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Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability

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The emergence of smart growth intensification in Toronto: environment and economy in the new official plan
Susannah Bunce Version of record first published: 23 Jan 2007.

To cite this article: Susannah Bunce (2004): The emergence of smart growth intensification in Toronto: environment and economy in the new official plan, Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability, 9:2, 177-191 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1354983042000199525

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Local Environment, Vol. 9, No. 2, 177191, April 2004

ARTICLE

The Emergence of Smart Growth Intensication in Toronto: environment and economy in the new Ofcial Plan
SUSANNAH BUNCE
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ABSTRACT There has been a recent popularization of Smart Growth planning in North American cities. Based upon the aim to decrease the impacts of sprawled regional development on the natural environment, a focus of Smart Growth planning is the intensication of both population and physical development in existing urban areas. Faced with the creation of a new Ofcial Plan for the City of Toronto, municipal planners have chosen urban intensication as the vision for planning in Toronto over the next thirty years. This paper examines the nature of intensication planning in Toronto through an analysis of the language of urban intensication found in the Ofcial Plan vision report. Within this report, emphasis is placed upon the role of intensied development and compact population growth as a solution to the environmental problems of urban sprawl. This paper argues that the environmental aspects of intensication provide a more acceptable public rationale for future intensication processes in Toronto; moreover, that the main rationale for intensication in Toronto is not to solve regional sprawl but to create compact urban districts in order to enhance the economic and physical revitalization of the city. The language of intensication in the Ofcial Plan vision report suggests that urban intensication, particularly in Torontos downtown core, is a strategy for the development of more livable and vibrant residential and commercial areas. The emphasis on intensied development is geared towards the attraction and maintenance of private investment and skilled labour and is a central part of the City of Torontos vision of economic growth.

Introduction Over the last decade there has been an increase in academic and policy writing on the concept of urban intensication as a solution to urban development and population sprawl. The notion of the compact city, based on ideas of increased population density, the reuse of existing urban infrastructure, and intensied residential and commercial streets, is increasingly considered to be a stronger model of urban development than current urban growth patterns (Breheny, 1992;
Susannah Bunce, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, Toronto, Canada. Email: sbunce@yorku.ca
1354-9839 Print/1469-6711 Online/04/020177-15 2004 Taylor & Francis Ltd. DOI: 10.1080/1354983042000199525

S. Bunce Rogers & Gumuchdijan, 1997; Rogers & Power, 2000; Beatley, 2000). As a term rst popularized in the United States in the 1990s, with cities such as Portland, Oregon paving the way with growth boundary policies (Stephenson, 1999), Smart Growth has entered into the everyday language of professional planners and other urban practitioners. Smart Growth policies have been considered a catch-all solution to urban sprawl (Krieger, 1999), connecting the environmental problems associated with sprawl with the scal dilemma of expanded urban development. Such policies in American cities have developed as strategies to decrease agricultural land encroachment, reduce the cost of public infrastructure and revitalize existing urban areas. The revitalization of urban areas in order to decrease regional expansion has been particularly aimed at the downtown core of cities through the intensication of existing urban spaces and uses. Intensication can be considered a combination of two subprocesses; the intensication of built form, such as the development of undeveloped land and the redevelopment of existing structures in cities, as well as an intensication of population activity. As Williams and colleagues (1999, 2000) note, intensied population activity usually involves an increase in the use of existing buildings and numbers of people living and working in existing areas, particularly the central city or downtown area. In the late 1990s, Smart Growth concepts were embraced in Canadian urban policy communities, particularly in Ontario with both the Conservative provincial government and the municipality of Toronto stressing urban growth management as an issue of major public concern. What is apparent in both the municipal and provincial Smart Growth plans is an overarching emphasis on the reuse of existent urban development and a densication of population in existing urban areas as a solution to urban sprawl. The City of Torontos planning vision report, Toronto at the Crossroads: Shaping Our Future, was published in 2000 as the vision for a new Ofcial Plan for Toronto. The vision report places a strong emphasis on these concepts as a way to strategize urban population growth in the city over the next thirty years (City of Toronto, 2000). The vision report for the new Ofcial Plan utilizes much of the rhetoric of Smart Growth to substantiate arguments for the intensication of existing urban areas in Toronto in order to address regional sprawl problems. The report contends that Toronto needs to grow in a smarter way (City of Toronto, 2000, p. 17) by improving both the environmental quality of life of the region and economic growth through intensication. Through an examination of the planning vision report that forms the basis of City of Torontos new Ofcial Plan, formally approved in October 2002, as well as the City of Torontos Central Waterfront Secondary Plan, this research takes a closer look at the language and assumptions of Smart Growth intensication in Toronto. At the time of this research, urban intensication is still at the policy formulation stage and has yet to be formally implemented in municipal planning practice. Yet, it is in the concepts and language of urban intensication before implementation that we are able to observe and understand the rationale and intent of intensication. Thus, this research seeks to develop a clearer critical analysis of the rationale and objectives of urban intensication in light of its increasing popularity in Torontos urban policy. It is important to clarify here that urban intensication is not a new planning policy or practice in 178

