Here are a couple of letters in todays Herald that pertain to Plan It:
Plan on Plan It
Calgary HeraldApril 6, 2009
Re: "Don't crucify public planning," Jeff Kenworthy, Opinion, April 3.
It was a breath of fresh air to read Jeff Kenworthy's piece on sustainable planning and why Plan It is the right blueprint. He provides clear statistical comparisons such as Houstonians driving an average 21,000 km per year as compared to Calgarians who drove an average of 11,000 km per year. Then he paints simple visions of Houston, Stockholm and Calgary. I have not visited Houston or Stockholm, but I would only visit Houston to see what not to do in a planning sense.
Randal O'Toole, of the Cato Institute, touted Houston as the perfect example of good planning arising out of market forces. This may be the case for the developers; however, this is not the vision I hold for Calgary. The Houston model might work well for developers who are happy to develop the suburbs by passing on hidden costs to the inner city. However, loading such direct and indirect costs on taxpayers does not sound like the efficient operation of a free market to me.
Roy Wright,
Calgary
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Road map for future
Calgary Herald April 6, 2009
Re: "Who will build the Plan It vision without a market?" Paula Arab, Opinion, March 26.
Paula Arab is confused. She understands a free market requires government intervention such as zoning and urban boundaries. However, she believes Plan It is "offside" with the development industry. Instead, some in the development industry are offside with what Calgarians want. As Arab acknowledges, Calgarians want vibrant, complete communities--inner city and suburban. Many in the development industry are ready and willing to meet that demand. However, a vocal minority want the city to spread further into the countryside, leaving taxpayers on the hook for the roads, transit, schools and other infrastructure those developers will not provide. Plan It is only "fundamentally flawed" for those developers. Except for Randal O'Toole and others from the fringe, experts know a "convoluted report" is needed to provide the future Calgarians want.
Susan Stratton,
Calgary
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