Nancy Knight, a former corporate strategies manager at the
Greater Vancouver Regional District, has been appointed Associate
Vice President, Planning at the University of British Columbia.
In this newly created role, Knight will provide key leadership
in all aspects of physical and community planning at UBC.
She will oversee issues of land use and its regulatory framework
for the emerging University Town at UBC’s Point Grey
Campus and for new sites such as UBC Okanagan.
“Like all great universities, UBC is evolving, and
we’re delighted that Dr. Knight brings the expertise
and vision she does to our process of creating a live-work
community that is breathtakingly beautiful, academically and
culturally vibrant and a leader in sustainability,”
says Dennis Pavlich, UBC Vice-President of External and Legal
Affairs.
Pavlich says UBC was particularly impressed with Knight’s
track record in community consultation, which represents a
cornerstone of the strategy in the university’s physical
development throughout its major campuses at UBC Vancouver,
UBC Okanagan, Great Northern Way and Robson Square. While
at the GVRD, Knight, who received her PhD in Community and
Regional Planning from UBC in 1990, was on the team that developed
and implemented the Sustainable Region Initiative, a guiding
framework for all of the GVRD’s activities
University Town is an integrated community that supports
UBC’s academic mission and is transforming UBC from
a commuter campus to a work-live community. Eight new residential
and mixed-use neighbourhoods will increase the campus residential
population to approximately 21,000 residents by 2021 and will
include student, faculty, and staff housing, university-related
shops and services, parks, a community centre, a school and
a range of public amenities.
UBC’s Vancouver campus will also add an additional
230,000 square metres of academic and research facilities,
and 2,000 new student residence spaces. Meanwhile, plans for
1,000 new residence spaces and increased academic and research
space are under way for UBC Okanagan.
In her 14-year career at the GVRD, Knight was a senior planner
in the process to develop the Livable Region Strategic Plan,
and she developed and delivered policies and programs to manage
demand for waste management and drinking water services and
to protect the region’s air quality. Knight has also
worked in the private sector and taught at the School of Resource
and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University.
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