBC’s Endowment Fund—or 28 per cent of its total value. The Endowment Fund creates and sustains a margin of excellence that allows UBC to introduce exciting new programs, provide scholarships and bursaries to outstanding students and support researchers whose discoveries will change our lives.

Just as scholars at UBC will continue to push the boundaries of thought and understanding in the quest for discovery, so will the transformation at UBC continue to foster a dynamic community where people can live, work and learn in harmony with nature.