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Planners try for live-work balance
Aiming to cut commutes by building homes near jobs
Municipalities look to York's Viva system as transit model
Sep. 11, 2006. 05:37 AM
JIM WILKES
STAFF REPORTER
As the 905 region around Toronto heads into a fall election, municipalities face the twin challenges of managing residential growth and luring new jobs to allow people to work close to where they live.
It's a strategy imperative to preventing greater congestion on our roads, say planning professionals, who concede Greater Toronto could be heading for a commuting nightmare where two-way rush hours rarely end.
"The live-work relationship is one of the most important indicators of how we're doing," said John Waller, director of long range and strategic planning for York Region.
"The closer people live to where they work, the better it is for us and for their quality of life. We think that one of the most effective strategies to deal with congestion is to provide a wide range of jobs for people in our own area."
Less than half of York's 460,000-strong labour force leaves the region to go to work each day, most heading into Toronto. An equal number comes into the region to work from surrounding areas.
Giving more residents the chance of working closer to home is key to managing growth across York and the rest of the 905, Waller said.
And a key piece of that puzzle is offering better public transit or making jobs accessible to those eager to walk or cycle to work.
Waller said that transit ridership in York is up 38 per cent since its Viva bus system was introduced last year. Buses are connected to dispatchers by satellite to keep them running on time and, should they fall behind schedule, dispatch can keep green lights running longer to help them catch up.
It's programs like Viva that have other municipalities salivating as they face similar challenges.
Although transit and development planning are the responsibilities of local governments, Nick Tunnacliffe, Peel's planning commissioner, knows the struggles they face.
In Peel since 2001, he also spent 30 years in Ottawa-Carleton's planning department, several as commissioner there.
"In Ottawa, we built the Transitway, a tremendous transit system, for $400 million," Tunnacliffe said. "The province paid for three-quarters of it, so the municipality could afford the balance.
"But once downloading came under (Ontario Premier) Mike Harris in 1996, municipalities just couldn't afford to invest in transit. Since that happened, the only real transit operation that's been built is the Sheppard subway, which had already been committed to.
"The GTA is growing each year by 100,000 people  the size of the City of Kingston. So in the 10 years since then, we've added a million people.
"But we don't even know  there's no agreement  where the next investment should be," he said. "Whatever it is, it will probably be five years before it gets environmental assessment approval and another five years to build. So we'll have added another million people by then.
`We can't provide space for everybody to drive their car at will.'
Nick Tunnacliffe, Peel planning commissioner
"Now that's two million people added, using the same infrastructure we had in 1996, other than the Sheppard subway. No wonder there's congestion."
Tunnacliffe said it's important to manage development and help business join the outward growth in the 905, where too often the wide separation of land uses makes short commutes impossible. "By having jobs closer to where people live, it gives people the opportunity to choose to live close to where they work and either walk or bike or take transit," he said.
"The biggest employment area in the GTA is in Peel, and to a lesser extent in Toronto and Vaughan, around Pearson airport. It's one vast employment area, so big that people can't walk and bike to work there.
"We have to get more fine-grained land use, which means probably denser residential living so it can support more service jobs. Let's face it, Canada's not likely to get many new factories or manufacturing industries. We're going to be more of a service industry-oriented economy.
"So those sorts of office and commercial uses can fit in relatively well, so long as they respect the scale of the residential that is around."
To help make that happen smoothly, the region has created a project called Liveable Peel, which aims to peer 30 to 50 years into the future and help balance services for residents down the road.
"One of the biggest changes will be demography," Tunnacliffe said. "Increasingly, you're going to have more older people, maybe working part-time or not working at all.
"So you'll need fewer jobs per 100,000 people and they'll have different demands for services."
The housing market will change, too. "Even in Peel now, apartments and multiple housing stock are increasing more rapidly than single-family units," he said. "People are unwilling to put up with the bad effects of sprawl, primarily related to transportation  long journeys to shops and schools.
"And while single-family houses are now out of reach for many people, condominiums are still affordable, so it's a way for people to get into the market."
Brampton implemented a cap on new residential development at the outer edges of its urban area last year.
"While this is limiting the amount of greenfield growth, opportunities remain for redevelopment within already developed areas," he said. "That's causing developers to rethink their plans."
An example, he said, is a Mattamy Homes residential development on Queen St., just east of Brampton's downtown core, on a former car dealership lot.
But Tunnacliffe said it all comes back to transit.
Peel's official plan, prepared in 1996, was based on 1991-96 data, which showed that transit accounted for 10 per cent of peak-period trips. Officials assumed that over a 20-year period, that would grow to 20 per cent, but it has dropped to 8 per cent.
"So we're going in the wrong direction," he said, adding that while Brampton and Mississauga have started to increase levels of service, transit development in the 905 doesn't seem to be a priority. "We should be building so many kilometres of subway lines a year, adding streetcar lines, adding hundreds of buses each year.
"And it's going to require a real shifting of minds to change the way people think and live their lives. We can't provide space for everybody to drive their car at will."
