Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's plans to replace a neighbourhood-oriented plan for Toronto's waterfront with a commercialized zone that included shopping centres, a Ferris wheel, and a monorail received a flood of criticism from the public and the majority of fellow council members. Ford is now agreeing to stick with the original plan, but to speed up the development process.
With pedestrian fatalities on the rise some cities are looking at ways to make streets safer through engineering. Globe and Mail writer Francis Bula provides a list of street designs that have helped pedestrian injuries and fatalities. Among them are: lights with countdown timers, corner bulges, lower speed limits and scrambles. Read more in the Globe and Mail.
A new website that builds upon open data allows users to rate Toronto neighbourhoods. Information provided on the Wellbeing Toronto website is exhaustive, ranging from the number of car crashes in an area, to income and education levels. While some view the ranking system as potentially damaging to communities, many others are happy to have such data readily available, including non-profits who will use the information to target their resources to communities most in need.
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Planning & Land Use | July 6, 2011
Winnipeg's Vacant buildings by-law, passed in July 2010 has allowed enforcement officials to "issue no occupancy" orders if a building is too dilapidated for human occupation, or if the building has been left unoccupied for two long. After receiving a notice of violation the property has a year to fix up their property or it gets turned over to habitat for humanity, who then builds a new home for a low income family.
Many of Vancouver's transit corridors are comprised of single family dwellings and low rise apartments, but as the city plans for population increases it is looking at mid-rise developments as a model for development. Unlike the downtown which is comprised of towers, 30 stories or more, city planners have settled on a 6-12 story model for key corridors such as Cambie Blvd. The goal is to keep neighborhoods intact and to provide housing of varying affordability and type, to increase retail space, childcare spaces and parks.
The City of Edmonton is looking at incorporating lands reserved for agriculture, as well as community and backyard food gardens, into its city planning. A huge demand for local produce combined with disappearing agricultural land has motivated the city to start looking at the long range picture, "There has to be a balance with how we are going to grow and how we are going to use our land," said Edmonton Mayor, Stephen Mandel.
The FCM (Federation of Canadian Municipalities) now has a collection of sustainable by-laws posted on their website. The site breaks by-laws down into categories: Brownfields, Energy Transportation, Waste, Water and Multi-sector. View By-law library here.
The creation of a "near urban" national park in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) has sparked a hot debate between the region's Conservative and Liberal MPs. The park, which is intended to enhance the accessibility of wilderness to urban residents, may result in the loss of prime farmland.
The Canada Green Building Council has just published a Sustainable Communities Toolkit that focuses on the following areas:
Community Planning
Natural Environment
Transportation
Buildings
Infrastructure
Energy
The kit is free to all Municipal Government Employees
Vancouver was named the world's most liveable city for the fifth-straight year in The Economist Intelligence Unit's annual survey. Vancouver was given a score of 98% on a combination of stability, healthcare, environment and culture, education, infrastructure, and personal safety, among other factors. Cities from Canada and Australia made up the majority of the top-ten rankings. Read the full story in the Vancouver Sun.
