TO: Mayor and Council DATE: April 27, 1973

FROM: Environmental Sub Committee C 0 UJ i
APR

30 1973

The Environmental Sub Committee met in the Council Chambers of the City Hall on

Thursday, April 19, 1973. The following items were discussed:

1. Occupations in the Home - Port Coquitlam

The Environmental Sub Committee has been discussing our diminishing energy resources in
British Columbia and raised the question as to whether the City was playing, or

could play a role in energy conservation. Our Committee noted that experts in the
field have identified the possibility of living and working in the same structure

as a major opportunity for the saving of energy fuels, and are looking toward a

strong trend in this direction over the next decade,

The advantages of such a trend are numerous. Every driver who does not leave the
home and drive to work means one less car on our roads during rush hour. This trend
will then work to reduce not only consumption of energy fuels, but also air pollution

frou automobiles and traffic congestion.

Perhaps more fundamentally, to the degree that this trend proceed, and people require
one structure, not two, to live and work in, the pressure on land and on building

materials ~ one of our major problems now in the Lower Mainland - will be eased.

Finally to the degree that persons work in or from their homes, added social
advantages with regard to keeping "the mother" at home, and of re-establishing "the

family" work ethic of the early part of this century can be enhanced.

The Committee could not identify any immediate practical positive steps that could
be undertaken at the municipal level beyond bringing this trend - and its pocential
benefits - to public attention. However, the Committee did identify the fact that
at present it is impossible for Port Coquitlam to share in these benefits because

it is illegal to conduct any sort of occupation in or from your home in this City.

We therefore recommend that a Home Occupation By-law be struck, embodying the points

included below and any others that Council may see fit to attach. We are aware that

such a By-law must preserve the privacy of neighbours end be in conformity with all
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