Theory and Practice in Planning the Suburbs: Challenges to Implementing New Urbanism, Smart Growth, and Sustainability Principles1

Although municipalities across Canada have adopted principles of new urbanism, smart growth, and sustainability in their planning and policy documents, new suburbs continue to reveal the influence of conventional development practices. This paper examines challenges to implementing new planning principles and reveals some of the ways that the development market selectively resists planning objectives in three Canadian urban areas. Interviews with planners, councillors, and representatives of the development industry indicate that, while land cost pressures contribute to increasing suburban densities, developers may challenge planning principles related to urban form and function. The study finds that weak political commitment and market pressures frustrate planners' desires to create accessible and open communities. Conceptual distinctions between planning approaches important to theory become blurred in practice.

[1]  Dan Emerine,et al.  This is Smart Growth , 2006 .

[2]  Linda C. Dalton,et al.  Emerging Knowledge about Planning Practice , 1989 .

[3]  J. Jacobs,et al.  Living Room: Rematerialising Home , 2008 .

[4]  Alex Krieger,et al.  Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk : towns and town-making principles , 1991 .

[5]  B. Brenner.  The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape , 1999 .

[6]  Jeffrey Zimmerman.  THE “NATURE” OF URBANISM ON THE NEW URBANIST FRONTIER: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, OR DEFENSE OF THE SUBURBAN DREAM? , 2001 .

[7]  Randall Crane,et al.  On Form versus Function: Will the New Urbanism Reduce Traffic, or Increase It? , 1995 .

[8]  P. Filion.  The Urban Policy-making and Development Dimension of Fordism and Post-Fordism: A Toronto Case Study , 2001 .

[9]  Charles C. Bohl.  Place Making: Developing Town Centers, Main Streets, and Urban Villages , 2002 .

[10]  H. Lund.  Testing the Claims of New Urbanism: Local Access, Pedestrian Travel, and Neighboring Behaviors , 2003 .

[11]  Emily Talen,et al.  Do Plans Get Implemented? A Review of Evaluation in Planning , 1996 .

[12]  P. Calthorpe,et al.  THE REGIONAL CITY: PLANNING FOR THE END OF SPRAWL. , 2001 .

[13]  J. Grant,et al.  New urbanism developments in Canada: a survey , 2008 .

[14]  G. Brundtland,et al.  Our common future , 1987 .

[15]  I. Audirac.  Stated Preference for Pedestrian Proximity: An Assessment of New Urbanist Sense of Community , 1999 .

[16]  William E. Rees,et al.  The ecology of sustainable development. , 1990 .

[17]  J. Jacobs.  The Death and Life of Great American Cities , 1962 .

[18]  Kenneth Olden,et al.  Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities , 2005, Environmental Health Perspectives.

[19]  J. Grant.  Planning the Good Community: New Urbanism in Theory and Practice , 2005 .

[20]  M. Buzzelli,et al.  Cities as the Industrial Districts of Housebuilding , 2006 .

[21]  A. Skaburskis.  New Urbanism and Sprawl , 2006 .

[22]  P. Berke,et al.  Are We Planning for Sustainable Development? , 2000 .

[23]  J. Grant.  Exploring the influence of New Urbanism in community planning practice [Canada] , 2003 .

[24]  J. Grant.  Mixed Use in Theory and Practice: Canadian Experience with Implementing a Planning Principle , 2002 .

[25]  John Punter,et al.  The Vancouver Achievement: Urban Planning and Design , 2003 .

[26]  E. Talen.  New Urbanism, Social Equity, and the Challenge of Post-Katrina Rebuilding in Mississippi , 2008 .

[27]  Ivonne Audirac,et al.  An Evaluation of Neotraditional Design's Social Prescription: Postmodern Placebo or Remedy for Suburban Malaise? , 1994 .

[28]  L. Bourne.  The urban sprawl debate: Myths, realities and hidden agendas , 2001 .

[29]  Randall G. Arendt,et al.  Charter of the New Urbanism , 1999 .

[30]  W. Frey.  Melting Pot Suburbs: A Census 2000 Study of Suburban Diversity , 2001 .

[31]  Sim Van der Ryn,et al.  Sustainable communities : a new design synthesis for cities, suburbs, and towns , 1986 .

[32]  A. Duany,et al.  Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream , 2000 .

[33]  J. Sewell.  The Shape of the City: Toronto Struggles with Modern Planning , 1993 .

[34]  David L. A. Gordon,et al.  Large-scale Traditional Neighbourhood Development and Pre-emptive Ecosystem Planning: The Markham Experience, 1989-2001 , 2002 .

[35]  Karen E. Till,et al.  (RE)PLACING THE NEW URBANISM DEBATES: TOWARD AN INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH AGENDA , 2001 .

[36]  Evan Mckenzie.  Constructing The Pomerium in Las Vegas: A Case Study of Emerging Trends in American Gated Communities , 2005 .

[37]  Richard Harris,et al.  Small is Transient: Housebuilding Firms in Ontario, Canada 1978-98 , 2003 .

[38]  M. Neuman.  Notes on the Uses and Scope of City Planning Theory , 2005 .

[39]  D J O'Neill,et al.  The Smart Growth Tool Kit: Community Profiles and Case Studies to Advance Smart Growth Practices , 2000 .

[40]  Ajay Garde,et al.  New Urbanism as Sustainable Growth? , 2004 .

[41]  P. Filion,et al.  Smart Growth and Development Reality: The Difficult Co-ordination of Land Use and Transport Objectives , 2007 .

[42]  K. Al-Hindi,et al.  THE NEW URBANISM: WHERE AND FOR WHOM? INVESTIGATION OF AN EMERGENT PARADIGM , 2001 .

[43]  Elizabeth Macdonald,et al.  Street-facing Dwelling Units and Livability: The Impacts of Emerging Building Types in Vancouver's New High-density Residential Neighbourhoods , 2005 .

[44]  E R Alexander,et al.  Planning and Plan Implementation: Notes on Evaluation Criteria , 1989 .

[45]  P. Filion.  Towards Smart Growth? the Difficult Implementation of Alternatives to Urban Dispersion , 2003 .

[46]  D. Kelbaugh.  The Pedestrian pocket book : a new suburban design strategy , 1996 .

[47]  Bonnie Benard,et al.  The developers , 2006 .

[48]  J. Last.  Our common future. , 1987, Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique.

[49]  Don Luymes,et al.  PRIVATOPIA: HOMEOWNER ASSOCIATIONS AND THE RISE OF RESIDENTIAL PRIVATE GOVERNMENT , 1996, Landscape Journal.

[50]  P. Katz.  The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community , 1993 .

[51]  David L. A. Gordon,et al.  Gross Density and New Urbanism: Comparing Conventional and New Urbanist Suburbs in Markham, Ontario , 2005 .