I found the article online, read it, and wholeheartedly agree with it. I posted it below, for others to have a chance to read it.
I lived in Saskatoon for awhile, and liked it for the most part.
However the growth pattern of the city seemed centered on many subdivisions, each cut off from the other. As the article says, this discourages not only efficient transit, but it also discourages the successful development of local business strips (like Central Avenue and 33rd Street) which can service a local area, thus eliminating traffic jams enroute to the local big box centre. Even the socalled "new modernist" design of Willowdale will see its village square cut-off from surrounding neighbourhoods - as it won't be on a continuous arterial road like 8th Street or 20th Street.
Saskatoon is such a pretty city. It would be a shame to see it become an urban wasteland hell. I thought that was the fate of only those cities which had their growth spurts in the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's.
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Originally Posted by circle33
I read it and agreed whole heartedly with it as well. Unfortunately they don't appear to post the editorial on the web version of the SP.
While there are some encouraging developments within the core of the city, it appears council is hell bent on increasing sprawl and automobile dependency despite some shining examples of the perils of doing so so close by.
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Capital budget lays foundation for future woes
The StarPhoenix
Friday 30 November 2007
There is an easy symmetry to the city's plan to spend $218 million on capital projects next year. The vast majority of the money will come from fees and reserves established specifically for the work to be done.
So, for example, while 40 per cent of the total capital budget will go to develop new residential lots in neighbourhoods such as Hampton Village, Willowgrove, Stonebridge and the northeast sector of Saskatoon, the money will come from levies that will be prepaid on the lots to be developed.
To help pay for critical infrastructure in these areas, the city also has set aside a portion of the new taxes that will be collected when these properties come on stream.
And even major projects, such as the $91-million police station that is to be built early in the next decade, will be paid for by incremental increases in the property taxes, so that future residents who benefit from the security provided by the enhanced services, too, will be helping to pay for it.
However, the capital budget also perpetuates a municipal design that ensures Saskatoon always will have difficulty in finding the money that it needs to meet demands for infrastructure.
The city already is setting aside every other capital project it can delay, in order to find the $300 million needed for a south bridge and connecting roadway.
But because projects such as the $7.7 million to expand primary watermains and the sewer trunk into Stonebridge, $11 million to push watermains and sewer trunks further into the northeast sector, and the $83.6 million in prepaid land development to bring on stream 800 lots in Willowgrove, 420 in Hampton Village and 380 in Stonebridge are all considered self-financing, they will proceed.
It should be plain to anyone, however, that as these projects proceed, the demand for the south bridge -- already considered overdue -- will be that much greater.
There is no question that Saskatoon must accommodate the current demand for residential lots. The city was blasted this year by property developers, who unexpectedly found that the demand for new homes was greatly outstripping the supply of residential lots.
But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to calculate that, as long as Saskatoon continues to expand at its periphery at the rate planned for the coming year, it will remain hard-pressed to keep up with the bridges and roads needed to enable the residents of those new neighbourhoods to travel around the city.
And this problem only is exacerbated by proposals such as the one floated this week to hike transit fares.
The vast majority of the new homes being built in the western, northeastern and southern edges of Saskatoon will feature single or two-car garages. These neighbourhoods are connected to the rest of Saskatoon with wide, modern arterial streets and homeowners will have but a short walk to catch a near-empty and overpriced transit bus.
The buses run nearly empty because the city spends whatever it takes to make it easy for residents to drive a car, and the transit service is overpriced because riders are required to pay more for their tickets than what the service costs. That's because they are being made to subsidize transit's cost of providing service to all areas whether it's wanted or not.
And it's not just the ever-decreasing number of transit riders (the city estimates it will lose more than 164,000 riders with the higher fares) who will be paying to expand services to the edges of the city. Transit also is heavily subsidized by property taxes.
Water and sewer rates, too, will have to increase as the city struggles to maintain and repair a growing network of underground lines. And since the water utility estimates it already loses 17 per cent of the water as it moves from the treatment plant to the end-user, the longer those watermains extend, the more users will be paying to treat water that ends up in the subsoil.
But the most obvious problem of the continual outward expansion will be the need to build and repair more roads and bridges required to alleviate the gridlock of people driving from home to work and back again.
The city did have choices. The city operations could be moved out of its downtown yards, along with the bus barns in the heart of Saskatoon. That land could be put toward residential construction to bring new life to the core.
The city also could speed up the construction of bike trails and ensure that snow is cleared from them in the winter. It could make it easier for downtown residents to have pets by allowing dogs in nearby parks. And it could encourage developers to "build up" instead of spreading out.
But this capital budget is a blueprint that repeats the errors made in cities such as Calgary -- errors that have helped drive Calgarians to Saskatoon looking for relief from the very gridlock and congestion that this year's capital plan promises to add to this city.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2007
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For the first time ever I think, I agree wholeheartedly with everything they say. I don't know how to paste it here, so I will have to direct you to the paper, but the gist is that the city should stop following the path toward sprawl, which has led Calgary and Edmonton to their current infrastructure and transit crises, and instead focus on filling in and densifying the core. Essentially, they are arguing that projects such as moving the city yards to allow downtown development and other incentives for infill and density, should take priority over suburban infrastructure. BTW, I think this would also lead to more and higher development downtown, which I think most on this forum support. I hope the council is listening. I intend to forward this to my councillor (it is so much easier when someone else writes it all down for you).
, I imagine it will follow a supply and demand argument detailing how restricting growth in the suburbs will lead to an increase in home prices across the board, or maybe the tired "people want privacy, they want a home, a garage, a yard, etc"....our society is forever hung up on the notion of an individual attaining the traditional ideal with all its associated status symbols, a concept no longer acceptable given the increasing costs to our environment and society itself. 
). Although, the report mentions the core has not been forgotten and lists the following initiatives:
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