The Town of Caledon, a rural area just north of Brampton, has come up with a promising way to encourage development without sprawl.
The township prides itself on its rural nature, and wants any new developments to be real, independent, self-sustaining communities rather than the usual sprawling bedroom suburbs that developers build.
To make developers work harder to create what the community wants, Caledon held a competition. Two developers, each owning a different plot of land, had to create proposals that fit Caledon’s standards, and the one that did so the best was allowed to proceed. The Globe and Mail reports:
Caledon hoped that, by changing the terms of engagement, it might get what it wanted: an integrated small town where people could walk to a traditional downtown.
Caledon Mayor Marolyn Morrison said that while Caldeon has a population of 57,500, it is made up of a number of villages, and its citizens want to retain a village feeling “that brings back community the way it used to be.”
The developers complained about the extra work they had to put in to prepare their bids, but given the impact such developments have, this kind of extra work should be standard in all cases.
It seems like such a sensible idea, you’d think it would already be a common process. Perhaps, instead of sprawl, we would then end up with a series of real, coherent communities in the rural areas outside Toronto.
4 comments
Yes please! Let’s make the developers compete amongst each other for the right to bid. Like a more sensible version of promotional sponsorships in professional sports.
Kudos to the Caledon politicians for taking this kind of a step. Most suburban municipalities lower standards in order to compete with one another for development of any type, at any cost…a trend which has resulted in the sprawl we see in today’s GTA. Sustainability hinges on making competition be for development that truly meets the public good, rather than what is simply easiest and most convenient to achieve at any given time.
Unfortunately the Globe article gives no details on what criteria the city used to determine the “best” option, nor how the winning bid will be different from its competitor.
I’m from the Town of Caledon (its not a township) originally and I’ve always been very proud of the way the politicians insist on keeping what I’ve heard called “the human glacier” (urban sprawl) at bay… Driving along Mayfield Road (one of the dividers between neighbouring city Brampton and Caledon) you can see the development come to a full stop and the rural farmland begin.
Corrected to “Town of Caledon” – thanks.
I like the image of “the human glacier” for sprawl – very apt.