Official Community Plan

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MEETING OUR GOALS THROUGH THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

Nature is at the heart of meeting many of the aspirations in this OCP. In Courtenay’s future, nature-based solutions in the form of protecting, restoring, and managing natural and semi-natural ecosystems to slow and adapt to climate change are widely applied. Forested areas act as carbon sinks, riparian areas contribute to flood protection, and intact ecosystems offer “free” essential services such as water retention and infiltration, and air and water purification. Beyond a mere utility or service, however, urban research is showing that a relationship with nature is integral to human well-being. Therefore all neighbourhoods will have access to these places within easy walking distance of all residents. Core to Courtenay’s identity, nature also establishes sense of place by helping shape neighbourhood character and creating local destinations. Nature helps set Courtenay apart from other cities.

Courtenay’s efforts will be in good company. The United Nations has declared this decade to be one of Ecosystem Restoration with the goal of preventing, halting and reversing the degradation of ecosystems worldwide. 1 This global call to action includes a recognition that species extinction is occurring at a rate tens to hundreds of times greater than natural background rates of extinction over the past 10 million years, that this rate is accelerating, and that how urban areas develop is part of the problem, and the solution. Courtenay will contribute to this call to action by bringing the city back into balance with nature. This will include increasing green infrastructure , reclaiming and restoring natural areas and the ecological connections between them, designing development to better fit the land (site adaptive design), as well as intentional urban design attention to increase human connection to and encourage an ethic of care of the natural world.

1 https://www.decadeonrestoration.org

City of Courtenay Official Community Plan