Planning Pool

In case you were wondering about some ways to use Planning Pool beyond just reading our posts, watch this video! In it, you’ll find out how to comment, how to use SplashUp Map, and how to upload video. We just showed this video at the CIP Conference in Niagara Falls to great response, and now it’s available for everyone!

This session took place on October 1.

Uri Avin of Parsons Brinckerhoff and Iain Dobson of the Real Estate Search Corporation discussed edge cities and how they can be transformed into urban places. Avin described Tysons Corner, Virginia, a prototypical “edge city” and the 12th largest business district in the United States. Although Tysons Corner, located just outside of Washington, D.C. in the Dulles Airport corridor, is generally considered to be an economic success, the city suffers from an increasingly dysfunctional environmen. Dobson contrasted Tysons Corner with Mississauga, Ontario, a similar city in terms of square footage, population, jobs, and other statistics, but stagnating nonetheless.

Edge cities are typically suburban commercial, retail, and residential developments built in areas that contained no development 30 years ago. They are usually outside a larger urban area and tend to be close to highways and airports. … Continue Reading

Perhaps the last installment in live blogging from the 2009 CIP conference, this session (held October 3) dealt with growth management, a critical issue for many North American cities. This summary focuses on the presentations of two of the session’s speakers.

Russ Mathew, a planner from Toronto, ON with Hemson Consulting, spoke about the new Growth Plan for Canada’s most populous urban area. The Greater Golden Horseshoe includes the Greater Toronto Area as well as smaller subcentres. Looking ahead to 2031, the Plan sets numeric targets for residential and employment density (an average of 50 residents + jobs per hectare) as well as intensification of currently built-up areas (40% of new housing is to be accommodated within the current built-up area, especially transit-oriented growth centres.) Russ is concerned about the plan’s focus on predictive numeric targets instead of livable design, and … Continue Reading

This afternoon’s session, entitled “Old Age Ain’t for Sissies and What that Means for Planners” was a full house. The enthusiasm shown for this topic indicates that planners are very aware of impending demographic changes that will require accommodating aging communities to become a planning priority. The moderator, Don May, opened the presentation with a mind-boggling time-lapse series of Canadian population pyramids from the late 19th century. (You can see a similar series of pyramids online here.) Canada expects an 86% increase in its senior population over the next 20 years; by 2041, one in four Canadians will be over 65.

This untraditional session tackles the current economic downturn, crisis, meltdown, recession, depression – however you conceive of it. Its title is “What Planners can Bring to the Table in a Recession,” aptly subtitled “Planners’ Improv”. Panelists are:

- Rino Mostacci from the Town of Fort Erie, Ontario
- Ron Marini, City of Hamilton, Ontario
- Paul Smithson, City of Burlington, Ontario
- Ann McAfee, City of Vancouver,BC (retired), consultant, City Choice

Today’s discussion took the form of a brainstorming session between the audience and an expert panel about how planners can best do their work in the context of economic collapse. Highlights are summarized below, at some length. The conversation was rich and spirited – the topic and seem to have hit a nerve!

A planner from the Maritimes opened the dialogue by sharing his long experience working in places where economic hardship … Continue Reading

This post comes to you from an afternoon session entitled “Saving our cities: Contemporary approaches to heritage planning.” The two joint speakers are Phil Goldsmith and Antonio Gómez-Palacio, who have worked together on several projects. Mr. Gómez-Palacio works with the Office for Urbanism, while Mr. Goldsmith has extensive experience in adaptive reuse of Toronto’s heritage buildings.

Phil Goldsmith and Antonio Gómez-Palacio argue for a hybrid approach to heritage restoration and new architectural styles. Photo by author.

The session opened with the quote “Although […] heritage belongs to everyone, each of its parts is nevertheless at the mercy of any individual” (Amsterdam Charter, 1975). Intensification of urban fabric places stress on heritage buildings, so the present is an important time for the heritage of … Continue Reading

This afternoon in Niagara there are a variety of mobile workshops and concurrent sessions. I’m at a “Building the Regional City” panel featuring Vancouver’s Ann McAfee, as well as Kathryn Friedman, Deputy Director of University of Buffalo’s Regional Institute, and Francis Gentoral, Regional Manager for the Canadian Urban Institute in Southeast Asia. This panel is focusing on regional cities that cross municipal, state/provincial, and even international boundaries.

McAfee compares Vancouver and Melbourne as examples of liveable cities but has different governance structures. The Vancouver has 22 municipalities. Metro Melbourne has a larger regional population and 32 municipalities, but an older built environment and a smaller downtown population. Melbourne’s limiting factor is water.

Unlike Vancouver, Melbourne has no metro government and the state presents regional plans without public engagement. But, both regions have similar goals, namely to diversify the economy, nurture local business, … Continue Reading

Today’s second panel focuses on land, water, and energy systems. The first speaker, Honorary Consul Lars Henriksson, describes how Sweden has managed to increase its GDP while reducing carbon emissions. Sweden is consistently rated highly on sustainability indices, with most recently Stockholm receiving the 2010 European Green Capital award. One of the reasons Sweden has been so successful is because of integrated resource management by regulatory and financial incentives as well as technological support. Some examples are taxing landfills and banning recycleables and biomass from landfills to encourage reuse and incineration for district heating. Sweden also discourages car use by imposing congestion fees and providing attractive multimodal transportation. In 2004, Sweden built Hammerby Sjostad as part of an Olympics bid just outside of Stockholm. The community of 25,000 people achieved 75 percent energy improvements by changing building practices alone. Most … Continue Reading

Over the next few days, Vanessa and I will be liveblogging from the CIP/OPPI Conference in Niagara Falls, Ontario. With currenty 900 delegates registered and over 1000 expected from the private sector, the public sector and academia throughout Canada and abroad, the 3-day conference should be very interesting!

The theme of the conference is “Building a Better World,” which is appropriate for the current economic situation and for the location of the conference. As the Mayor of Niagara Falls noted in opening remarks, the recession offers an opportunity for changes. Also, Niagara Falls is a model of change. A former manufacturing center, Niagara Falls transformed itself into a tourism destination focusing on the falls, casinos, golf courses and vinyards, a place that offers attractions year-round.

Today, the conference is opening with keynote speaker Sheila Watt-Cloutier. A Nobel Prize nominee, Watts-Cloutier helped launch … Continue Reading

The Canadian Institute of Planners / OPPI is hosting its annual conference in Niagara Falls, Ontario, from September 30 to October 3. The conference, entitled “Building a Better World,” will focus on the environment, the economy, culture, and society with the purpose of debating and challenging ourselves and our profession. For more information, please see: http://www.niagarafalls2009.ca/english/index.htm.