Province Confirms Plan To Fight Urban Sprawl
Posted June 16, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
For many of us, living, shopping and working in the same neighbourhood is a nice dream – but it can only be that.
But the Ontario government wants to make that a reality in the next 25 years, officially unveiling its plan to stop the spread of urban sprawl in the province.
The outline, unveiled Friday in Mississauga, is to encourage more locally dense areas that allow residents to remain within walking distance of facilities that fulfill all their needs.
The idea: you can get there from here – and without a car. The plan calls for half of all new growth to be contained in already built-up areas. Growth on undeveloped land will be twice as dense as it is now, and minimum densities have been set for 25 city centres effective in 2031.
Farmland will be protected, pollution will be cut and we may finally return to the kind of community where everyone actually knows who lives nearby.
Ironically, in a concept that seeks to cut car travel, a lot of money will be spent fixing up our roads.
“Our government will expand Ontario highway systems by 130 kilometres,” promises Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield. “We will build 64 bridges in the province, and we will repair almost 1,600 kilometres of highways and repair 200 bridges.”
Among the highlights of what’s called the final “Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe”
- Stimulate economic prosperity
- Revitalize downtowns
- Encourage more compact communities, with services, shops and businesses close to home
- Preserve greenspace and agricultural lands
- Curb urban sprawl
- Cut down on car dependency
- Contribute to better air quality
- Spur transit investment, with $838 million being given to modernize facilities this year and $4.1 billion overall the next five years.
- Expansion of GO Transit facilities, including a new station in Mississauga
- Encourage more public transit use, especially in the G.T.A. with the new Greater Toronto Transportation Authority
- Promote a culture of conservation.
About two third of Ontario’s population currently live and work around the Golden Horseshoe. It’s estimated that will swell to 3.7 million within the next quarter century. And politicians are fearful about what might happen if all of them are forced to travel elsewhere to get to their place of work everyday.
