Conversations That Matter: Metro's industrial lands crisis
Credit to Author: Massey Padgham| Date: Fri, 06 Dec 2019 15:00:04 +0000
Hemmed in by water, mountains, agricultural land, the border and the Port of Vancouver, industrial land in Metro Vancouver is being severely squeezed.
Virtually no one is paying attention because industrial employment land isn’t sexy, it doesn’t capture headlines or votes and its complicated. Metro is endeavouring to develop a plan but with 21 different city and municipal governments, all with different agendas, addressing the many issues collectively is next to impossible.
Without industrial lands that are available, affordable and adaptable to the changing needs of businesses of all sizes, consequences will be felt on the roads, in the community, in the environment and in the economy.
It is projected that within the next four to five years, Metro will simply run out of industrial land.
Eric Aderneck, an expert in industrial and employment land use, says that will come with big opportunity costs. “Businesses that may want to expand can’t, and so they leave, and larger international organizations that may want to come to Vancouver don’t because there isn’t available space.”
We invited Aderneck to join us for a Conversation That Matters about our need to think in innovative ways about the region’s industrial lands.
Conversations That Matter is a partner program for the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. The production of this program is made possible thanks to the support of the following and viewers like you. Please become a Patreon subscriber and support the production of this program, with a $1 pledge here goo.gl/ypXyDs