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Smart Growth Intensication in Toronto Toronto. Indeed, the focus on intensifying existing urban spaces, particularly the downtown core of Toronto, has been prevalent in Torontos planning discourse over the last decade. This policy focus on intensication or re-intensication has been consistently put forward by planning practitioners despite research that suggests that Toronto has continually maintained one of the highest urban density levels in North America (Goldberg & Mercer, 1986; Mercer, 1999; Fillion et al., 2002). The emphasis on intensication in Toronto can be found most clearly in the 1991 planning report commissioned by the City of Toronto entitled Guidelines for the Reurbanisation of Metropolitan Toronto, by Torontobased urban planning and design consultants Berridge, Lewinberg & Greenberg Ltd. The report supports intensication and increased population density in the existing city as the central thrust of re-urbanization, and relates future urban development patterns to the needs of a denser urban population (Berridge, Lewinberg & Greenberg Ltd, 1991). As Relph (2002) asserts, municipal planners relied upon the Berridge, Lewinberg & Greenberg report and installed intensication as a central planning strategy in Torontos former Ofcial Plan released in 1993. It is more recently in the late 1990s, however, that urban intensication has been linked to environmental issues related to regional growth as presented in Torontos new Ofcial Plan. Intensication policies in Toronto have now become inuenced by Smart Growth principles in which the protection of the natural environment from sprawled development is used as a public rationale for urban intensication policies and practices. This inuence derives from an increased interest in Smart Growth planning within professional planning discourse in Canada (Bourne, 2001). Bourne (2001) notes that along with increasing reliance on Smart Growth language in planning practices, there is a strong emphasis on the intensication of existing urban uses and spaces as being the antidote to urban sprawl. This discussion highlights two important aspects of the theoretical popularity of Smart Growth concepts and the increasing prevalence of these concepts within the public growth management debate in southern Ontario. Although in the Greater Toronto Area region (GTA),1 provincial and urban policy makers have embraced Smart Growth planning along with support for urban intensication, there has been very little debate about the language and meaning of Smart Growth intensication. While publicly accepted as a process that must occur, it is still largely dened within a framework that favors urban intensication over the negative impacts of regional sprawl. At the same time, within this policy support for Smart Growth planning there has been little discussion about the implications of urban intensication. Although intensication is viewed as a solution to sprawl, there has been a paucity of debate about what intensication really means for urban growth management and future urban development. In southern Ontario, where urban growth has been repeatedly emphasized as a major concern for the natural environment, human quality of life, and the economy of the GTA, a sense of urgency to intensify existing urban areas has developed. At the turn of the 21st century, the new Ofcial Plan for Toronto is the vision for Torontos development over the next thirty years. The plan also encompasses the emphasis spearheaded by municipal politicians to mold Toronto into a city worthy of global recognition, both culturally and economically. Since Torontos 179

