Smart Growth B.C.: Cheeying Ho

She’s got a thing for knock-out party dresses – and land-use planning. It’s a good combo. Because if there ever was a field (no pun intended) that could use a little sexing up, it’s the seemingly yawn-inducing world of zoning, subdivisions, and building permits.

But Smart Growth BC executive director Cheeying Ho claims land-use planning is where the hot action really is. Eight years ago, Ho was running Better Environmentally Sound Transportation when the Smart Growth job came up. She leapt at the opportunity to helm the fledgling group, although it involved building a non-profit almost from scratch. Ho wanted to influence the big picture, and she says land use “affects everything else – transportation, food, housing, everything.”

The results? “She’s given citizens across the province an effective coalition that can lobby for sustainable growth, where before, in many locales, there was only the land development industry,” says Patrick Condon, director of the Landscape Architecture program at UBC. “She’s one of the region’s most effective agents for change.”

Ho’s passion for planning seems to be contagious; for example, she and her crew
recently convinced 70 per cent of Vernon voters to approve a remarkably sustainable land-use plan. “I love working with communities, getting citizens excited about a sustainable future,” says Ho. “There’s such momentum and appetite for change.”

But unlike many in the non-profit sector, Ho also insists on work-life balance for herself and her 11 staff. Every­one has to take their vacation time; Ho spends much of hers in her Westfalia camper van, touring B.C. with her partner and four-year-old son.

As for her fab, form-fitting gowns (often vintage finds), they mostly make their appearance at glamorous winter galas. But her ability to get people juiced about land use? Ho puts that to good, sustainable use, all year long.