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Fantastic photo essay on sprawl

Kaid Benfield

Posted December 8, 2008 at 2:00PM

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I have raved in here, and just about everywhere I go, about the land use plan (Places to Grow) developed by the Canadian province of Ontario for the "Greater Golden Horseshoe" region around Toronto.  The plan does everything right, designating areas for revitalization and growth, establishing transect-based minimum densities, and preserving a 2-million-acre greenbelt beyond the growth area, among other great features, all backed by the force of law.  It's the best land use plan I have ever seen, and apparently new urbanist icon Peter Calthorpe agrees.

For an incredibly good photo essay on why the Places to Grow framework is needed, and why a backlash against suburban sprawl in Ontario may have been inevitable, visit Price Tags, the online publication of Gordon Price, Director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.  The essay builds its story around an "Edge City" north of Toronto called Vaughan, a place all too typical of sprawl development south of the border as well.  Click here or on any of the teaser images below to go to the full story.  It's fantastic:

 

     Price Tags cover     "Things were so large . . ." 

     "There is a Colossus Drive in Vaughan . . ."     "The Colossus sits next to a huge interchange . . ."

 

Price warns that the same problems typified by Vaughan in Ontario lurk near Vancouver, and that similar regional action is necessary in that part of the country.  This is great stuff, and I look forward to reading/viewing more of Price Tags in the future.