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From 2015 to 2017, UrbanToronto and its sister publication, SkyriseCities, ran an occasional series of articles under the heading Explainer. Each one took a concept from Urban Planning, Architecture, Construction, or other topics that often wind up in our publications, and presented an in depth look at it. It's time to revisit (and update where necessary) those articles for those new to UrbanToronto. While you may already know what some of these terms mean, others may be new to you. We will be (re)publishing Explainer on a weekly basis.
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With unprecedented demand for new housing and warehousing space in our cities, the redevelopment of previously developed sites — known as brownfields — has become much more widespread in the past couple of decades; redeveloped brownfields provide an opportunity for renewal and efficient use of limited space in urban areas where services are already located. By cleaning up these often post-industrial wastelands and returning them to a usable state, some of the pressure is lowered to develop natural swaths of green space and rich agricultural land around our urban centres. Not all of the pressure disappears though, and undeveloped areas of land that are currently used for agriculture, or that have been left to evolve naturally, can still be targeted for development. These sites are known as greenfields.
Developing greenfield sites has become an evermore contentious issue, due to the both the direct environmental impact involved for the site, and for the costs that municipalities bear to extend their service infrastructure to new areas. Building on greenfields can mean a loss in agricultural production and employment, destruction of plant and animal habitats, and a potential degradation in recreational use of the land, the new development, typically on the edge of cities, usually promotes more private vehicle use that clogs roads.
The issue is particularly relevant in the Greater Toronto Area, where demand for housing is fueling a push to weaken Greenbelt protection around the region, and is behind a plan by the current provincial government to pave over much the of the Greenbelt for a new expressway, Highway 413, that would benefit greenfield developers lookimng to build new subdivisions close to the highway at the expense of the environment and the municipalities.
In the meantime, do you have other planning terms that you would like to see featured on Explainer? Share your comments and questions in the comments section below!
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Want to read other Explainers? Click on the magenta Explainer box at the top of the page.
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