Edmonton: Smart Growth, or endless sprawling suburbs?

[feepa]

So recently, I've taken part in a focus Edmonton public meeting where we discussed growth Scenarios for Edmonton.

Here is the "report" which is kind of an interesting read...
http://www.focusedmonton.ca/media/Growth_Scenereo_Concepts_posters.pdf

So basically, we can continue growing this city/region - outwards and onwards. Yes, I'm talking about areas in the south of the city south of AHD, West of AHD. East of AHD and North of AHD (That includes parts of Edmonton, St Albert, Sherwood Park.)

We continue to push outwards, with no real consideration of each other, or the affect we have on the city. We then bite back, and say, gee, traffic is going up, its further and further to the store...

What gives? at what point do we say stop? At what point do we stop fighting infill, and at what point do we stop growing outwards?

Do we even care? The health effects, the environmental effects, the ever increasing commute times. The walkability of our city...

What type of region do you want?


----------

Found this link off the focusedmonton page, and found this short (8mins) quicktime film really hits home. I recommend everyone watch this - before commenting on this thread.
http://www.rbcc.ca/smart/smartmovie.htm

Edmonton is a Smart City. Edmonton is a Growing City. But...
Is Edmonton Growing Smart?

My answer is sort of.

[newfangled]

My answer is sort of.

As with everything, regional planning will be key.

Those three growth options proposed? As long as the surrounding municipalties are free to do whatever they want, then the only answer will be Sprawl, Sprawl Sprawl.

Because if Edmonton prevents sprawl then it will just go elsewhere. Which will lead to a whole bunch more people claiming that all the growth is in the burbs and that Edmonton is dying (because obviously 15% growth on a population of 60k is just so much more impressive than 10% on one of 700k)

[feepa]

^^ Exactly... I wish more people who are the outside of Edmonton's borders understood this.

[oilsmack99]

Make the entrances to this city look good, annex our suburbs. As to the rest I don't give a flying fadoo.