Greenways Vision for Salt Spring Island

What are Greenways?

Greenways are sustainable transportation corridors for shared use by cyclists, walkers and where practical horse riders. They also include wildlife corridors with and without public access, on both private and public land.

All over North America and Europe, communities are planning, creating and preserving greenways for the many benefits they bring, including safe trails for pedestrians and cyclists, increased property values, enhanced tourism, improved population health, allowing environmentally-friendly transportation alternatives, preserving historic sites, and creating safe passage for wildlife. Parents and students are advocating for – and building – safe walking and cycling routes to schools. In the realm of public health there is increasing recognition that when people can walk and bike safely, separated from cars, the health of communities improves. Environmentalists know that greenways not only reduce car use; they also provide essential wildlife corridors that link ecosystems and enhance biodiversity. Developers are incorporating greenways into subdivision plans, because research proves that access to greenways enhances property values.

Creating Greenways

Communities and local governments are using a toolbox of techniques to create greenways, including mapping, park dedications within subdivisions, brownfield development (on old industrial sites), acquiring easements with “revolving funds” (used to purchase key properties, register easements, and then sell), trading covenants for tax relief, density transfers, and working with farmers, B.C. Hydro, and the Ministry of Transportation and Highways (among others) to create linked greenways within and between communities. The Capital Regional District (CRD) has been a leader in developing greenways in the Victoria area. On Salt Spring Island, however, we remain without a network of significant greenways.

Roads and Trails: A Complementary Vision

Imagine an island where every resident can safely walk, cycle or propel their wheelchair to their local grocery or their favorite wilderness trail on a vast, interconnected network of roads and trails. This network would include safe, dedicated paths built along existing roads, and linked off-road greenways that are completely removed from cars.

Roads are public space. Currently, this public space – the connective tissue of our world – is dreary and dangerous. Roads can be reconceived and reconfigured to accommodate people and nature as well as cars.

Options for Creating Salt Spring Island Greenways

Many creative options exist for acquiring and preserving greenways. Some options that may be particularly relevant to Salt Spring Island are:

• Working with local government to envision and create greenways.

The CRD regional growth strategy sets out a 25-year vision for the region with policies to expand and connect the green infrastructure. Salt Spring Island was not included in the maps and policy development. With the help of the CRD and with reference to its pioneering policies and processes, we can work to identify Salt Spring Island Green/Blue spaces and set out policies to link, preserve and enhance them.

The Islands Trust was established in the 1970’s with the goal of preserving and protecting the fragile natural environment of the Gulf Islands. Planning policies, bylaws and Official Community Plans can be updated to create conditions that will link, preserve and enhance greenways, as well as stop suburban sprawl, support lively villages, and maintain a working land base. Greenways can become a priority in the subdivision planning and approval process. (See http://www.wcel.org/issues/urban/sbg/)

• Working with BC Hydro and private property owners to create linear parks on BC Hydro easements.

The BC Hydro powerline on Salt Spring Island is now a health hazard and an eyesore that devalues surrounding properties. Yet it also functions as a wildlife corridor linking mountain lake, wetlands, streams and sea on Salt Spring’s east and western shores. This powerline could be reconceived as a naturescaped greenway, bringing multiple benefits to the community, the corporation, and adjacent property owners.

In addition, many wonderful greenways now exist on BC Hydro access roads over private property. Sometimes property owners allow neighbors access to these trails, but liability issues encumber them. PARC could take over these easements and indemnify private owners willing to allow access. Owners could be compensated through the Islands Trust “Natural Area Protection Tax Exemption Program.”

• Working with the Farmers’ Institute, local landowners, the ALR and Agriculture Canada to create greenways on farmland.

Salt Spring Island farms are crucial to the island’s beauty and natural values. But escalating land values pressure island farmers. Without urgent attention we will witness dramatic changes in the rural landscape. A Salt Spring Island program acknowledging the environmental and social benefits of farms in our community could link the preservation and development of ecological corridors and public trails with financial help for farmers.

• Using infrastructure projects as opportunities to create new parks.

Roads, sewers, landfills, buildings (especially public buildings like the pool, the sewer, the library, the hospital) are opportunities to create new parks and greenways.

• Working with private landowners, individual citizens, schools and neighborhoods

Salt Spring Island communities have built safe paths for children to walk to schools. Neighborhoods have created shared trails across private lands. Individual citizens have built along-the-road trails to allow safe walking. A Salt Spring Island greenways initiative could coordinate, map, assist and protect these efforts.

• Using density transfers to create parks and greenways.

On Gabriola Island a recent density transfer has resulted in the dedication of a 707-acre park with heritage trails for public use. On Salt Spring Island controversial density transfers have benefited private landowners without resulting in the acquisition of any public lands.

• Working with local artists to map and envision greenways.

Salt Spring Island has many creative thinkers and artists who could help to create a greenways vision to inspire the community.

Money for Land Acquisition and Trail Development

The Canada-BC Infrastructure Program has funded Greenway Development:

http://www.cse.gov.bc.ca/ProgramsAndServices/Canada-BCInfrastructureProgram/guide/default.htm

Federal Gas Tax funding - worth $5 billion over the next five years - will support environmentally sustainable infrastructure: http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/faq/ndcc_e.shtml#2g

A “Revolving Fund” could use a combination of private and public funds to acquire key properties. Once easements and covenants are applied to create greenways, the property can be sold (often for more money, as access to greenways enhances property values). Experience with community fundraising on Salt Spring Island shows that people will support projects that provide a significant environmental and social benefit and capture the imagination of the community.

The new Islands Trust “Natural Area Protection Tax Exemption Program” is a significant tool that could assist with the development of linked greenways.

Next Steps

Greenways start with a vision, and to create that vision we need a process of meaningful community involvement.

Smart Growth BC could help us host a “charette” during which a plan for Salt Spring Island Greenways could be created by participants.

PARC could host “Idea Fairs” during which the community would be invited to put their ideas, visions, neighborhood paths, cherished green spaces, and heritage trails on a large-scale map of Salt Spring Island. Local First Nations, the Salt Spring Island Conservancy, the Trail and Nature Club, the Waterbird Watch Collective, Islanders for Justice and Reconciliation, and other community groups and individuals could be asked for input to the visioning process. This data could be compared and collated with information on sensitive ecosystems, habitat and heritage features already mapped by various agencies to create a vision of linked greenways on a document that would serve to aid community discussion and planning as well as guide deliberations at PARC, CRD, and the Islands Trust.

The power of a vision is incalculable, as the history of the greenways movement vividly attests.