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S. Bunce amalgamation in 1998,Torontos municipal government has focused on maintaining the citys hold as the nancial capital of Canada as well as pursuing economic growth tactics such as the now defunct 2008 Olympic Bid and privatepublic partnerships for the major redevelopment of the waterfront. The City of Torontos recent attempts to mold itself into a global competitive city have been documented by Keil and Kipfer (2002a; 2002b.). They note that, by extension, urban planning in Toronto has increasingly become an avenue through which capitalist urbanization is enhanced and where municipal planners act as conduits for private investment practices (Keil & Kipfer, 2002a). In keeping with this, the new Ofcial Plan vision report allies itself with language that espouses the benets of economic competitiveness, yet at the same time uses Smart Growth principles to address regional sprawl. The language of urban intensication as a solution to regional sprawl is explicitly tied to strategies related to enhancing Torontos position as an economically successful city. The association between environmental protection and economic growth that is readily apparent in Smart Growth policy can be considered a cornerstone of ecological modernization theory. Ecological modernization has been dened by Gouldson and Murphy (1997) as a means by which capitalism can accommodate the environmental challenge (in Young, 2000, p. 75). The ability of economic growth strategies to encompass environmental aims can allow policy actors at different governmental scales to believe that environmental/ecological concerns are being effectively addressed without having to challenge structural dilemmas of capitalist development. As a result, policy actors can ignore the association between increasing economic growth and the deterioration of the natural environment (Desfor & Keil, 2003). While a thorough discussion of different perspectives of ecological modernization theory and practice is beyond the scope of this paper, ecological modernization theory provides an avenue for interpreting the City of Torontos Ofcial Plan vision. It can be argued that it is the concern of Toronto municipal planners and policy makers to effectively continue the development of municipal economic growth strategies yet also show that the municipality does have concern for environmental issues. It is the contention of this paper that the vision of intensication in the Ofcial Plan is the primary strategy used to justify and support a market-driven economic and physical revitalization plan of Torontos central city. Addressing regional sprawl, however, is used as a method of garnering public support for increased intensive development in existing urbanized areas. Thus, the environmental problems of regional sprawl serve as a public rationale for the primary municipal goal of increasing Torontos economic and land-use development through private-sector investment and the attraction of skilled, professional labour to the city. Protecting the Regional Environment from Sprawl: a public rationale for Smart Growth intensication The City of Torontos future implementation of intensied land use and a denser population relies upon the development of a public discourse of support for the concept of urban intensication. Such support is important for planners in facilitating amicable and effective implementation and limiting public opposition 180

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Smart Growth Intensication in Toronto to intensication processes. The development of a public discourse that encourages support for intensication is created in three ways in the Ofcial Plan vision report. Firstly, through the development of a sprawl versus intensication argument, based upon a supporting framework of environmental protection and quality of life issues. The language of this argument suggests that in order to halt sprawl, the available choice is the intensication of existing urban spaces. Regional environmental protection from sprawl and enhanced quality of life as a result of environmental protection are rationales for such a pro-intensication/ anti-sprawl argument. Secondly, the creation of public support for intensication comes through an insistence, forwarded by local politicians, architects and planners, and journalists,2 that intensication, particularly in the form of increased population density, will enhance a sense of vibrancy and livability in the central city. Here, language espousing the livable city is invoked to describe a supposed connection between an intensied population and denser spatial use and a heightened ability to reside and work in central Toronto. Lastly, such emphasis on livable urban spaces is used to support the central concern of the Ofcial Plan vision report, which is the need to enhance the citys capacity to attract and maintain skilled employment and private investment. The Toronto report contends that the city must be livable and culturally exciting in order to attract capital investment and the skilled employment that enhances it (City of Toronto, 2000). This assumption in favor of urban intensication, based on a layered public rationale of environmental protection, livability, and competitiveness, serves as the basis for the overarching thrust of economic growth in the new Ofcial Plan vision report. Municipal planners have predicted a population increase of 2.6 million between 1996 and 2031 in the GTA. The City of Toronto is expected to absorb 20% of this increase in population in the form of approximately 537,000 new residents and a projected 544,000 new jobs (City of Toronto, 2002, p. 7). While Torontos new Ofcial Plan does not serve as a comprehensive regional plan and is only meant as a vision for the political boundaries of the municipality of Toronto, there is a noticeable focus on the regional context as a framework for introducing intensication. The nod towards the GTA goes beyond simply situating the city within its region and illustrating the relationships between the regional cities and Toronto. The introduction of the plan describes the regional problem of urban growth as a concern for Toronto, even though the municipality itself is only forecasting the absorption of 20% of the projected population increase. The utilization of growth management as a policy framework for the plan, in light of the expected urbanization needed to carry a substantial increase in population, can be seen to provide a rationale for intensication within municipal boundaries. As well, the presentation of regional sprawl as a problem for the City of Toronto could be a less complex approach for municipal planners to explain why intensication is a guiding strategy for the plan. The emphasis on intensication as a solution to sprawled urbanization is most apparent in the introduction to the vision report of the Ofcial Plan. Through the presentation of Toronto in a regional context, the language of the plan refers to two main challenges to the citys future that underline the emphasis on intensication. The rst challenge concerns Torontos economic future. The vision plan states that 181

