river valley Planning modernizAtion

Ribbon of Green Update

In 2021, the City began a process of “modernizing” river valley planning, focusing on “updating” the 1992 Ribbon of Green planning document and the 1985 River Valley Bylaw (also known as Bylaw 7188 or the River Valley Area Redevelopment Plan). ERVCC supports the tightening-up of these documents for clarification (what, for example, is the definition of “major public facility” in the River Valley Bylaw?); however, we do not understand what “modernization” means in the context of this project and are concerned that the plans are being changed to align with development pressures in the river valley, rather than the plans, as they exist, guiding decision-making and protecting the river valley from those pressures in the first place. ERVCC has raised these concerns with the City while continuing to participate in the process to help ensure that any changes to these plans leads to more, rather than less, protection of the river valley. The ecological integrity of the river valley as a wildlife corridor, habitat, and greenspace undertaking “ecosystem services” in cooling the city and helping to protect the city from drought and flooding is critical in this time of climate and biodiversity crisis. ERVCC also sees a major opportunity for Edmonton to undertake genuine decolonizing work through a changed relationship with the river valley – one that recognizes the colonial history of this place and the importance of learning from local Indigenous ways of knowing to see the river and all the other beings here as our kin, to whom we should show gratitude, care, respect, humility, and reciprocity. The river valley does not simply exist here to serve us.

Click here to see the City’s web page on this project.

Between 2000 and 2015, Edmonton lost 75 acres of river valley land yearly to development. Loss of another 130 acres has occurred with construction of the Valley Line LRT and the E.L.Smith solar farm. With U of A law students, ERVCC did a gap analysis of current regulatory oversight of the river valley and determined that what few park protections exist are extremely weak. We need to stay vigilant and strengthen our river valley bylaw.

The city is currently reviewing the bylaw meant to protect our river valley (7188).

We note that new trends in Environmental Impact Assessments are emerging and whole concept is becoming substantively and procedurally criticized. We suggest this reading list on Decolonializing Conservation.