Not entirely related to the stuff I normally cover here, but the Toronto Star’s feature on sprawl in the GTA and the province’s “Places to Grow” initiative is really very good. If phrases like ‘vision’ and ‘city building’ hadn’t seemingly become dirty words in recent months, we’d do well to have some serious conversations regarding this kind of growth, both in the city and outside of it, and what it means, especially as some GTA suburbs seem to be resisting smart growth strategies:
Questions remain about how and when fast-growing edge cities like Milton, which continue to take on fast growth, will pay for infrastructure such as hospitals and transit.
The Star’s analysis also found that some cities, notably Brampton and Vaughan — which is already getting a subway — are barely meeting the minimum requirements for population density that the province set for “growth centres.†And they’re falling below the standards set by Metrolinx for “mobility hubs†— dense housing-employment areas with a confluence of public transportation.
via Paradise saved? GTA growth plans aim to rein in sprawl – thestar.com.
The implications when it comes to things we’ve been talking about lately (transit, commuting, housing) are substantial.