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S. Bunce globalization and new communications technology mean that jobs and investment can ow into our City [Toronto] with lightning speedor ow out it just as quickly (City of Toronto, 2000, p. 3). The second dilemma, stated as a concurrent challenge along with economic development, is the quality of the regional environment. The Ofcial Plan vision document reports that the population of the GTA continues to grow in unprecedented numbers, adding to the importance diversity and excitement of the area, but also creating unparalleled pressure on our environment (City of Toronto, 2000, p. 3). Here, the aim to protect the region from the environmental damages of sprawled development is placed alongside the need of Torontos municipal government to encourage economic development within Toronto. Interestingly, environmental protection is given a regional focus whereas the challenge of economic development appears to lack a regional context. One reason for this could be that sprawled development, the public rationale for intensication, is really a challenge to Torontos regional municipalities, rather than a direct challenge to the City of Toronto itself. The City of Torontos frontline role in directly addressing regional sprawl is limited, since gures of population projections show that future residency will continue to occur in regional municipalities such as Vaughan and York (Statistics Canada, 2002). Intensication is presented as the solution to both the economic and environmental dilemmas presented as primary challenges to the future of growth in Toronto. The Ofcial Plan vision report states that the city must accommodate as much population and job growth as possible within already built-up areas of Toronto and to include a higher density form of development (in the form of nodal development areas and corridors) (City of Toronto, 2000, p. 17). Such emphasis on accommodating population growth within Torontos boundaries is a consistent theme within the vision plan. The development of a sprawl versus intensication argument within the vision document and also by Torontos media and planning communities has created a public sense that supporting intensication is the only logical answer to the negative environmental impacts of sprawl. The reduction of urban growth management into an either/or choice is a strong component in the development of public support for intensication. One of the most important aspects of this argument is that it has appeared to galvanize traditional reformist political voices3 in Toronto to support the municipal plan to intensify residential and commercial spaces. Instead of presenting the more implicit central economic development focus of the new Ofcial Plan, an emphasis on environmental protection alongside economic development allows intensication to be supported by local environmental organizations. Hence, support for Smart Growth intensication, particularly in the form of denser residential neighborhoods, more accessible public transit, and pedestrian-centered streets, has been publicly encouraged by action-oriented environmental organizations such as the Ontario chapter of the Sierra Club and the Federation of Ontario Naturalists. For instance, promotional literature of the Federation of Ontario Naturalists shows support for Smart Growth planning and stresses the primary need to maintain urban growth within existing urban boundaries through compact urban development strategies (Federation of Ontario Naturalists, 2002). 182

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Smart Growth Intensication in Toronto The development of a sprawl or intensication argument also closes a space for a public critique of urban intensication among Toronto residents. What appears to be implicit in this argument is the assumption that that if residents do not endorse intensication, then they can be considered insensitive to regional environmental concerns. Such an assertion poses an interesting situation for local environmental advocates and activists as, in keeping with ecological modernization strategies, environmental concerns are placed at a crossroads with the language of economic development. Along with this, there is the potential for local environmental advocates to be posited on to a similar political platform as municipal politicians and planners who support the role of intensication as an economic development strategy. Such an intersection between preserving the regional environment and stimulating economic success in Toronto is evident in a recent newspaper article in the national newspaper the Globe and Mail. In this article, David Crombie, a former mayor of Toronto and current President of the Canadian Urban Institute, connects the notion of caring about the natural environment with support for more compact and economically successful cities (Crombie, 2001). This argument is consistent with Crombies political campaign of ecological modernization, supporting increased economic development alongside environmental revitalization projects, which was evident throughout the 1990s in Toronto (Keil & Graham, 1998). In this current support for intensication, an economic revitalization agenda for Toronto is presented through processes of residential and commercial intensication. However, throughout this assertion runs support for creating compact urban spaces in order to reduce the environmental problems of sprawl. It has been argued that the main dissent towards the Ofcial Plan is expected to come from middle-class ratepayers opposing the prospect of higher-density intensication near or in Torontos neighborhoods.4 Thus, the strategy of focusing on the environmental problems of sprawl has the potential to play an important role in the long-term political success of the new Ofcial Plan. This strategy is of particular importance within the context of a recent increase in public concern about the state of the natural environment in southern Ontario (Sandberg & Wekerle, 2002). Such an increase in public concern about the natural environment has been sparked by events such as the tainted water crisis in the rural town of Walkerton, and the public protest against residential development on the Oak Ridges Moraine.5 The need of the provincial Conservative government to address an increased public interest in environmental protection is best illuminated in their recently released Smart Growth Plan which addresses growth and development issues (Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, 2001). In the context of such increased public environmental concern, the focus on the environmental necessity of intensication processes has the potential to stir empathetic sentiment about the environment among prospective opponents of Torontos Ofcial Plan. The development of a sprawl versus intensication argument within Torontos plan report will provide a strategic rationale for municipal planners to provide to the public in planning meetings on intensication practices. It will allow municipal planners to portray a sensitive concern for environmental protection so as to support higher density residential and commercial developments on main streets and near existing 183

