Thank you to everyone who recently completed PIBC’s Fall / 2025 Survey on the Continuous Professional Learning Program (CPL). While there is a continued strong appreciation for webinars on current / cutting edge topics, an overwhelming number of respondents also identified the need for nurturing practical learning & skills development - nothing exciting here, just solid learning about practical things that planners encounter every day on the job and in their work.
This first webinar on ‘practical learning’ provides a succinct overview of the skills required to understand and facilitate the land development process. If you are an emerging planner or an established professional looking to augment your practical knowledge, this webinar is for you!
You will learn about:
- The economics and pro-forma math related to site analysis and project feasibility;
- What is legally permissible in BC regarding housing agreements, density bonuses, CACs, DCCs, as well as best practices around covenants and airspace parcels;
- The mechanics of the development process illustrated with a real case study.
We hope you can join us for this informative webinar!
Our Speakers
Thomas Davidoff
Associate Professor, Real Estate and Strategy and Business Economic groups
Sauder School of Business, UBC
Tom Davidoff is an associate professor in the Real Estate and Strategy and Business Economics groups at the Sauder School of Business, UBC. Prior to joining UBC, Davidoff obtained degrees from Harvard, Princeton, and MIT, and worked in real estate development in Brooklyn and as an assistant professor at UC Berkeley. While at UBC, Davidoff has advised the White House on housing and mortgage policy and worked with two startup real estate intelligence companies. Davidoff’s research on aging, insurance, housing, and public policy has been published in leading journals in finance, real estate, and economics.
Alison Espetveidt
Lawyer, Lidstone & Company
Alison is a municipal lawyer licenced in Alberta and British Columbia. She advises and advocates for clients on a wide range of municipal law issues, including land use planning and development, real estate, expropriation, governance and enforcement. Alison’s interest in municipal issues began when she worked in the aldermanic office at the City of Calgary.
She has appeared as an advocate before many different bodies in Alberta. She has experience with administrative tribunals such as subdivision and development appeal boards, assessment review boards, the Land Compensation Board, the Alberta Utilities Commission and the Environmental Appeals Board. She has also appeared in the Provincial Court of Alberta, the Court of Queen’s Bench (Alberta) and the Alberta Court of Appeal.
In addition to private practice, Alison has worked in-house for municipalities and businesses. She understands the complexities of the issues facing her clients. In her practice, she aims to provide practical solutions to immediate problems and to identify opportunities to develop best practices. Alison works hard to understand her clients’ goals and priorities.
Eric Aderneck RPP, MCIP
Industrial Lands Program Manager
City of Maple Ridge
Eric Aderneck, RPP, MPL, BCOM, DULE has over two decades of diverse experience working for the public and private sectors in the Metro Vancouver region and parts of British Columbia through a number of different capacities including planning policy, real estate development, consultant, and instructor. Through leading the industrial lands portfolios at Metro Vancouver and Maple Ridge, contributing to projects in other jurisdictions as consultant, completing a series of significant projects and strategies, and writing reports and articles about industrial and employment land use matters, he has in-depth knowledge of industrial planning and development trends and associated implications.
