Transplanting The Vancouver Model To The Middle East

"When Larry Beasley received an e-mail from Abu Dhabi government headhunters more than two years ago, he dismissed it as spam.

Surely the last thing he needed days before he was set to retire after a 32-year career in Vancouver's planning department was another scam artist bothering him.

But another e-mail arrived, this time with more urgency. Then a phone call. Mr. Beasley thought he would humour the caller.

"I found out that they wanted me to develop a plan for [Abu Dhabi], that they wanted it to be one of the best cities in the world and that they had been doing a search for the person to lead the way," Mr. Beasley said during an interview at the lavish "seven-star" Emirates Palace hotel.

The youthful-looking 59-year-old's name kept popping up to the Emirati staffers, who were hearing about "the Vancouver Model," a world-renowned planning concept that tightly packs in high-density buildings while discouraging car traffic as much as possible."