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S. Bunce residential neighborhoods. The municipal planning emphasis on increased pedestrian-friendly streets and closer proximity to public transit, through a more compact mode of living based on increased densities, also has appeal for environmental activists and organizations within Toronto itself. For instance, such environmental aspects of intensication may serve to entice grassroots environmental activists to support intensication processes at the potential expense of social justice concerns relating to the market-driven development thrust of the new Ofcial Plan vision.6 Many locally based environmental organizations and activists in Toronto have struggled to improve environmental conditions and increase the environmental awareness of municipal politicians and policies, particularly around such issues as alternative transportation methods and air quality (Fowler & Hartmann, 2002). Such a movement by municipal planners and politicians toward more compact urban development, presented with an environmental face, has the potential to be viewed as a progressive municipal policy emphasis in light of local environmental struggles and increased public concern over the current state of the natural environment. Toronto Competes: the search for livability and economic competitiveness through Smart Growth intensication In the fostering of public support for intensication, it is evident that the environmental language of intensication is a more effective and softer approach to selling the idea of intensication to Toronto residents. While the language used suggests that a more compact city decreases regional sprawl, the other focus of the planning vision suggests that intensication is a strategy for stimulating economic development processes within the city. In the vision report there is consistent evidence to suggest that Torontos planning vision associates increased intensication with a city that has appeal to both global and local economic investment. Accordingly, the spatial areas targeted for large-scale intensication correlate directly with the areas targeted for economic growth and reinvestment (City of Toronto, 2000). What is most striking about this connection is that the largest spatial area slated for intensication and economic growth is Torontos central downtown. Labeled as an Area for Major Growth and Investment, the downtown core is also the focus of one of ve campaigns in the vision report and is the only spatial area to have its own strategic campaign. In the chapter The Campaign for a Dynamic Downtown, the vision report places emphasis upon an association between a populated, physically and economically revitalized downtown and the citys ability to attract investment and a professionally skilled labour force. Here, the emphasis on the creation of livable city spaces is apparent, particularly in the discussion of the King/Spadina and King/Parliament districts of the downtown core. These districts are considered to be successful examples of progressive urban planning by municipal planners.7 As former industrial and manufacturing areas of the downtown, these areas have recently been re-zoned to allow for mixed residential, commercial, and light industry spaces, and increased height limits and densities. Such mixed land-use spaces have mostly occurred in industrial warehouses and mercantile buildings that have been 184