Planners try for live-work balance
Aiming to cut commutes by building homes near jobs
Municipalities look to York's Viva system as transit model
Sep. 11, 2006. 05:37 AM
JIM WILKES
STAFF REPORTER
As the 905 region around Toronto heads into a fall election, municipalities face the twin challenges of managing residential growth and luring new jobs to allow people to work close to where they live.
It's a strategy imperative to preventing greater congestion on our roads, say planning professionals, who concede Greater Toronto could be heading for a commuting nightmare where two-way rush hours rarely end.
"The live-work relationship is one of the most important indicators of how we're doing," said John Waller, director of long range and strategic planning for York Region.
"The closer people live to where they work, the better it is for us and for their quality of life. We think that one of the most effective strategies to deal with congestion is to provide a wide range of jobs for people in our own area."
Less than half of York's 460,000-strong labour force leaves the region to go to work each day, most heading into Toronto. An equal number comes into the region to work from surrounding areas.
Giving more residents the chance of working closer to home is key to managing growth across York and the rest of the 905, Waller said.
And a key piece of that puzzle is offering better public transit or making jobs accessible to those eager to walk or cycle to work.
Waller said that transit ridership in York is up 38 per cent since its Viva bus system was introduced last year. Buses are connected to dispatchers by satellite to keep them running on time and, should they fall behind schedule, dispatch can keep green lights running longer to help them catch up.
It's programs like Viva that have other municipalities salivating as they face similar challenges.
Although transit and development planning are the responsibilities of local governments, Nick Tunnacliffe, Peel's planning commissioner, knows the struggles they face.
In Peel since 2001, he also spent 30 years in Ottawa-Carleton's planning department, several as commissioner there.
"In Ottawa, we built the Transitway, a tremendous transit system, for $400 million," Tunnacliffe said. "The province paid for three-quarters of it, so the municipality could afford the balance.
"But once downloading came under (Ontario Premier) Mike Harris in 1996, municipalities just couldn't afford to invest in transit. Since that happened, the only real transit operation that's been built is the Sheppard subway, which had already been committed to.
"The GTA is growing each year by 100,000 people  the size of the City of Kingston. So in the 10 years since then, we've added a million people.
"But we don't even know  there's no agreement  where the next investment should be," he said. "Whatever it is, it will probably be five years before it gets environmental assessment approval and another five years to build. So we'll have added another million people by then.
`We can't provide space for everybody to drive their car at will.'
Nick Tunnacliffe, Peel planning commissioner
"Now that's two million people added, using the same infrastructure we had in 1996, other than the Sheppard subway. No wonder there's congestion."
Tunnacliffe said it's important to manage development and help business join the outward growth in the 905, where too often the wide separation of land uses makes short commutes impossible. "By having jobs closer to where people live, it gives people the opportunity to choose to live close to where they work and either walk or bike or take transit," he said.
"The biggest employment area in the GTA is in Peel, and to a lesser extent in Toronto and Vaughan, around Pearson airport. It's one vast employment area, so big that people can't walk and bike to work there.
"We have to get more fine-grained land use, which means probably denser residential living so it can support more service jobs. Let's face it, Canada's not likely to get many new factories or manufacturing industries. We're going to be more of a service industry-oriented economy.
"So those sorts of office and commercial uses can fit in relatively well, so long as they respect the scale of the residential that is around."
To help make that happen smoothly, the region has created a project called Liveable Peel, which aims to peer 30 to 50 years into the future and help balance services for residents down the road.
"One of the biggest changes will be demography," Tunnacliffe said. "Increasingly, you're going to have more older people, maybe working part-time or not working at all.
"So you'll need fewer jobs per 100,000 people and they'll have different demands for services."
The housing market will change, too. "Even in Peel now, apartments and multiple housing stock are increasing more rapidly than single-family units," he said. "People are unwilling to put up with the bad effects of sprawl, primarily related to transportation  long journeys to shops and schools.
"And while single-family houses are now out of reach for many people, condominiums are still affordable, so it's a way for people to get into the market."
Brampton implemented a cap on new residential development at the outer edges of its urban area last year.
"While this is limiting the amount of greenfield growth, opportunities remain for redevelopment within already developed areas," he said. "That's causing developers to rethink their plans."
An example, he said, is a Mattamy Homes residential development on Queen St., just east of Brampton's downtown core, on a former car dealership lot.
But Tunnacliffe said it all comes back to transit.
Peel's official plan, prepared in 1996, was based on 1991-96 data, which showed that transit accounted for 10 per cent of peak-period trips. Officials assumed that over a 20-year period, that would grow to 20 per cent, but it has dropped to 8 per cent.
"So we're going in the wrong direction," he said, adding that while Brampton and Mississauga have started to increase levels of service, transit development in the 905 doesn't seem to be a priority. "We should be building so many kilometres of subway lines a year, adding streetcar lines, adding hundreds of buses each year.
"And it's going to require a real shifting of minds to change the way people think and live their lives. We can't provide space for everybody to drive their car at will."