Low Carbon Cities

Planning for climate change

NRU
Oct. 12, 2016
By Leah Wong

Recognizing the need to reduce the carbon footprint of cities, municipal leaders across North America are considering the role of land use planning in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Last week at the CityAge conference municipal leaders discussed municipal efforts to reduce emissions and what needs to happen for cities to become low-carbon places.

Hamilton mayor Fred Eisenberger told conference participants that while the city has seen a reduction in emissions following the decline of the steel industry, it will need to take action at a community level to further reduce its carbon footprint. One of the challenges Hamilton is facing is getting residents and council to look past the initial financial costs of taking action on climate change.

“We’re very much in the formative stages politically in terms of wrapping people’s heads around what it means to take action on climate change,” said Eisenberger. He added that the spin-off health and economic benefits should also be discussed when considering investments targeted at reducing emissions.

The other challenge facing municipal leaders is intensification. Residents say they are supportive of intensification, but they want it to happen away from where they live. This is related to the misconception that intensification means 20-to-30-storey skyscrapers, explained Eisenberger.

“Actually the most efficient kind of intensification is ... about seven to eight storeys, in terms of building design ... That seems to be the optimal size of buildings in terms of the energy or carbon footprint,” said Eisenberger. “The challenge for us is to look at interesting and more strategic ways of introducing density - beyond the skyscraper and beyond tall buildings.”

Across the border, the City of Carmel, Indiana, has prioritized creating a mid-rise urban centre as part of its commitment to reducing its carbon footprint. Carmel mayor James Brainard told conference participants that his city is creating a walkable downtown in a post-war car-centric suburb. He noted that until a shift in thinking about development occurred the city didn’t really have a downtown.

“We’re one of the few suburbs in the United States that has a dense, walkable 20-to-30-block downtown area where you can live without really needing a car,” said Brainard. Carmel has added density to its area without building skyscrapers.

Instead the city’s downtown comprises fi ve-to-eight-storey buildings with underground parking.
Though the city did not experience resistance from the development community around its decision to build a dense downtown, Brainard said it did require developers to change how their approach to projects.

“It’s easy to go out into greenfield, buy some hectares [of land] from the farmer, put up a strip centre in front and a bunch of houses and cul-de-sacs behind. Th at’s very easy. It’s a model we’ve done ... for years,” said Brainard. “Mixed use is more of a challenge.”