Big Density Plans for Toronto

5 September 2008 - 7:00am

Toronto is considering a broad new plan to encourage higher density.

"Planning in Toronto is too often a catalogue of things that will never happen. The more exciting a vision, the less likely a concrete result."

"This truism could well apply to the most exciting initiative to emerge in a generation, a broad plan for a thorough rehabilitation of the city's high-rise suburbs. But in this case it won't matter: The project is so compelling, in and of itself, it has already changed the city for the better."

"The premises of the plan are wholly original yet easily graspable - and the heavily graphic "Opportunities Book" that describes them, prepared by E.R.A. and the U of T, stands out as a masterpiece in the often dreary literature of urban planning."

"Toronto's high-density, high-rise suburban neighbourhoods are unique on the continent and one of its most characteristic features, according to the report. Although brutally neglected, it says, these 'enormous pockets of inherited density' may be 'our greatest urban resource.'"

Source: The Globe and Mail, August 28, 2008
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The interdisciplinary nature of these challenges justifies a more decisive federal policy that helps metropolitan areas promote energy and location-efficient development.