New
Directions in Urban PlanningNew
Directions in Urban Planning
Kyoto and Sprawl Conference was a smashing success! Conference Recommendations
Western Ontario Smart Growth Panel Discussion Paper. More.
If you want to understand why urban sprawl happens and
how we can curb sprawl by creating smarter communities that protect
woodlands, wetlands, wildlife and farmlands, read "A
Smart Future for Ontario: How to Protect Nature and Curb Urban Sprawl in
Your Community."
Urban
Sprawl / Smart Growth
from the Federation of Ontario Naturalists. Queen’s
Park policies allow sprawl.
The current Ontario government has failed to ensure orderly and cost-effective growth. Instead, the province has required municipalities, counties and regions to expand urban areas often without considering negative impacts on land and nature.
The tax system supports sprawl: The 1996 provincial budget gave a rebate to first-time buyers who choose a newly-constructed home (usually in sprawl areas). The $2,000 rebate is now a fixture.
Further, the province’s $20 billion SuperBuild Growth Fund, which helps pay infrastructure costs such as highways and sewers, doesn’t support public transit.
Federation of Canadian Municipalities
Municipalities For and Against the Kyoto Protocol. Good News! London is For.
Ecologically Based Municipal Land Use Planning by William B.
Honachefsky
MEASURING SPRAWL AND ITS IMPACT The Character & Consequences of Metropolitan Expansion from Smart Growth America. Click here for synopsis from Environment News Service.
Belling The
Box: Planning For Large-Scale Retail Stores. The
profound planning impacts big box retail stores can have on the character of a
community.
Urban Sprawl in London. A map, in PDF format, from Statistics Canada showing population growth in London from 1996 to 2001. It shows that most of the growth has occurred in the periphery. Most troubling is that many parts of the core have declined in population.
The
Canadian Urban Institute (CUI) is a non-profit organization
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life in urban areas in Canada and
internationally.
The current ONTARIO government response on smart GROWTH
Conservation Council of Ontario, a province-wide association of organizations and individuals dedicated to conservation and a healthy environment. GreenOntario
"Green-Based" Urban Growth: Next Wave of Environmentalism ." by D.L. Parsell, National Geographic News
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System™ is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings.
Stroll National Geographic's virtual “new urbanism” town to see what some planners prescribe for the ills of urban sprawl. Also read the article in the July 2001 issue of National Geographic on Urban Sprawl. Here are some facts from it.
Between 1950 and 1990 the US urban-suburban population double. The land used by this population increased five fold, from 13,000 square miles to more than 60,000 square miles.
Urban sprawl claims 2 million acres of farm land and forest a year.
The single biggest factor that contributed to this sprawl was Dwight Eisenhower's Federal-Aid Highway Act in 1956.
The car numbers are increasing at a far grater rate than the population. In 1950 there were 4 persons per car. In 1990 there were 2 per car.
The average US suburban family makes 10 car trips a day.
Traffic delays costs the US economy 72 billion dollars a year.
In 2000 voters approved 400 of 553 growth-related ballot measures. Most promote "smart growth" which encourages pedestrian-friendly communities, a mix of housing types, and less dependence on the car.
See Livable Communities and Community Transformation Examples from the Sierra Club.
One of the best places to find material on urban planning is the PPS site. The year 2000 marked Project for Public Spaces’ 25th anniversary as a non-profit technical assistance, research and educational organization. PPS’ mission - to create and sustain public places that build communities - is achieved through programs in transportation; parks, plazas and central squares; public markets; and community institutions and public buildings. Since its founding in 1975, the organization has worked in over 1,000 communities, within the U.S. and abroad, helping people to grow their public space into vital community places.
Habersham, Beaufort, South Carolina. Photos and real estate listings of a new-urbanist neighborhood near Hilton Head, South Carolina
Lakelands. Photos, information, and virtual tours of a new neo-traditional town in Gaithersburg, Maryland
Duany
Plater-Zyberk & Company: Architects and Town Planners.
Principles and techniques of new urbanism, project profiles, and more from
the most visible of new-urbanist planning companies. Read
one of the best books on the principles of good urban design.
Suburban Nation : The Rise of Sprawl and
the Decline of the American Dream
by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Jeff Speck.
New Urbanism comes to Canada, Oak Park in Oakville.
National Building Museum: Metropolitan Perspectives. Full scripts from a series of exhibitions on “smart growth and choices for change”
Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) exists to accelerate the design and construction of Green Buildings across Canada.
The Congress for the New Urbanism was founded in 1993 by a group of enthusiastic architects. CNU advocates the restructuring of public policy and development practices to support the restoration of existing urban centers and towns within coherent metropolitan regions. The CNU stands for the reconfiguration of sprawling suburbs into communities of real neighborhoods and diverse districts, the conservation of national environments, and the preservation of our built legacy.
Created on Sept 7 1998
Comments email: info@ul.london.on.ca
Last Updated April 17, 2006