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Smart Growth Intensication in Toronto converted by private development rms. The most aesthetically striking and ubiquitous form of development in these two areas has been the construction of apartment or loft-style condominiums primarily marketed for purchase by young urban professionals (Warson, 1997). It is suggested in the vision report that the two mixed-use zoning districts will be a prototype for the redevelopment of the downtown area (City of Toronto, 2000). Through the use of this form of development for future downtown redevelopment, there will be a focus on the establishment of exible living/work spaces in all areas of downtown Toronto. The vision of the development of exible living/work spaces is meant to enhance the livability and vibrancy of the downtown, with residents working and living in the same place. Such proposed livability is illustrated in language that suggests that a livable urban area is one in which a person has pedestrian access and close proximity to services, places of employment, home, and other residents (City of Toronto, 2000). The concept of a pedestrian-oriented, convenient, and exciting downtown with an infrastructure of professional services and retail stores, fostered through processes of intensication, is used in the vision report to suggest the economic possibilities of a revitalized downtown core. The focus on the redevelopment of downtown into more vibrant and livable urban spaces is associated with an emphasis on both enhancing private investment interest and maintaining Torontos ability to compete with other cities for such investment. It is asserted in the vision report that a newly intensied downtown core is the key to maintaining Torontos economic competitiveness with respect to other global urban centers. The emphasis on livability is in keeping with the general idea of Smart Growth, in which, as Holton argues, there is a strong correlation between a livable city and an economically successful city (Holton, 2001). In this sense, intensication is used as a means of producing physically denser and more populated urban centers, which in turn increases space for real estate investment and development as well as a better climate for general investment in the city. In keeping with theories about the creative city (Florida, 2002; Landry, 2000), it is assumed that businesses and direct investment are attracted to cities, particularly city centers, that are culturally and socially lively as well as livable. In the vision report there is notable concern that if Torontos municipal government fails to attract investment and professionally skilled employment to the city the result will be a subsequent decline in Torontos appeal as a major economic entrepot in North America. The associ ation between an intensied, livable downtown core and increased economic investment is emphasized through the statement: Torontos Downtown is unique. It is the oldest, densest, and most diverse area in the region. Its the place where our history was born and where much of our future will play out. Downtown is home to many activities that need to be clustered and centrally located to thrive. Importantly, Downtown is both the administrative and nancial capital of the province [Ontario], and Bay Street is the nancial heart of the 185

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S. Bunce nation. Few American cities combine these capital functions. (City of Toronto, 2000, p. 133) There is also a noted connection between livability and economic success in the statement that Torontos downtown is the fastest-growing residential area in Toronto due to intensication in the form of inll development. This information is associated with the assertion that Torontos image and reputation as a city relies a great deal on perceptions of the Downtown (City of Toronto, 2000, p. 134). It is in such language of the vision plan that the economic focus of the Ofcial Plan vision becomes most evident. Here, the Ofcial Plan vision surpasses its role as a city planning policy document to also serve as economic development policy. The economic development focus of the vision plan connects with Keil and Kipfers (2002a) assertions that Toronto is being molded into an entrepreneurial city by local government. This is done with the central aim of increasing capital accumulation by enhancing private investment in development and industry with a concurrent emphasis on economic competition with other major urban centers (Keil & Kipfer, 2002b). In the vision report, the goal of the entrepreneurial city is to make the downtown core seem friendly, vibrant, and livable, and thus worthy of investment and recognition. The intensication of the downtown core, in terms of both the densication of space and intensication of uses and population, is the medium through which such a strategy is implemented. As noted by Saskia Sassen (1994) in relation to global city formation, Torontos high-density and intensied spatial development in the central business district can be linked to its success as Canadas nancial capital. Sassen has argued that the high-density urban form has proven more accessible and convenient for nance and service sectors, allowing for the closer exchange of ideas, decisions, and supplies between nancial rms and related services. High-density intensication is viewed here as not only an avenue for fostering more compact, exciting urban spaces, but also a process that directly enhances economic activity as a result of the close proximity of corporate ofces. The concept of reinvestment, as it is discussed in the vision report, cannot be solely dened in terms of direct economic investment in urban space(s). The vision reports denition of reinvestment appears to be a bifurcated emphasis on attracting economic investment and fostering publicprivate partnership revitalization through careful land-use changes that make a more amicable environment for economic investment. Such an intention is clearly noticeable in much of the language in the vision report, which asserts that municipal planning should be focused on decreasing restrictions on intensication practices (City of Toronto, 2000). At the municipal level, this will entail a change to the development permit system with one application process replacing a two-tiered minor variance and zoning amendment planning approval process (City of Toronto, 2000). The proposed system is argued to provide a more exible approach to zoning by allowing for a broader range of uses, incentives or alternative requirements (City of Toronto, 2001, p. 49). Such deregulation of the approval process, intended for large-scale use in the areas targeted for major redevelopment such as the downtown core and browneld districts on Torontos waterfront, can be seen as part of a larger trend towards deregulating development approval.8 186

