Plan It Calgary and the City of the Future
Municipal Land Use Planning Using Sustainable Principles
Mar 30, 2009
The city of Calgary foresees more than doubling its current population of one million people over the next 50 to 60 years. This growth begs the question, where will all these new people go? Calgary has an unenviable reputation for suburban sprawl. It has a footprint the same size as New York City but a population only one-tenth the size.
Calgary is no stranger to rapid urban development. In the past, the city has accommodated growth by expanding on its periphery with new suburban development. Reliable economic models of urban growth have demonstrated that this business-as-usual approach is costly to maintain and undermines the environment and public health. In public consultations and surveys, more than 80 percent of Calgarians have indicated they want the city to adopt principles for more sustainable growth.
Over the last two years, Calgary has developed a prototype for urban development designed to protect the environment and contribute to the creation of vibrant communities. The Plan It Calgary project, approved by City Council and involving the city’s planning and transportation departments, has been responsible for creating new municipal development and transportation plans to guide future growth.
Context for Change
Like many other North American cities, Calgary is changing demographically.
- The population is aging and not replacing itself; future growth will come from immigration.
- Existing residents are beginning to look for housing options besides the suburban model of a single family home.
- New arrivals and younger people cannot afford the single family home; many also prefer to live in communities closer in to the center of the city.
A key feature of suburban sprawl is low population densities; newer suburbs have a density of about 7 people per acre. To make public transportation systems affordable and effective, densities of at least 13-14 people per acre or about 35 people per hectare are required. As long as sprawl is the model for development, the automobile will prevail as the primary method of transit. With extensive use of the automobile come a host of other problems.
It is against this context of demographic change and Calgarians’ preference to develop more sustainably that Plan It Calgary has undertaken its work.
Integrated Design Process
The Plan It Calgary process kicked off in January 2007 with a decision by City Council to endorse 11 principles of sustainable growth for land use and transportation planning. These principles were derived from three sources:
- The imagineCALGARY vision, the outcome of a process that engaged more than 18,000 citizens in imaging what they wanted their future city to resemble
- Smart growth principles employed by many North American cities
- City of Calgary policy direction
The Plan It team set to work exploring the implications of these principles through a process called scenario planning. Three scenarios were investigated to understand the ramifications of incorporating different approaches to achieving more sustainable growth.
The methodology for Plan It provided a framework for integrating long-range strategic planning for land use and transportation. In the past, plans for these two aspects were separately conceived. By considering both factors in tandem, Plan It created a bridge between sustainable design principles and transportation networks that will support sustainable development in practice. More than 5000 citizens participated in design workshops, forums and surveys as the scenario planning moved forward.
The key outcome from this integrated process has been the recognition the city needs to move towards a more compact urban form. Continued growth through sprawl is unsustainable not only ecologically and socially, but also because it will undermine Calgary’s economic competitiveness. In the long run, it is more expensive to service urban sprawl than to increase densities and transportation efficiencies.
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