Tag Archives: GTA

Growing Pains

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Greenbelt_mapIn the GTA the question of whether an individual municipality should continue population and economic growth isn’t up for debate. That question has already been decided. But what really needs to be considered is how to grow and the decisions that GTA municipalities are in the process of making now will shape our communities for decades to come.

To provide some context, other than Lake Ontario, there are no natural barriers to constrain the GTA’s outward growth. And since Lake Ontario has been subject to infilling, even it to a small extent has been encroached upon. And the result of no natural boundaries, supportive provincial policy, demand for single family homes, cheap fuel for our cars, big pipes and roads, etc. has been decades of unconstrained growth and sprawling suburban municipalities. (It’s a lot more complicated than that, so check out Frances Frisken’s The Public Metropolis: The Political Dynamics of Urban Expansion in the Toronto Region, 1924-2003 or John Sewell’s Shape of the Suburbs: Understanding Toronto’s Sprawl).

The pace of outward growth is now being disrupted by two pieces of provincial legislation: “The Greenbelt Act” and “The Places to Grow Act”. In short, the Greenbelt protects 1.8 million acres of land from development in 2005 and is based on supporting the environment, recreation and agriculture. Greenbelts aren’t a new concept. BC has an Agricultural Land Reserve and Ottawa also has a Greenbelt.

The companion piece of legislation is “The Places to Grow Act”. It charts out growth in the GTA until 2031 and expects an additional 3.7 million people to move to the GTA by then, bringing the total population to around 11.5 million. Plus, the plan includes the forecast for 1.8 million new jobs. On the maps it includes land designated between the Greenbelt and the developed area that has the potential for further outward development (it is commonly called the Whitebelt). Since Places to Grow was enacted in 2005 the province has given growth targets to regional municipalities and the regional municipalities are now in turn setting growth targets for their local municipalities (most suburban municipalities in the GTA are two tiered).

For most GTA municipalities it took around 5 years to get to the point where there is a clearer picture of what kind of growth targets they actually have to deal with. And now the question they all have to grapple with is how to grow. Between last year and this year most municipalities will be deciding how much of that growth will be intensification (within the current built up area) and how much will be in the Whitebelt (a lot of that is still being farmed). Some are toying with the idea of growing the Greenbelt, so the province now has guidelines for municipalities to follow. Markham, one of where I work, has yet to determine its intensification and is having a public meeting on Tuesday, February 16th.

The Greenbelt and Places to Grow have the potential and intention to move the GTA’s municipalities towards being more sustainable, livable, walkable, bikeable, transit oriented, compact and complete communities. But getting it right isn’t going to be easy. There are divided opinions within the suburbs; residents who want their community to stay suburban and others that want to urbanize, developers who want to continue building low density single family homes and others who are interested in density and condos, and farmers who want to sell their land to the highest bidder regardless of their intended land use and others who are desperately seeking long-term security to keep their farm where it is. It is complicated to say the least and no municipality is having an easy time with the decisions that they have to make.

Walking with your Life

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As of today, there have been 14 pedestrian fatalities so far this month in the GTA.  Eight of those have been in Toronto.  To put this in context, in 2009 there were 56 pedestrian deaths in the GTA and 31 in Toronto.  In both cases we’re already at about 25% of last year’s total.

And that has a lot of us in the GTA, particularly those of us who walk more than we drive, are looking for explanations.  As I’ve read through newspapers over the past couple of weeks, I’ve found the list of factors that have been suggested is long and varied.

Clifford Photo

Clifford Photo

Inattentiveness – One that has been brought up repeatedly with both pedestrians and drivers being distracted by technology (cellphones, iPods, etc.) and hectic lifestyles that are causing us to rush (driving too fast, jaywalking, etc.)

Suburban Design – last year the majority of pedestrian fatalities happened in the outer boroughs (Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough) of Toronto, not the downtown core.  The range of explanations include speeding, wide streets, poor pedestrian infrastructure (i.e. sidewalks, crosswalks)

Traffic and Walk Lights – the newer countdown lights were suggested as a contributing cause since pedestrians and motorists will try to rush through the intersection.  And apparently the assumption is the pedestrians will cross at a speed of 3.6 km/h

Seniors – it turns out that the number of seniors killed in traffic accidents is on the rise. About 60 per cent of pedestrian fatalities last year were among those over 65, compared with 44 per cent the previous year. (Globe and Mail:

Visibility – This has been mentioned by many and includes everything from less daylight, to the mild weather, to impaired vision from salt-covered windshields, to dark clothing worn by pedestrians, to pedestrians limiting their visibility with hood and hats.  Apparently in previous years the majority of pedestrian fatalities have occurred between October and January 

The question is, with all this speculation about causes why hasn’t there been more discussion about solutions?  Of all the coverage, most of it argues that everyone just needs to be more careful.  I’ve seen only a few that try to take it from a search for explanation to seeking real solutions.  There are a few exceptions, including Dylan Reid of Spacing Magazine who throws out a few solutions and Christopher Hume of the Toronto Star who pushes for solutions and rethinking our cities.  Hopefully more will come in the weeks and months when the tragedies of the last couple of weeks percolates through our think tanks and policy makers.

In the meantime, I’m going to share a couple of great websites that I’ve come across that are linking how cities are planned, walkability (a real word at least in municipal planning departments) and our quality of life.

8-80 Cities

This organization has a simple philosophy for making our communities safer for pedestrians and cyclists:

  • Step 1: Think of a child that you love and care for who is approximately 8 years of age. This could be a child, grandchild, sister, brother, cousin etc.
  • Step 2: Think of an adult, approximately 80 years of age who you love and care for. This could be a parent, grandparent, friend etc.
  • Step 3: Ask yourself: Would you send that 8 year old along with the 80 year old on a walk, or a bike ride on that infrastructure? If you would, then it is safe enough, if you would not, then it is not safe enough.

Too often, when street designs are prepared, the car is at the centre of the plan and this organization is doing some amazing work to help us rethink this approach.

Walk 21

This organization does are great job linking why walkability is so integral to a socially sustainable community – including inclusivity, reduced crime, safety and spaces for people.  And they are working with Canada Walks, an organization already doing work on walkability in Ontario including Active and Safe Routes to School.

Walk Score

This is a resource that a colleague of mine contributed to when he was working as a consultant.  It provides a score to neighbourhoods in the States (and it has been embraced by some in real estate as a way to market homes).