After all the work that has been done on Plan It Calgary (the City's transportation and Municipal Development Plan); it got me thinking about HRM's Regional Plan, which is set to expire around 2026/2027. While that may be 16 years away, when you think about the fact it will probably take 4 to 5 years of study, development of policy and consultation plus probably a year to implement - that takes us down to 10 years time. So really; not that much time at all.
When I was doing my geography degree, I don't remember much fan fare about the regional plan - it seemed terribly uninspiring to people until HRM got a ministerial order to limit subdivision's in the rural areas (because developers were trying to get as many lots created as possible before the plan came into effect - boy were they pissed when the limitations hit. I remember one developer (who will remain nameless) calling HRM staff totalitarians and hitler-esque). I helped work on Plan It as a member of COC staff and that was the total opposite.
It got me thinking about how the next regional plan should consider things. It seems to me we all agree that Downtown Dartmouth should have time to grow up - so once development starts filling up Halifax DT, Dartmouth seems the next logical step. When I look at the opportunity sites that the Regional Plan shows, I'm surprised how many places they haven't identified (like Agricola Street/Robie with the car dealership or Quinpool as a mixed use corridor or upzoning around bus stations in Dartmouth).
This makes me think about how I'd like to see the regional plan go for the next time around; how the consultation should be bigger, bolder and more out there. Why not take a queue from Calgary? We may not always get things right; but the public awareness campaign was quite good (I must compliment Plan It's Manager Pat Gordon - she was so fun!).
One thing I would suggest is a catchy title - Plan HRM or VisionHRM or something. Next; get out there and get the people interested. One thing Plan It had which was amazing was the Plan It summit. The first part was the 'build it' component; where volunteers from community associations, developers, industry, students etc. were divided up into groups and sat at huge 10 feet by feet aerial shots of parts of Calgary. It was basically a design charette; where each group was told the projected growth (or in my group's case, decline) of population, jobs etc. With wooden pieces, you indicated where everything went - how roads and transportation could be upgraded. We even added more parks. That took place over 2 mornings. In the afternoon was the summit, with keynote speakers and then break out sessions. One of the keynote speakers was
Ken Greenberg (from the Toronto Waterfront video posted in the Bedford Plan string). We also had
Jeff Kenworthy from Austrailia - both were great speakers. I'd like to see something like this for HRM; but maybe include as well some other speakers.
One of the other things HRM should do is something like these ad's I've posted - to get people to think about the plan; when it's going. But what I want people to think about is how the region should grow especially if we're going to try to downplay traffic, densify and cut down on sprawl. The current plan only accepts 25% of development in the inner city; I suspect as the city grows; that will naturally go up to as much as 40% with infill development in neighbourhoods like Fairview/Clayton Park.
I want to get people thinking about this; because 10 years goes by quickly and hopefully I'll be working in HRM when the plan is being developed. So i'd like some ideas to swipe...I mean borrow.
Here are some photos from Plan It and the Ad's, but I'd be interested to see how people think about this and what opportunities they see for infill, sensative development plus also how would/should greenfield development be (higher density, minimum density numbers?).
• Video Link
I couldn't embed this one; but here is one on
Garrison Woods done by my coworker Wilf. Another about
Plan It Calgary.