Last
week, approximately 200 British Columbia planners gathered in Seattle’s
beautiful Washington State Convention Centre. They were attending the Annual
Conference of the Planning Institute of British Columbia (PIBC) that was
appropriately titled “Beyond Borders.”
They were
meeting in Seattle since the American Planning Association is holding its
national conference there this week, and organizers hoped some planners would
be able to attend both events.
I was
invited to participate in a panel discussion on Planners as Developers,
something I often advocate, since the skills planners learn at school and in
professional practice can make them creative and effective developers. While I
doubt whether I managed to convince many to leave their current positions, I
was told I did shed light on the oftentimes differing attitudes of planners and
developers, and the benefits of improved mutual understanding and respect.
The
conversations that took place in the sessions and in the corridors between
sessions will fill many future columns. I would like to start with the
“Untapped Power of the Street” and “Ethics and Professionalism in Planning.”
The
opening plenary session featured Janette Sadik-Khan, a former commissioner with
the New York City Department of Transportation and now a transportation
principal with Bloomberg Associates, a philanthropic consulting service for
city governments. She was instrumental in converting many downtown New York
streets from what SFU City Program Director Gordon Price calls “motordom” to a
new focus on pedestrians, cyclists and public transit. She noted
that at the turn of the last century, streets were extensions of sidewalks and
storefronts, but cars changed everything in the 1920s.
However,
anyone who has recently visited New York can attest to the dramatic shift that
has taken place as vehicle lanes have been converted back to bicycle lanes,
wider sidewalks and inviting public open spaces.
In
addition to making New York a much more delightful place to be in, pedestrian
and motorist injuries have dropped dramatically and the initiative has been
good for nearby businesses. It is ironic that many Vancouver businesses worry
the opposite will happen. A related
success is New York’s bike-share program, funded entirely without public
subsidy. Today the city has 7,000 bikes and hopes to have 25,000 in the future.
However, Sadik-Khan noted that of 35 successful bike-share programs in the
world, none have a mandatory bike helmet law. As long as Vancouver has this
law, we will never have a successful program.
As
Sadik-Khan showed pictures of wide, congested New York streets being converted
to beautiful landscaped boulevards full of cyclists, pedestrians and transit, I
could not help but think of Kingsway and so many other Vancouver streets that
need to be put on a diet.
The
plenary session was followed by a sobering session during which a panel of
senior planners and a municipal lawyer explored how best to balance planners’
ethical, professional and employment responsibilities to avert or resolve
potential conflicts. Attendees
were invited to anonymously submit questions and concerns. Many dealt
with the issue identified in my column last week, namely the desire by
municipal administrations and politicians to override good planning decisions
in order to maximize financial benefits or other community amenities.
Planners
in attendance complained that oftentimes they were requested by their
administrations or politicians to alter professional recommendations. While
they acknowledged this might be appropriate when there was additional
information unknown to them, too often the requests contravened what they
considered good planning.
The panel
cautioned attendees that if they did not comply with PIBC’s ethical code when
carrying out their professional responsibilities, they could be brought before
the institute’s disciplinary committee. Complaints could be instigated by
another member, a client, a neighbourhood group or the public, and the Planning
Institute itself. Attendees were cautioned not to sign-off on reports with
which they did not feel professionally comfortable.
Given the
increased incidence of planners feeling pressured to make inappropriate
decisions, it was concluded that it may be time for PIBC to establish an
advisory board comprised of senior professionals to which conflicted planners
could confidentially bring ethical and professional challenges. Hopefully
this will occur since it could result in better planning decisions around the
province, and especially in Vancouver.
- See
more at: http://www.vancourier.com/opinion/b-c-planners-look-to-the-street-for-guidance-1.1830165#sthash.7Yz2Arqy.dpuf
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