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by Susan Dugan
When James VanHemert rode a bicycle from his home in British Columbia to Halifax, Nova Scotia, after graduating from high school in 1978 he had no idea the coast-to-coast journey would help shape his future career. “That trip had a really profound impact on my life and affected me in ways you simply don’t expect when you’re a young kid.”
JAMES VANHEMERT sees dealing with severe limitations on water and expensive fossil fuel as Denver’s greatest challenges for the future.
The experience helped him recognize bicycles as effective
transportation tools, a realization that later inspired a thesis at the
University of Waterloo in Ontario. He also credits the excursion with
reinforcing an interest in land preservation and enlightened
development.
“I was growing up in an area that was rapidly
urbanizing, and the government created the Agricultural Land Reserve
which had a profound impact in the greater Vancouver region. One of the
reasons Vancouver is now receiving so much attention is that higher
density has been forced upon it because of restrictions on how far
development can go.”
The former executive director of the
Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute and sustainability advocate at the
University of Denver recently returned to his roots in the Cowichan
Valley on Vancouver Island where he and his wife plan to launch their
own organic farm. He also has assumed the position of planning director
for Duncan, a city of 5,000. “It’s just a wonderful, walkable city, and a
very urban environment surrounded by this verdant, lush, highly
productive agricultural landscape.”
VanHemert landed his first
urban planning stint with a Toronto consulting firm right out of
college. He later spent five years doing community development work in
the Philippines, followed by two years as planning director for South
Haven, Miss. “When you talk about planning in Mississippi it’s almost
like talking about communism,” he says, laughing. “But we’d gotten good
at culture shock in the Philippines and here was more. I still have some
very good friends there.”
He and his wife relocated to
Colorado 14 years ago, and VanHemert became chief planner for Douglas
County. “I managed the current residential development review and will
never forget one of the first weeks I was there, a subdivision
application came in for one of the Highlands Ranch development proposals
– a thousand lots in one preliminary plan. I’d never seen
anything like it.”
He played a major role in developing the
Highlands Ranch town center, in re-crafting land use policies, and in
zoning. “Plus, there’s the open space conservation area. Most people
don’t realize Highlands Ranch has an enormous wildlife reserve. I really
loved the combination of rural and urban in the projects I worked on in
Douglas County. The wildlife reserve satisfied the environmental, and
the town center’s urbanity was so different from the rest of Highlands
Ranch – so roundly criticized for its auto-centric quality.”
At the request of nationally respected land use attorney Chris
Duerksen, VanHemert co-authored the book, True West: Authentic
Development Patterns for Small Towns and Rural Areas, published in 2003.
“Chris sits on the board and is one of the founders of the Rocky
Mountain Land Use Institute. I was invited to apply for the job of
director and was eventually offered the position. It was a wonderful
opportunity to step inside academia without having to get a Ph.D. And I
could even walk to work from my home on Harvard Gulch.”
VanHemert set about making the job his own, and eventually went on to
teach an upper level law class on urban planning, growth and
sustainability, an experience he recalls as “a wee bit intimidating.” In
addition to fundraising he worked on creating the sustainable community
development code. “It’s an innovative and very comprehensive approach
to zoning. It’s not so much a model code as a framework for thinking
about the kinds of issues that should be addressed in a zoning code.
Everything from urban agriculture to affordable housing to climate
change. We put together a web-based matrix of bronze, silver and gold
achievements so people could see that, if I do this, that’s pretty good;
or I could take it to the next, more powerful level.”
He was
also responsible for an annual conference that drew land use attorneys
from throughout the Rocky Mountain region as well as 25 other states.
“It really is the premier land use law conference in the country. It’s
become something that’s also highly valued by the law school. I made it a
big point to develop a good relationship with the dean and other
professors so that they recognized us as something important – you know;
we’re not just taking up real estate here. The law school really has
started using it as a drawing card and some students will even say
that’s why they came.”
Over his five-year tenure VanHemert
noticed a distinct shift in the perception of sustainability issues.
“Within the professions of law and urban planning in particular and even
those involved in the building professions, sustainability has not only
become a household word but increasingly just the way we do business.
My favorite example is the city of Aurora, for a long time the
unappreciated stepchild to Denver. That’s where all the affordable
housing is; they’re sprawled over the landscape and there’s been a lot
of criticism over the years. But Aurora has put a lot of resources into a
sustainability plan. The consciousness from political leaders down
through department heads is really quite astounding and that impresses
me more than Boulder – where of course they do those kinds of things.”
VanHemert remains critical of Denver’s new zoning code. “I think they
missed the mark on a lot of key sustainability issues. There’s too much
down-zoning and a lack of political will. But in many ways the new code
is going to achieve a lot. There are some clear areas identified for
high density use, for example, which is at the top of my list. But
they’ve fallen down around things like solar access. And I think they’re
doing many neighborhoods a disfavor by putting a zoning palette on
that’s very monochromatic and just too suburban. Painting these areas
with a broad brush is just not the way cities have organically
developed.”
He credits personal reasons as well as
environmental concerns for his decision to leave Denver. “My wife and I
have always had a back-to-the-land ethic. I have a lot of family in
British Columbia and both of our sons are now living in Vancouver. But
we’re also concerned about the long-term prospects for healthy
sustainable living in an arid western environment.”
The
Cowichan Valley, on the other hand, is ideal for growing year-round
produce. “The name is an anglicized version of a first nation term for
‘warm land.’ This is one of the warmest places in Canada and we hope to
be growing all of our own food and raising bees and chickens within a
few years.”
And what about the long-term prospects for those
of us here in Denver? “The challenge is how much population can be
sustained with severe limitations on
water and the support
services for that water which require a lot of cheap fossil fuel.
And climate change is real and happening. In the west, snow will melt
earlier so you will capture less water. On the other hand Denver is
probably one of those cities that could be OK. There is actually a very
strong culture in Denver that could make the transition to wind and
solar power, but nobody knows how painful it’s going to be or how many
jobs are going to be lost or how many homes foreclosed on.”
In
the end, VanHemert and his wife regard their decision to leave a city
they loved as a positive change rather than a fearful reaction. “If
nothing bad ever did happen and we did manage to weather the dramatic
change in our energy, this would still have been our decision.”
And they hope to keep in touch with friends in Denver and eventually
host many visitors. “The house we’re buying is pretty simple but we want
to build a suite for rental, and maybe even some version of a bed and
breakfast someday. A place where people can come and stay awhile and
share our vision of providing hospitality and refuge for family and
friends.”
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