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Smart Growth Intensication in Toronto Interestingly, Torontos proposed simplied planning approval process, changed through an amendment to the Province of Ontarios Planning Act, will occur alongside the development of new density limits and zoning by-laws for major growth and reinvestment areas. These limits and by-laws are to be reformulated following the release of the nal version of the Ofcial Plan (City of Toronto, 2001). Such a one-stop planning approval process has the potential to make planning approvals easier to submit and obtain for developers who seek increased densities on real estate projects or who propose new inll residential and commercial projects. The provision of an easier conduit for obtaining development permits has the potential to make intensication projects more attractive as investment opportunities. At a larger scale, the focus on physical revitalization as a means of enhancing private investment, particularly in real estate development, is evident in the City of Torontos plans for the development of an intensied residential community in the Port Lands district (Bunce & Young, 2003). Making Waves: principles for building Torontos waterfront, the municipal secondary plan for the regeneration of the waterfront, places a target of 100,000 residents and 25,000 new employment places as part of the major redevelopment of the browneld Port Lands district (City of Toronto, 2001, p. 29). The Ofcial Plan preliminary report and the new Central Waterfront Part II Plan suggest that intensication of both building stock and population will be a major thrust of residential and commercial developments in the Port Lands. The idea of compact development is utilized in both the vision report and the waterfront secondary plan to convey a sense of the scale of intensication in physical design and land use (City of Toronto, 2000; 2001). It is further used to illustrate the relationship between new media and technological industries and residential developments in the Port Lands district. The central waterfront plan, working in conjunction with the new Ofcial Plan vision, states that the Port Lands will become Torontos springboard to the future, a place for wealth creation, originality and creativity in all aspects of living, working and having fun (City of Toronto, 2001, p. 44). In addition to language that emphasizes the potential livability of the area, there is a more specic emphasis on the connection between the type of new industries and businesses expected in the district and the demographic of residents that will be attracted to the area. There is emphasis placed upon the necessity of providing high-quality residential choices for workers in new economy industries, such as new media and biotechnology, which will be located in the Port Lands district. It is apparent that within the waterfront secondary plan, as well as in the Ofcial Plan vision, there is concern for creating new developments that both entice and please what are expected to be professionally educated and skilled new economy workers. Here, there is an assumption that because such workers are formally educated and technologically skilled, they will be more discerning about their residential and employment environments and thus will desire aesthetically pleasing urban spaces and housing. The vision report places importance upon creating well-designed residential developments such as lofts and walk-up town homes, based upon a new urbanist prototype.9 Such compact developments, or design microclimates as they are referred to in the waterfront secondary plan (City of Toronto, 2001), would allow for pedestrian access to home and work, 187

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S. Bunce as well as close proximity to leisure trails along the waterfront and the downtown business area. From analysis of the Ofcial Plan vision report, and its secondary document, it is evident that intensication is considered to be an integral strategy for fullling the employment needs and lifestyle desires of a new demographic of urban resident. The attraction of this urbanized middle class to the downtown of Toronto is considered to be the benchmark of the future success of intensication (City of Toronto, 2000). Through such a focus on economic investment and spatial intensication it is clear that the central strategy of Torontos new Ofcial Plan is not regional environmental protection but instead the economic growth and development of the central city.
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Conclusion Urban intensication has been chosen by municipal planners in Toronto as the vision for land-use development over the next thirty years. This paper has attempted to show that the language of intensication in Torontos new Ofcial Plan vision report relies on the environmental aspects of urban intensication to support an overarching strategy to attract private investment practices and skilled labour to the downtown core. Thus, the vision report can be considered to be a strategy of ecological modernization. Urban intensication, which can be understood as a bifurcated redevelopment process of intensied built form and increased population activity, has been used to support the larger focus on economic development within the new Ofcial Plan vision report. This has been done through a conceptual development of Smart Growth urban intensication as the public rationale for solving regional sprawl. Through the assertion that the most effective solution to urban sprawl is intensied development, the vision report conveys the opinion that there is an urgent need for intensication within the urban political boundaries of Toronto. Through the use of language that creates the vision of a pedestrian-friendly, livable and compact city, municipal planners and politicians in Toronto have attempted to convey the notion that intensication in Toronto will be an effective environmental solution to regional sprawled development. At the same time, however, there is an overarching focus in the vision report on intensication as a means of creating urban districts that are populated, livable, and economically successful. Torontos downtown core, which includes the Port Lands redevelopment district on the waterfront, has been targeted in the vision report for major intensication as well as economic and physical revitalization. It is in the emphasis on the need to foster intensied urban form in the downtown core that an association between intensication and attracting private investment and skilled, professional labour to the city can be most clearly observed. The environmental benets of urban intensication are used as a softer approach to selling the idea of intensication to existing residents of Toronto; in particular, to residents who are sympathetic to environmental concerns and who might otherwise be opposed to a straight-ahead plan for economic revitalization. It is evident from analyses of the Ofcial Plan vision report, Toronto at the Crossroads, and the central waterfront plan that the central thrust is the economic revitalization of the downtown core in order to enhance Torontos economic competitiveness. The emergence of Smart Growth inspired 188

