Urban Village is an anti-sprawl urban planning and design concept. A good urban village is characterized by a strong urban design, a high level of self-containment (people live, work and play in the same area), use of alternate transportation (transit, walking, biking) and a strong community attachment.
Though there is no perfect urban village in practice, this blog focuses on initiatives that have successfully taken communities closer to the goal. The purpose is to turn my home – Milton, Ontario – into an enviable Urban Village.
Suburbia-driven sprawl is not sustainable. Post WW-II development was driven by single-use zoning that fuelled sprawl by separating residential and manufacturing areas. Urban Villages, on the other hand, bring back traditional neighbourhoods by mixing employment and residential activities, thus allowing people to live near their work rather than relying on long distance commuting.
What can turn Milton into an urban village? For starters:
- Lay out communities in a transit friendly way (do not have to further increase population density for this).
- Employ pedestrianization techniques in neigbhourhood designs to facilitate safe human interaction (Scott Blvd is the exact opposite of this).
- Focus on traffic flow on major arterial roads to reduce pollution and improve air quality (that includes synchronizing and properly timing traffic lights, and adding dedicated right-turn lanes on major intersection).
- Have a hardcore business plan to attract high employers in Milton.
- Make aesthetics a required part of site-planning.
- Increase Milton’s urban forest canopy.
- Aim for a 1:1 ratio between jobs and residents (rather than the current 0.5:1. Mississauga has more jobs than there are people in the work-force. Milton aims for 0.5:1 to begin with, not a high goal at all).
This is just a brief part of a more comprehensive list that can turn Milton into an enviable Urban Village. What would you like to see (it has to be something that can be done as part of urban planning)?
Posted on June 5th, 2010 by Zeeshan Hamid
I was shocked to hear that some people didn’t know about the street festival. What? Rock climbing, over 40 artists, pro wrestling, pirate ship … you mustn’t miss it!
Oh and buses are free, so leave your car at home. Buses leave every 30 minutes. More info: http://www.milton.ca/commserv/streetfestival/index.php.
Posted on June 4th, 2010 by Zeeshan Hamid
Jennifer Smith, ward 2 candidate, just did a great post on her blog on Milton’s missing Traffic Calming policy. She compared it to Caledon that has a written traffic calming manual (what a concept). Her post is here, check it out.
Posted on June 4th, 2010 by Zeeshan Hamid
I will be at the “Halton 2031 – Road to Change” Transportation Workshop tomorrow (Saturday the 5th). Some pressing things in my mind are traffic light synchronization, Derry Road underpass, regional transit, lack of right-turn-lanes and never-ending-construction-delays.
Is there anything else you’d like me to bring up?
Posted on June 1st, 2010 by Zeeshan Hamid
I lived in Seattle for a few years. Seattle reduced the total volume of storm water leaving streets simply by reducing paved surfaces and planting trees. It not only resulted in lower future operating costs, but it also ended up cleaning air and beautifying neighbourhoods. End result is roads like these :-
Notice the centre heavily landscaped centre median? In Redmond, WA almost all 4-lane roads are decorated with a landscaped median. Another benefit is that it creates a perception of narrowness and acts as traffic calming. Bike lanes are off road, for cyclists’ safety.
Here’s a view of another road that not only shows the landscaping that goes on the median, but also the heavy landscaping they do to screen parking lots from main roads. This is a highly commercial area. Compare this to our commercial areas, like Steeles Ave.
This is how buildings are screened from main roads. That way even highly urban areas get a very ‘foresty’ feel.
I worked in one of these buildings for five years. Notice the setback and landscaping around buildings.
Another road showing landscaped median, trees screening the building and landscaping and trees screening the parking lot.
The above view shows something else as well. Parking lots in that area are designed such that each row of parking is divided by a landscaped median. With time parking lots get a forest canopy and start to feel like parks, instead of concrete slabs.
Another parking lot, another road with median and another building screened by trees. Notice how pleasant the sidewalk becomes in this case. You get trees on both sides providing you with shade.
Yet another parking lot illustrating my point. There seem to be just as many trees as cars (if you include trees along the parameter).
As already mentioned, all these pictures are from a densely populated highly urban area. However, they all show that all urbanization do not have to look same.
Milton should adopt some of these ideas to set itself apart from all other municipalities in the GTA.
