North America’s Best Model for Smart Growth Planning

A recent article in The Atlantic highlights Ontario’s “Places to Grow” framework as North America’s best plan for managing growth and development. The province adopted the plan into law in 2005 and expects that when fully implemented it will: 

• place special emphasis on development in downtowns, transit corridors, and major transit station areas;
• allow municipalities to designate “greenfield” areas for development that must create “complete communities” (e.g., streets that support transit services, walking, biking, and parks); and
• by 2015, have at least 25% of each municipalities new residential growth occur within existing or formerly developed land (e.g. building on vacant parcels and converting brownfields) rather than forest or farmland.

The article notes that the law requires local planning decisions to conform to policies in the regional plan and allows the provincial government, if discrepancies arise, to amend municipal decisions.