Chapter Nine Planning Regional and Metropolitan Communities Introduction This chapter deals with the larger scale that planning have to encompass. The impacts of planning actions in a specific area might have effects in other areas. The planning profession need to consider larger realm, larger territories for the planning of communities. The two majors concerns for planning regional and metropolitan communities (the two side of this larger scale planning) is to plan the growth of a community and the development and conservation of natural resources. How does the scope of regional planning differ from that of community planning in terms of both the space being planned for and the content of plans? The Regional Planning Perspective Regional Planning differs from City planning by its issues and objective (many facets : built environment, natural environment, social and economic activities in large areas) and by its jurisdiction (no well defined boundaries). The roots of regional planning When : mid/late 19 th century Who : Frederick Leplay, Patrick Geddes (the two most prominent) Why : Growth and spread of cities endangered natural environment and capitalist and urban society endangered agrarian activities. Geddes observed : the growth of urban sprawl and the interdependence of linked cities need to plan together all the feature of a river basin trinity of factor to be observed : Folk, Place and Work To demonstrate the interdependence different settlement in the same region he drew his Valley Section. Garden City movement by Ebenezer Howard is also associated with Regional Planning. The river-basin planning region One of the oldest and most recognized way of planning at a regional scale is with watershed basin areas. One well known example is in with the Tennessee River and the Tennessee Valley Authority.
One of the idea linked with regional planning is regionalism, where there is a belief in a deep relation between a region and its inhabitants. This notion is hard to reconcile with rigid political boundaries. Characteristics of Regional Planning In general it is rooted in using natural resources wisely. Planning for watershed Planning for rural land resources Planning economic development in resource region Planning for large urban regions They have common characteristics 1. Deals with large areas 2. Concerned with location of activities and resource development (and their interactions) 3. Includes Social, Economic and Environmental Factors (man/nature balance) 4. No constitutional basis (each region has to form its own agency(ies) to implement planning. Usually applied by the province and can be advisory only (no power of implementation) or have actually power) The Problem of Regional Boundaries What defines a region? The boundaries are hard to define, they must reflect the boundaries of the government which might not be the ones of the natural environment. It is impossible to define neatly human activity as it is ever-changing. Political boundaries on the other hand are easier to define as they are usually longstanding. Canadian Experience in Regional Planning Started just prior to WWII and deals with two distinct situations : 1- Rural and non metropolitan regions (settlement and resources) a. Resource conservation and environment b. Maintaining and protection rural regions and communities c. Rejuvenating rural economy 2- Large urban and metropolitan regions (urban growth) Regional Planning for Resources, Conservation and the Environment Usually seen in the typical watershed basin planning, some example in Canada : - Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration ( soil and water conservation) - Maritime Marshland Rehabilitation Administration (reverse saltwater intrusion into coastal agricultural land) Doctrine of connection between humankind and the territory
Rural region Planning and Community Maintenance Respond to planning needs of low-density settled region, response to very specific problems such as : - Spill over from growing towns - Ribbon development along countryside road Quebec and BC set up agency to protect agricultural land. Regional Planning for rejuvenating rural economies Income of the country was focused on metropolis along the Saint Lawrence/Great lakes axis. Awareness of unequal development of the regions developed and led to agency imposed by the provinces on those regions. Local governments where not always pleased with this two level government. Was it really regional planning as its was mainly some actions took (in housing, infrastructure, education, etc) and no global plans were elaborated. The Bioregion and other approaches Bioregionalism : action oriented movement based on ecological principle Ecology and community vs land use and economic development. Three levels : biophysical (natural environment) inhabiting (communities) network (economic, political) What tends to appear in Canadian communities is the application of some bioregionalism principles. There is a need to negotiate new boundaries and new power to better deal with the regionalist approach. Planning for Metropolitan and City-Region in Canada Canada is leader in Metropolitan and City-Region Planning : Almost all of its 27 metropolitan areas have active planning agency. Nature and Origins Deals with allocation of land use, major public work and protecting the natural environments Three factors to remember : - scale of the territory involved o potential spread of urban development (over 1000 km 2 ) o different densities ( allow for agricultural and recreational space) - scale of the population o plan for separate areas for work, residence, shopping and leisure - inter-municipal setting for planning
