Vancouverism

in the lower foreground and the North Shore Mountains in the upper background. Vancouverism developed in part as a product of Vancouver's geographical context. Wedged between the Strait of Georgia, the North Shore mountains, and the border with the United States, the Metro Vancouver Regional District partnered with the Fraser Valley municipalities to encourage controlled development. ==Aesthetics==

, Washington, showing an open view of the Cascade mountain range. One principle aesthetic of Vancouverism, as evidensed by planning policy, involves protecting view corridors. In response, the Vancouver City Council commissioned a study of its skyline in 1997, concluding that Vancouver's skyline would benefit from the addition of a handful of taller buildings through their additional visual interest. Modern, residential high-rises are another aesthetic of Vancouverism, often featuring large glass features, hundreds of stacked decks, and green roofs. Furthermore, green spaces are widely integrated into a city in Vancouverism, and public spaces are often designed to maximise their space as well. == Densification and walkability ==

in the urban centre of Hallifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.|left Due to the mixed-use nature of Vancouverism, the philosophy inherently hinges on, and contributes to, the walkability of its city. The greater density of residents and commercial destinations results in generally closer destinations, as well as higher volumes of pedestrian traffic within the area. ==Planning process==

One of the circumstances that allows the development of Vancouverism is more discretionary planning processes by the city. For instance, the planning process of Vancouver is based on collaboration by aligning the development goals of the city prior to determining the particular actions for individual drivers. Following the extended public outcry over a freeway and development program known as Project 200, Vancouver voted the centrist political party The Electors' Action Movement (TEAM) into the Vancouver city council, which ran on a platform of implementing more stringent design criteria and oversight to city developments. As well as favouring the urban form found along South False Creek, TEAM implemented significant reforms to the planning process. Discretionary planning allows the automatic approval of small developments that conform to the existing building codes. Larger projects are subject to the design review of the planning department, which is empowered to make decisions that will force developments to conform to certain design guidelines. ==Sustainable development==

A key component of Vancouverism is the sustainable development of projects and expansion of city infrastructure. It requires the consideration of both the existing population and expected future generations, ensuring that the project is capable of addressing current housing and commerical needs by residents and visitors while also meeting potential changes from a growing population in the future. However, it must also not exceed the current needs too much, lest the project may risk issues with public perception of economically-wasteful projects. There must also be limits in how much projects can sprawl, as maintaining close proximity to basic necessities is key in Vancouverism and sustainable developments as a whole. == Views on Vancouverism ==

Views on Vancouverism are varied; proponents of the concept argue for its potential to expand and grow cities, revitalizing urban cores in car-centric regions, and a lack of public engagement and negotiation in the planning process. Proponents residential building in a residential area of Belfast, Northern Ireland.|185x185px Urban planners have expressed extensive praise for the philosophy of Vancouverism as a form of revitalizing stagnating or declining cities; as a result of the rapid expansion of infrastructure within the city and the addition of available housing into and around the city centre and surrounding areas, the housing market can be developed into a more affordable, accessible environment, thereby helping to address the housing crisis faced by many cities. A developer can exceed the outright potential by negotiating with the Planning Department over the limitations on categories that have been identified in the various planning controls at the discretion of the Director of Planning. Regardless of how the project is approached, many opponents have expressed concerns over the philosophy and strategy of Vancouverism as a whole. Projects may have an absence of up-front quantifiable values for height, floor area, use and setbacks in discretionary planning make it difficult for planners, developers, architects, residents or any others to predict or forecast accurately what can be built on any site in the city or what the development costs will be. The negotiations between planners and developers involve large amounts of money and affect the public, Arriving at a negotiated agreement for the development of a site – usually performed as a custom rezoning arrangement called "spot rezoning", especially for a large site – produces a significant amount of work for the developer, designer and planner; The amount of money involved in real estate development, together with the discretionary power of planning officials and lack of transparency in negotiations, also combine to create a system of development approval that can be highly prone to corruption and likely to involve dark or laundered money. ==See also==