Introduction:
It is a great honour to be here speaking to you today about the Headwaters Project. First I would like to congratulate Surrey Council on the leadership you have shown in addressing problems ranging from air that is hazardous to our health to housing prices that are beyond the reach of our average families. You were the first city in British Columbia to require retention ponds for stream protection, the first city to systematically adjust street standards for reduced costs and for enhanced pedestrian and bicycle comfort as shown in the 1997 Surrey Local Road Standards Review. You were also the first BC municipality to propose a Small Lot Zoning bylaw. Surrey leads the region and even Canada and North America in these initiatives; and other communities, such as the City of Vancouver, the City of Burnaby, and the City of Coquitlam are following Surrey’s lead.

In December 1998, the City of Surrey Department of Planning and Development agreed to enter into partnership with our research group, a team of consultants, and a multi-constituent advisory committee (involving various levels of government) in order to produce a model capable of applying sustainable principles and alternative development standards “on the ground”. The model that developed is the East Clayton Neighbourhood Concept Plan (Figure 2). The basis for developing this model was a set of seven principles for creating sustainable communities that had emerged from previous joint projects between Surrey and the James Taylor Chair. The first of these joint efforts was the first James Taylor Chair Design Charrette for Sustainable Urban Landscapes, held in South Newton area of Surrey. The design brief for this was developed using existing local and regional policy directives for sustainable development, such as the Growth Strategies Act, the GVRD Livable Region Strategic Plan, and other local policies guiding more concentrated growth. Each of the charrette teams were required to accommodate a community of approximately 10,000 (similar to the projected population for East Clayton) in ways that provide a variety of housing, commercial and work places, while also preserving, or even enhancing, the sensitive stream systems that surround the South Newton area (Figure 3).

This project led to the 1998 Alternative Development Standards for Sustainable Communities workshop and publication, in which the James Taylor Chair undertook research to demonstrate the costs and benefits of alternative development standards, with a specific focus on green infrastructure. Among other things, this research demonstrated that incorporating stormwater management within the rights-of-ways of an interconnected street system could reduce infrastructure costs. It also demonstrated how alternative developments could result in an up to one-third reduction of infrastructure costs for a single-family home over the same unit in a conventional cul-de-sac development. In January 1999, Surrey City Council authorized planning staff to explore the application of seven principles that emerged from these projects as the basis for developing the Neighbourhood Concept Plan for the community of East Clayton. Together with City staff, the James Taylor Chair and Pacific Resources (guided by the Headwaters Advisory committtee), undertook an extensive democratic design process that produced the East Clayton Land-Use Plan and NCP (Figure 4). The Land-use plan was approved in November, 1999, and staff have been finalizing the NCP, which, we anticipate, will be presented to Council sometime in December. Even at this stage, there is remarkable interest in the Plan, both from within the region, and throughout North America.

Before speaking directly to the Plan and the seven principles, the following provides a brief summary of a few of the issues that precipitated this initiative.

Currently, Canada is not making its commitment under the Kyoto Convention to reduce greenhouse gases in order to improve air and water quality (Figure 5). As a partial consequence of the way we build our communities, people are being forced to drive more than they need to or even want to. As the graph shows, the closer we move to the target date, the bigger the gap becomes between the target and our actual performance. Land-use regulations and road engineering standards are often at fault, creating communities that separate homes from commercial centres and schools, fragmenting natural areas, and developing road infrastructure that favours the most efficient movement of the automobile at the expense of pedestrian movement.

The environmental impacts of such development include loss of fish habitat, dramatic reductions in water and air quality, and downstream flooding of precious agricultural lands, to name just a few. New research from the Center for Urban Water Resources Management at the University of Washington suggests that, when as little as 10 percent of the watershed is covered with roads and roofs (impervious surfaces), the fish decline. This is very bad news, because our research shows that even low-density suburban development has 40 percent to 50 percent impervious cover (Figure 6). By reducing the amount of pavement on road surfaces and yards, the impacts on streams and downstream agricultural lands can be dramatically reduced. In our region, the majority of rainfall comes from very small storms (less than 1” per storm, representing 54 percent of all yearly rainfall). In this scenario, natural infiltration becomes a very practical, realistic, and economic way of managing stormwater, as the majority of water that falls can actually be absorbed into the ground and returned to the aquifer and streams at rates that maintain their natural function (Figure 7).

Economically, the costs of conventional suburban development are becoming increasingly high, both to the municipality and to the region. This includes the alarming costs of flooding and erosion that have taken place in past years on the agricultural lowlands due to increasing urbanization of the uplands, and the replacement costs of infrastructure when engineered systems fail. Our studies show that per unit cost of alternative development (wherein for instance, streets use less pavement, and natural drainage systems are used) can be up to one-third cheaper than conventional development (Figure 8).

The East Clayton NCP:
The East Clayton NCP was initiated in response to many of these issues. The 250-hectare East Clayton site is located on the eastern border of Surrey. As the map shows, the site is situated upland of the region’s Agricultural Land Reserve and drains into three of the region’s most significant water bodies (the Serpentine, the Nicomekle, and the Fraser Rivers) (Figure 9). The NCP was conceived with this regional context in mind. This mixed-use plan supports enough of a variety of land uses and residential/community types to maximize affordability, sociability, and availability of commercial services within easy walking distance for the proposed population of approximately 13,000 persons (Figure 10). East Clayton has narrow streets; roadways throughout the site use one-third less blacktop than do status quo suburban sites. Stormwater management, consisting of yard, street, and larger open space infiltration devices, will eliminate nearly all downstream consequences of development. What is particularly unique about this project is that no other initiative either here or elsewhere has shown how a combination of efficiencies can dramatically decrease site infrastructure costs while also reducing dependence on the automobile. Due to the absence of examples that remotely comply with these policies, it was important that the seven principles provide a model that could be applied in other areas of Surrey and in other municipalities in the region. Thus, Surrey City Council endorsed the principles on January 25, 1999.