Pursuing a green economy: Institutional policy narratives and Vancouver's urban industry in the False Creek Flats

Abstract

Since the most recent 2022 IPCC World Climate report it is evident that meeting the goals set in the 2017 Paris Agreement requires quick and comprehensive action (Gao et al. 2017: 1; IPCC 2022: 7; UN News 2022). Building a green economy in this context can serve as a more sustainable approach to achieve economic growth within the constraints of urban areas (UNEP 2011: 7; Bathen et al. 2019: 15). The case study of Vancouver with its growing green economy presents a promising avenue toward this aim (VEC 2018a: 1–7). Beginning with the 1990s the regions expected growth and geography encourages the continuation of the 1975 introduced concept of transit-oriented planning (Metro Vancouver 1994: 9–16). Considering these regional considerations, the City of Vancouver begins to reframe the role of industrial land as crucial to house to city-serving, port related and clean industry (City of Vancouver 1991: 16–17). This policy direction for industrial land can be observed in the False Creek Flats industrial area where a new high-tech sector is meant to coexist with city-serving light industrial uses to meet the needs of the Downtown core (City of Vancouver 2001: 3–7). By the mid-2000s the region and city then extended their efforts around the problem setting of climate change in order to maintain the quality of life in the area long term through a policy direction pursuing sustainability through different avenues (Metro Vancouver 2010d: 9–13). In the following years the next step in this direction was laid in extending the concept to the local economy culminating in the 2012 Greenest City Action Plan (City of Vancouver 2012a: 10–15). The industrial and service-oriented businesses in the False Creek Flats area showed continuous growth throughout this shift despite several smaller rezonings favoring non-industrial uses (see Chapter 4.4). However, at this point it has also become evident that the demand for industrial land and industrial space is bound to outgrow the regional supply (City of Vancouver 2012a: 59–69). With expansion into the periphery off the table new multi-level industrial structures around transit nodes are now offering a promising new perspective for urban industrial land (Metro Vancouver 2011b: 13–21, 2014: 4–8). With the Covid-19 pandemic taking hold in early 2020 the wide range of employment opportunities provided within the False Creek Flats are in addition increasingly seen as a means to pursue policy direction focused on inclusive growth in response to the effects of the pandemic (Canadian Inclusive Economy Initiative 2021: 1; VEC 2021b: 1). To realize this new direction the issues with the intensification and densification of industrial land such as use compatibility and the economic viability of multi-level industrial structures need to be solved quickly (see Chapter 4.5). In this regard the False Creek Flats are already showcasing its potential as a proving ground and beacon for a policy driven urban transformation to address a steadily growing list of outstanding issues (Canadian Inclusive Economy Initiative 2021: 1).