Originally Posted by viperred88
Winnipeg Free Press
Top planner rips city in final report
East gets job with province, says civic politicians ignore long-term issues
Sat Feb 16 2008
By Joe Paraskevas
WINNIPEG -- the unplanned city?
Civic politicians and administrators put a low priority on urban planning, said Jacqueline East, who left her job as the city's planning and land use manager for a new one with the provincial government.
When it comes to long-range planning, East said, Winnipeg has no one working on it at all.
Mayor Sam Katz and St. Norbert Coun. Justin Swandel, chairman of the city's planning, property and development committee, challenged her claims.
"I don't agree whatsoever," Katz said. "I don't think there's a low priority from elected officials on the planning, property and development department whatsoever."
But East, in a report this week to council, said it's obvious from the number of planning staff the city employs.
Winnipeg, population 650,000, employed 19 planning staff in 2006. By comparison, London, Ont., a city of only 350,000, had 27 planners. Hamilton, at 510,000, had 57 planners on staff. Edmonton had 58 and Calgary had more than 100.
The shortage of staff will have an impact on how city hall manages Winnipeg's growth over the next 10 or more years, said East.
She said city hall remains focused on the present rather than the location and infrastructure of future residential and industrial neighbourhoods.
"There's very few people that want to think about what's happening 10 or 20 years out," East said in an interview. "Some of the big developers are interested in doing that because that's how they invest and make their money. (But) it's hard to get people (at city hall) interested in thinking that far down the road when there's issues today, crises today."
Her report said Winnipeg had nobody dedicated to long-range planning -- looking at how the city will develop in the range of 10-20 years. London dedicated six people to the task, Edmonton has 20 and Hamilton, 35.
Her report also questioned the effectiveness of Plan Winnipeg, the city's often-cited, major planning document, saying it should contain "the policy elements and detail necessary to serve as a pragmatic land-use plan."
"In Winnipeg, we don't have that commitment to urban planning that other cities have," East said.
Planning for Waverley West, the 11,000-unit housing development in southwest Winnipeg, on which construction is beginning, would have proceeded more smoothly if the city had had more planners.
"We just would have known ahead of time that we needed to designate the land (for residential use rather than agriculture) and we would have started the planning ahead of time so that it wasn't such a crisis-driven process," East said.
Swandel challenged the report and East's interpretation. He said the planning department's $40-million budget last year was just shy of the $41.5 million Edmonton devoted to its planning department. Winnipeg committed $3.8 million to land-use planning, Swandel added. Ottawa, with an overall budget twice as large as Winnipeg's, committed $3.87 million to its "community and planning design."
"When you compare apples to apples in those other cities, we're getting the job done," Swandel said.
The city was continuing its search for East's successor, Katz said, adding that the appointment could determine the future number of city-employed planners. He said cuts to the planning department occurred more than a decade ago.
Planning: a comparison
City, Population, Planners
London, Ont., 350,000, 27
Hamilton, 510,000, 57
Winnipeg, 650,000, 19
Edmonton, 730,000, 58
Calgary, 1,019,000, 100+
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