At the time of its development, one of the most exciting features of the plan was a framework for establishing development standards for new subdivisions. The Upper Sahali neighbourhood redesign study resulted in the creation of the "Sub-hub" concept. The sub-hub concentrated activity in a moderate density, mixed-use nodal area. It was a compromise strategy intended to gain some of the energy-efficiency and liveability advantages of an "urban village," while preserving the integrity of the surrounding residential neighbourhoods (including auto access). From an energy standpoint, the sub-hub focused on three top energy issues for Kamloops:
- increasing travel mode choices;
- creating anchor loads for small district energy systems, and
- creating opportunities for on-site electricity generation.
Design criteria included increased density and diversity, street connectivity, parking supply, transit orientation, district heating, solar orientation, and others.
Comparison of the As-built and the CEP Re-design scenarios suggested that:
- total costs could be reduced by 5-10%;
- air emissions could be reduced by over 10%;
- total per capita energy use could be reduced by 5-10%;
These results were thought to be significant given that the sub-hub incorporated very conservative changes to the original design and targeted a suburban neighbourhood. Much more significant savings were estimated for more urban-oriented sub-hubs.
The City also used a GIS-based modeling tool (INDEX) to evaluate the energy implications of three alternative development scenarios that were under consideration in the OCP process.
Twenty-four initiatives in six focus areas were adopted as "high priority, short term" action items. Ten others are listed as lower priority, longer term items. Because they contain many interesting ideas, they are described in full in linked pages at the foot of this page. Some of the key initiatives include:
- a performance points system (to provide incentives to encourage energy-efficient development);
- density guidelines (to encourage sufficient residential densities to make commercial services and transit viable in designated areas);
- alternative fuel in fleet vehicles (applicable to City and other public/private vehicle fleets);
- joint water/energy retrofits (installing water and energy conserving devices in homes and businesses);
- street orientation design guides (considering solar angle as a criterion for design in new development);
- district energy zoning (establishing a special zone in the downtown area to support the development of a district energy system, and identifying other candidate neighbourhoods for similar systems); and
- energy audits (for existing and planned City facilities).
However, as worthy as these initiatives invariably are, only a fraction of them have been implemented in a way foreseen by the CEP. A review process four years after the development of the plan gave a valuable insight into the successes and failures of the plan's implementation.
