CHAPTER 5: THE GROWTH

(Summary and Key Notes)

OF

CANADIAN COMMUNITY PLANNING, 19452000

INTRODUCTION
The visual appearance of cities, their living conditions, natural environments, and efficient functioning each vied for attention as the publics concerns about their communities waxed and waned. Communities became more diverse, with changing family structures, more women in the labour force, and massive immigration, especially to the largest cities. New concepts appeared, such as Smart Growth and New Urbanism, as well as new technologies, such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and new modes of working, such as telecommuting. Probably most noteworthy was the strong emphasis on protection of the natural environment and, more latterly, sustainability. In other words, the activity of community planning was called upon to modify its processes and its tools as it has always done with changing times.

POST-WAR PLANNING CHALLENGES

1. Canada changed from a rural to an urban nation in the first half of the twentieth century. 2. Urban development of the 19001930 periods stalled during the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the rapid expansion of Canadas industrial facilities for the war effort created a housing crisis in many cities. 3. As they struggled with these problems, citizens and planners developed some new methods and models that were widely admired. 4. Cities grew in population, expanded their boundaries, and increased in both density (with taller buildings at the centre) and area (with more houses and factories on the outskirts). KEY NOTE: Three forces combined to produce the metropolitan environments we are familiar with today. First, there were demographic forces due to: (a) The migration of people from rural areas to urban centers; (b) People emigrating to Canada from abroad, most of whom went to the larger cities; and (c) A dramatic increase in the natural growth of the population, known as the baby boom. Second, there were economic forces. The nations economy continued to expand and produce jobs and rising incomes for the new and old populations of cities. There was also a pent-up demand for housing and other urban accoutrements created by its suppression during 15 years of depression and war.4 The third force, and in many ways the most momentous in its effect on the form of cities, was the vast expansion in automobile use. These three forces combined to reshape the metropolis, and Canadian community planning had to face a number of challenges whose resolution would establish foundations for its future.

ADVENT

OF THE

BABY BOOM, 19461965

1. Family formation and birthrates in the 194665 period increased dramatically 2. Population increase led to a demand for more colleges and universities, and more housing and health and social services. This demographic bulge still continues to add

new dimensions to community planning as it contributes to a surging seniors population that will expand dramatically

MASS AUTO MOBILE USE

1. Of all the forces reshaping the American metropolis, the most powerful and insistent are those rooted in changing modes of transportation. The changes are so big and obvious that it is easy to forget how remarkable they are. 2. Major shopping facilities in pre-1950 cities were tied to downtown areas because most personal transportation focused on downtown, especially streetcars and buses. 3. Two more auto-oriented facilities shaped the post-war city: the shopping centre and the industrial park. Both of these facilities signaled a reorientation of major community functions away from a single dominant centre

KEY NOTE:
Shopping centers and industrial parks subsequently became common elements in the fabric of Canadian communities and injected a new set of relationships into planning because they both needed considerable land and easy automobile access to a large area. These changes also had an impact on downtown cores, often leaving the older central stores wanting for business, and industrial areas in decline.

MEETING HOUSING NEEDS

1. Suburban single-detached home offered privacy, more space, personal control, green
surroundings, and a long-term real estate investment that many families preferred over a rental unit in the city. 2. More rental home were built for veterans 3. Ownership rate increased from 57 percent in 1941 to 65 percent in 1951

KEY NOTE:
Thus, the three great post-war challengespopulation growth, the housing boom, and mass automobile usecontained elements of the main themes of Canadian community planning from the late 19th century: city appearance, living conditions, the environment, and city efficiency

REBUILDING

THE

INNER CITY

1. Manifested itself in four overlapping programs urban renewal, neighborhood redevelopment, publicprivate partnerships, and private megaprojects
One of the consequences of this shift to Modern planning concepts was to focus professional attention on large-scale rebuilding of the inner city (Inner City)

URBAN RENEWAL
1. The central parts of many cities, which were also the oldest sections, suffered most from
physical deterioration

2. Urban renewal was an effort to restore the commercial attractiveness of downtown areas 3. Urban Renewal
and avoid the loss of investment they represented.. a. Almost 900 000 housing units were of this vintage and, furthermore, that onetenth of all housing was in need of major repairs b. Residents of the area would be re-housed in public housing projects c. Although urban renewal was phased out in the late 1960s, it embodied some important features for community planning.

NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT
Postmodern urban projects that challenged the Modern planning principles

Neighborhood Development o Has a mixed-use, mixed-income, mixed-tenure approach was judged a success o

and widely admired Relied on grants and a grants were cut back in the 1980s, it became difficult to start similar projects

KEY NOTE:

They relied on large federal and provincial grants for land expropriation, infrastructure, and housing subsidies. When these grants were cut back in the 1980s, it became difficult to start similar projects, and the cost of environmental remediation made redeveloping other former (brownfield) industrial sites too expensive.

PUBLIC

AND

PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

FOR

URBAN REDEVELOPMENT

1. Many cities had underdeveloped land in the downtown and waterfront areas. 2. The Canadian response was to establish federal or provincial agencies for waterfront redevelopment 3. In the meantime, other public authorities, such as hospitals, airports, universities, utilities, and housing agencies, began to use the public private partnership tools pioneered on the waterfront to attract private investment to their sites.

