^Yes, there is something to be said for amalgamation, but there could also be other forms of regional government that are layered on top of the existing ones.
The majority of the region's land area has been given to St. John's so that there is more unified planning for the entire region, considering that there is no form of government for the whole metro area. Growth in the other municipalities is eventually limited by their area. When Mt. Pearl wanted to expand it's boundaries it was rejected (last year?). Still, that small area of Mt. Pearl can hold about 25,000 people with present suburban density, and it is almost entirely developed. Even so, all the remaining development is still planned to be low density. Also, in the city of SJ, I think all new expansion development is planned to be 99% suburban. Are
planners all those concerned even considering any of the new realities?
Here are some suprising facts, even though I know it's comparing
apples and
oranges -
The area of the city of St. John's is almost four times as large as the city of Vancouver (although the St John's area is well under 50% developed, and Vancouver is 100% developed):
St John's City area - 446.04 km² (Population City 100,646)
Vancouver city area - 114.67 km² (population City 578,041)
The whole St. John's CMA urban land area (developed) is still greater than Vancouver -
St. John's CMA Urban Land Area: 182.62 km² (population 181,113)
But here's the difference that planning for some density can make. The city of New Westminster BC has a smaller area than Mt. Pearl, but has about 2.4 times the population. So, it's not a matter of running out of space, but rather inefficient use of the land they have.
New Westminster - Area 15.4 km² (Population - 58,549)
Mount Pearl - Area 15.76 km² (Population: 24,671)
The reality is, sounding like a prophet of doom, that the world cannot sustain suburban growth any longer because it will be too expensive to maintain and live in, and there are even bigger problems than that (i.e. a return to more local agriculture, and alternate forms of transportation). No one is
planning legislating for these things, at least not everywhere.
One possible solution to these realities is called
New Urbanism:
http://www.newurbanism.org/newurbanism.html
http://www.smartergrowth.net/issues/landuse/newurbanism/nuvssprawl.htm
http://www.newurbanism.org/newurbanism/principles.html
http://www.newurbannews.com/AboutNewUrbanism.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Urbanism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW2ewrGduBs&feature=related
http://archives.cbc.ca/lifestyle/living/clips/1464-9757/
http://c-realmpodcast.podomatic.com/entry/2008-04-09T20_10_59-07_00
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