o seek ways to blend competing aims for development in the interest of all citizens When and why : After WWII there was huge growth of population. This surge of growth created problems in the central cities such as : - aging physical environment - lack of vacant land The new suburbs where also faced with problems such as : - providing services (water, sweage, education, roads, ) - meagre financial resource available - need for new facilities to serve the entire metropolitan area (expressway, hospitals,etc) Challenge is the complexity of the problems and the coordination between the different actors. Organizational Approaches The first agencies where advisory only (first formal agency was in Winnipeg) but it became evident that achivement where limited without a level of government authorized to implement the planning policies, but the primacy according to municipality in handling their own affairs made it so the changes to more global planning was made. Metropolitan Toronto Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto : 13 local municipalities formed a federation but retained local responsabilities. The federation had charge of major regional services and facilities. It was provided by and Advisory Planning Board, and their jurisdiction was twice as large as the Metropolitan Toronto area. Later changes : Restructuration to lower number of municipalities (larger jurisdiction)) Metropolitan Winnipeg Chose a two tier system rather then a federation like Toronto. This system elected people directly from the population and created two level of government which created tension. The system was latter changed to a single tier system where all level where integrated. Other Metropolitan Areas Other Canadian example of Metropolitan planning approaches if you are really interested Planning the Form of the Metropolis Form defined by two main ideas : 1- Advent of the automobile created exploded cities
2- The desire to protect natural ecosystem of the metropolitan region. Taming the Exploding Metropolis Created by modern means of transportation and better communication systems. The urban area becomes larger and vaster and pushes away the country from the city because of the ever expanding suburbs. Formal recurrent ideal patterns : - Concentric City o Focused on sustaining the primary business center o Keep distance to center at a minimum o Concentrate travel movement in the center - Central City with satellite o Ebenezer Howard idea of Garden Cities o Core separated from Satellite Cities by Greenbelt o Core linked to Satellite Cities by high speed transportation o The Satellite Cities are connected to the core but partly self sufficient - Star-shaped/Finger plan City o The development is confined to radial corridor expanding from the city centre o Green area penetrate the Metropolitan Region in between the finger o Transportation corridor follows the fingers - Linear/ Ribbon City o Urban growth is spread in nodules along main transportation axis o There is a Greenbelt around the different nodules The Green Metropolis The natural environment and its protection must be part of the decision to the shape of cities. Ottawa and its Greenbelt Plan by French planner Jacques Greber for the region both side of the river (Ottawa and Hull (now Gatineau )). A Greenbelt surround the urban core of Ottawa, less then 8km away from the Parliement. To protect the greenbelt, the National Capital Comission was created in 1959 and expropriated people from the greenbelt to insure its protection. Toronto s Greenbelt Plan made in 2005 with purpose to - protect loss of agricultural land - protect natural heritage - provide a range of rural economic and social activities - enhance protection of special ecological places (such as Niagara Escarpment) and its main two goals - contain sprawl
- protect green space. Toronto greenbelt area is not protected by public ownership like Ottawa but by regulations and policies. Vancouver s Green Zones Green zones rather then a traditional greenbelt : - Natural mountain buffer - Protected agricultural land - Important ecological land - Parks and recreation area The emerging City-Region New spatial form appearing in second half of 20 th century and visible in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. They are larger, more complex, more diverse and more extensive. Their spatial impact is well beyond the metropolis boundaries and causes sever planning problems that are hard to resolve. For example the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) is called a mixture of mature cities, growing suburbs, newer edge cities and adjacent rural communities Reflections What is the appropriate area for which we should be planning? The boundaries for the areas we are planning fore will never be sufficient to encompass all its relation ships. Two important realizations : 1- how human and natural facets of our world are interconnected in spatial term 2- despite the need to plan with predetermined spatial units it is often necessary to consider the interface with other spatial units, adjacent and otherwise, to deal fully with the problems planners are confronting. How do the size and locational characteristics of small towns and rural areas affect planning probems and procedures? Personal questions and reflections - Difficulty of reconciling natural, cultural and political boundaries. Should political boundaries be rethought to merge with natural boundaries or with cultural boundaries? - Danger of sprawling metropolitan region to annihilate prime agricultural land and endanger their own subsistence and autonomy in terms of food and resources. - How to reconcile the different level of authority in huge metropolitan areas. The wishes and goal of a small community within the larger metropolis might not be
the same as the agency planning the whole city region. How do you merge both the local and regional planning vision? - Where is the place of the Province in planning regional metropolis. Is there planning between metropolis, to plan how they affect each other? Is there nationwide planning agency? (where do you stop in scale of planning the mega region) - The exploding city is based on individual automobile transportation. With the environmental concern of today, how can we rethink those models to encourage more ecological way of transport. Is it time to come back to the Imploded city and go by feet and bicycles? - There is a contradiction in the suburban wish to live by the rural/countryside and the ever expansion of the city due to suburbs, effectively pushing the open space further away from the core. Sorry its so long!! Come see me if you want clearer explanations! Sophie