PRIVATE MEGAPROJECTS
1. Private corporations with ownership of large, well-located sites close to the central
business district, such as old railway yards, began to negotiate with local governments for redevelopment plans 2. The municipalities had little bargaining power to extract public benefits during the megaproject approval process since they were not contributing land or capital to any significant extent

EVOLVING PLANNING PERSPECTIVES:

Emergence of Urban Design:

o Urban design was influenced by postmodern planning ideas that avoided large scale master planning by a single architect

In favor of flexible site plans and guidelines to direct a variety of designers over the many years it takes to build a city. Developers were encouraged to incorporate historic buildings into their redevelopment projects Planning agencies began to protect and enhance whole districts of historic buildings Social housing, condominium apartments, and new community facilities were added by infill and selective demolition. Low-density, automobile-oriented suburbs had changed from an alternative to urban living to the dominant model The conventional suburban development model was degraded as services disappeared Early 1990s, postmodern urban design ideas began to affect Canadian suburban planning New Urbanist projects appear to support much higher gross densities than the conventional suburban development of the 1980s, while accommodating good ecological planning

Historic Preservation:
o o

Redevelopment of Modern Projects:

o

Conventional Suburban Development:

o

New Urbanism:
o o o

Gated Communities:
o It raises important planning issues about private roads, control of the public realm, visual impacts of walls, and increased separation of the affluent from the rest of society that have yet to be addressed by Canadian municipalities

CONCERN

OVER

HOUSING

AND

LIVING CONDITIONS

Social Planning and the Attack on Urban Renewal o Critique focused attention on the social aspects of cities and away from aesthetic and functional planning issues. o Cities received small-scale grants to upgrade amenities and public infrastructure o Social housing and neighborhood improvement programs were cancelled during the 1980s and early 1990s o Good aesthetics could not overcome poor social conditions, poor physical design could make a public housing project quite dangerous Healthy Communities o The approach was different in each municipality, being guided by local priorities. Common themes included environmental clean-up, reduced pesticide use, emphasis on cycling and walking, and expanded community recreation programs

Social planning had begun to reconsider the importance of the community design through safety and public health issues.

CONCERN

OVER THE

ENVIRONMENT

Environmental Planning: Designing with Nature

o
o

Prepared maps of ecological, physiographic, and socioeconomic features that were overlaid to identify the areas of least environmental impact for urban

expansion and highway projects Environmental planning came to entire metropolitan areas Brownfield redevelopment is another theme in current environmental planning practice,.

Sustainable Development o Environmental planning, social planning, and economic development came together in the 1990s as sustainable development

CONCERNS

Many cities were examining how their community plans might improve sustainability, and ecological planning became a standard component of Canadian planning practice.
OVER

CITY EFFICIENCY

Infrastructure Planning o Canadian cities were providing treated water for drinking and firefighting in pressurized pipes throughout most of the inner city o The Prairie cities had sewage treatment plants in place before the war, and other inland Canadian communities were forced to treat their sewage o Storm-water planning also saw a major change in the post-war period o Large-scale suburban development required reforms to local government organization and financing for trunk sewer and water infrastructure Transportation Planning for the Automobile o Zoning bylaws required houses to have garages, and all commercial and institutional uses to have parking and loading spaces o Downtown redevelopment plans featured large new parking facilities built at public expense o The recommendations typically called for a regional network of expressways supported by a grid of arterial roads o Inner urban areas, the connecting links had to be built in trenches (Montreals Decarie Expressway), on stilts (Torontos Gardiner Expressway), or in corridors created by demolishing houses, using urban renewal. Transit Planning o The transit systems had never been completely abandoned in the major cities o Adjusted its land-use policies to promote high-density re-redevelopment Environmental Issues and Smart Growth o Infrastructure issues became more aligned with environmental issues o Infrastructure expenses, sustainable development, and New Urbanism came together in the Smart Growth Network

ANSWER TO THE QUESTION FROM THE BOOK - In which ways do todays plans and plan-making processes reflect the concerns of planners in the latter half of the 20th century?
The planning practice we witness today is an amalgam of accumulated knowledge and experience, especially those of the second half of the 20th century. This most recent period showed both growth and maturity for community planning, its institutions, and its participants. What may have appeared half a century ago, perhaps naively, as a means of curing the ills of the city had, toward the end of the century, become its own set of social, economic, and environmental realities to contend with. In the process, planning became an accepted, institutionalized part of community-building. There would not likely be much support today to discontinue planning activities. Further, planners are now much better equipped to know what does and doesnt work. The legacy of these formative decades just past should not be forgotten, for it is the continuing foundation for todays practice of community planning. Nor should we forget that planning arrangements, tools, and processes are normative. Assumptions about the best way to proceed and who needs to be involved are built into them. And arriving at those assumptions, in the 19452000 period, involved a learning process for all participants to recognize better both the substantive aspects of how communities develop and the social relationships among participants. Wholesale urban renewalbulldozing the slumsgave way to more incremental approaches to improve the built environment. Planners also came, somewhat grudgingly at times, to realize that citizens, even in their opposition, could make useful contributions to planning situations (as well as recognize their rights as citizens). Not least, the vital importance of caring for the natural environments of communities was accepted into the planning milieu. Community planning practice is different and richer today as a result of all these changes. This was also a period in which the larger social dynamic shifted from a Modern to a postmodern view of the world. Big was not always better, and eclecticism became a norm in community-building as elsewhere. There will continue to be changes in community plan-making, but perhaps not as momentous as those experienced since 1945. Community planning will doubtless be called upon to respond to new issues, because it deals with values and norms, with new ideas and social forces. So, as one views contemporary

community-planning practice, as presented in the next several chapters, it will be useful to consider the question