How pretty, spongy public gardens make way for more housing | CBC News

CBC - 17/04
In this week's issue of our environmental newsletter, we see how well-engineered public gardens can solve problems that get in the way of building housing, get a view of China's Great Solar Wall from space, and find out why rural communities are banding together to build EV charging networks.

Hello, Earthlings! This is our weekly newsletter on all things environmental, where we highlight trends and solutions that are moving us to a more sustainable world. Keep up with the latest news on our Climate and Environment page.

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This week:

  • How pretty, spongy public gardens make way for more housing
  • The Big Picture: The Big Picture: China's Great Solar Wall
  • Rural communities want the benefits of EVs, so they're making their own charging networks

How pretty, spongy public gardens make way for more housing

Flowers bloom in a bioswale at Woodland Drive and 2nd Avenue East in Vancouver. (City of Vancouver)

Not long ago, Robb Lukes, who works for the City of Vancouver, heard from a local resident concerned about a $6.2-million streetside garden featuring beautiful flowers such as beardtongue, western columbine, wood sorrel and tiger lilies.

"We have a housing crisis," Lukes said the resident told him, asking, "Why is the city spending money on what appeared to them to be this aesthetic project?"

Lukes is the associate director of the city's Green Infrastructure Implementation Branch. He explained to the resident that the garden, which runs alongside the road on four blocks and may be expanded to nine, would actually facilitate the construction of new housing.

That's because the garden, the St. George Rainway, is designed to capture and filter contaminants from 17,000 cubic metres of rainwater per year –  enough to fill 113,000 bathtubs – that could otherwise overload the city's sewers.

The project is expected to preserve sewer capacity for new homes and stop pollutants from roads and even sewage from getting washed directly into waterways, protecting species such as salmon.

After listening to the explanation, Lukes recalled, "the person did a complete 180, and was in love with the project."

An aerial photo shows the St. George Rainway, which will run along four blocks when it's completed later in 2...
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