Smart Growth Intensication in Toronto urban intensication can be considered a strategy to foster Torontos growth as a major global economic center, through the use of urban planning language that suggests environmental benets. Acknowledgement The author would like to thank Dr Roger Keil, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, for comments on the original draft of this paper, and also to the peer reviewers for their helpful suggestions. Notes
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[1] The Greater Toronto Area has no regional government but is popularly known to consist of the municipalities that immediately surround the political borders of the City of Toronto. The City of Toronto was amalgamated into one urban government structure by the Ontario provincial government on 1 January 1998 (see Keil, 2000). [2] Toronto planners and architects such as Berridge, Greenberg and Lewinberg Ltd (now Urban Strategies Ltd), authors of Guidelines for the Reurbanisation of Metropolitan Toronto (1991), and Jack Diamond (1992, p. 19), have been strong in their public support for an intensied and livable city, particularly in the downtown core. Urban affairs columnist John Barber, writing for the Toronto section of the national Globe and Mail, has been equally insistent on a correlation between urban intensication and more lively and vibrant urban spaces as a prescription for Toronto. [3] Since the 1960s, social democratic politics in Toronto have been led by reformist politicians and activists. Reformist politics in Toronto was at its peak during the time of John Sewells mayoral ofce. While Sewell was eventually defeated by a conservative mayor, reformist politics have been remained as the main alternative voice to the pro-business focus of local conservative politicians. Largely a middle-class political movement based in downtown Toronto, and inspired by the ideas of Toronto-based Jane Jacobs, reformists have been inuential in asserting the need for neighborhood preservation and community-based planning. [4] As noted by Jennifer Lewington, urban affairs reporter for the Globe and Mail (2002). [5] The contaminated water crisis in the rural town of Walkerton, Ontario in 2000, which resulted in several fatalities, caused public embarrassment for the former Progressive Conservative government of Ontario. The governments policies of scal downsizing and deregulation were publicly suggested to be the chief cause of the water crisis. Many residents of the regional municipalities to the north of Toronto led a public struggle to stop residential development on the ecologically sensitive Oak Ridges Moraine in 2001, which caused the intervention of the provincial government and a government land-swap arrangement devised to halt further residential development on the Moraine (this arrangement was subsequently changed by the Conservative government and now, under the recently elected Liberal government, residential development on the Moraine will continue). [6] See Blackwell and colleagues (2003) for further discussion of social and spatial justice concerns and the new Toronto Ofcial Plan. [7] The King/Spadina and King/Parliament mixed zoning districts have been considered planning success stories by City of Toronto planners and politicians. This assumption has been predicated on the interest of private developers who have invested in and constructed condominiums, and the emergence of commercial and high-tech businesses in these former industrial areas. A non-municipal review has not yet been conducted on the actual success of the Two Kings and their level of contribution to economic development in the downtown core, or, conversely, their impact on gentrication and increasing real estate values. [8] Simplied Planning Zones were popularized by Margaret Thatchers government during the 1980s. The deregulation of the planning system and development approval process assisted with Thatchers urban strategy of strengthening the role of the private sector in planning and development, and providing planning accessibility and expediency for private developers, particularly in London (see Allmendinger, 1997). [9] New urbanist designs, while mostly common in suburban areas of Toronto, are increasingly prevalent in downtown Toronto. Victorian-style row house developments with walk-up access in the front of the home

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and garages behind the house are now a common prototype for many new inll residential developments in downtown Toronto.

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