Land Use Planning Forums to Begin this Fall
Friday August 03, 2007
Cory Sousa
--- Stage 2: Goals, Policies, and Success Indicators
The City of Edmonton is one of Canada’s fastest growing cities. It's experiencing strong economic and population growth. It’s an exciting city that offers many services, recreational amenities, cultural events, and of course our amazing festivals. For most of us, it’s simply known as our home. It’s where we live, work, shop, learn, and raise our children.
But how should Edmonton grow? What type of communities do you want to see in Edmonton’s future? How will decisions on development affect our quality of life? What kind of city do we want our children to live in? Your input will help us answer these and many other questions through the Focus Edmonton: City Plan project.
What is Focus Edmonton and how can you get involved?
Focus Edmonton is a City of Edmonton initiative to develop the new Municipal Development Plan (MDP). The MDP directs future land-use decisions throughout the city. For example, it will allocate land for new industries, identify where future residential neighbourhoods may develop, and plan for future commercial centres. It will also address future infrastructure and recreational needs and establish strategies to further protect our natural environment. Basically, this new MDP (Focus Edmonton: City Plan) will be one of the most important plans that will guide how Edmonton grows.
What have we done so far and what is next?
The project team has recently completed our Stage 1 work which involved public consultation, workshops with representatives of stakeholder organizations, and interviews with City Council and Administration. From this feedback, combined with our team’s research on best land use planning practices, we developed a set of principles called “Working Principles for Land Use Planning.” This document will guide Plan policy development though the project. The document is available online.
We are now working on Stage 2 which includes technical research, background studies, and preparing for our next public consultation process. A number of Land Use Planning Forums will be held during the fall of this year. We will explore three different scenarios for accommodating growth at the forums. These scenarios will showcase the benefits or consequences of the decisions we make about how our city grows. It’s important that we obtain your feedback on the type of growth you would like to see in our city.
Our website www.FocusEdmonton.ca provides additional project information, our public consultation work we’ve done so far and discussion papers on topics such as Building a Livable City, Environmental Sustainability, and Residential Growth and Density (which includes a map of Edmonton’s historic growth). Visit our website and join us at our Land Use Planning Forums during the fall!
Column ID#: 39
**Opinions expressed by guest columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of Connect2Edmonton members, partners or sponsors.**
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