City hall revamping Plan Winnipeg

[viperred88]

City hall revamping Plan Winnipeg
Last Updated: Monday, May 26, 2008 | 12:18 PM CT Comments11Recommend9CBC News
The City of Winnipeg is spending more than $3 million to redraft Plan Winnipeg, its master planning document.

The plan, last updated in 2001, is used to determine where houses, businesses and recreational areas will be constructed, and to guide decisions on everything from housing to handi-transit.

The city is already conducting a poll to find out detailed information about where Winnipeggers live, work and play, and whether they travel by bike, bus or car.

"That tells us where we should be driving our future big pipes for sewer and water and road expansions," said Coun. Justin Swandel, who chairs the committee working on Plan Winnipeg.

More than bricks and mortar is at stake, Swandel said. "Do you want to measure greenhouse gases? Do you want to measure the impact on the climate change as you're doing these things? Certainly you do. We want to make choices that are consistent with the principles of sustainable development."

Swandel says he thinks past plans have been too vague and open to interpretation. He wants the newest incarnation of Plan Winnipeg to be more specific and reference targets, such as what services should be in place if and when Winnipeg's population reaches one million.

Residential developers are asking to be front and centre in discussions about the plan.

Michael Moore, president of the Manitoba Home Builders' Association, says his group has had a low profile on planning issues in the past, but it should be more involved now, since the demand for new homes is expected to increase.

"How can you plan a Winnipeg without residential housing? Where are people going to live?" Moore said.

"Where they live will help determine school populations. Where they live will determine the commercial businesses that they use. So I think that's why we need to be right there on the ground floor."

The city is already conducting research on what land is still available for residential and commercial development in coming years.

Public consultations on the revisions to Plan Winnipeg are expected in the fall.

Council will consider the revised planning document next year.

[viperred88]

I say everyone one of us e-mail city hall give your ideas of implementing city planning ideas.

Hiring more planners would help the city implement city plans and not giving more power to developers. Which there already is. However I do think its important that all parties have a say in what this next plan should be.

[Spocket]

I don't really understand why the city is bothering with this.

On the one hand, yeah, it's smart to keep up with the times. On the other hand, am I to understand that the same people who approved Waverley West and put the kibosh on rapid transit are now going to tinker with a plan they clearly don't understand anyway ? Since it's ultimately up to the politicians to approve whatever the new plan includes, why are we suddenly expecting those same politicians to get a clue concerning urban planning and what's best for a city ? These guys already have all the land identified that they need for new sprawl as per the old Plan Winnipeg. They still found a way to require more. They don't understand intesification and density and they're clearly afraid of change no matter what form it takes.

I'm sorry but we shouldn't waste this cash on a revamped plan when all we're going to wind up with is the same thing we already have but with more areas identified for sprawl. And let's not kid ourselves, that's exactly what we're going to get for our 3 million bucks.