GreenSudbury

Harcourt, who chairs QUEST -- an action group designed to improve Canada's urban energy systems -- and is the associate director of the UBC Continuing Studies Centre for Sustainability, says that projections show a global population expansion of four billion people or more in a little over 40 years.

The Portland Plan process started two years ago, building on the important work done through visionPDX, which gathered and compiled an impressive amount of information. Much of that feedback can be reviewed in the Community Input Summary, which captures 17,000 comments from a wide variety of Portlanders. The bureau also developed the Portland Plan Outreach Chronicles to summarize what we heard during the public meetings and summits in May and June 2008

The 18 cities and county government are SANDAG serving as the forum for regional decision-making. SANDAG builds consensus, makes strategic plans, obtains and allocates resources, plans, engineers, and builds public transportation, and provides information on a broad range of topics pertinent to the region's quality of life.

Key Directions/ Public Engagement/ Resources/ Research/ Plan It Calgary Summit/ Plan It Calgary Plans/ Glossary of Terms for Plan It

Most people realize that we need more residential housing in our downtown, that our transit system requires a serious overhaul, and that our continuous outward expansion is only hurting us – from the infrastructure we can’t afford to keep up, to the car-dependent, unsustainable lifestyles that suburban living necessitates.

Urban Strategies® is a full-service planning and urban design firm, based in Toronto, Canada. Working for public and private sector clients, we shape and enhance urban places of all scales through strategic actions, holistic design and progressive policies. Since 1981, our work has earned the firm dozens of awards and an international reputation. Our hallmark: consensus-driven solutions that are both visionary and achievable.

Given the declining population, there’s no need for council to set a priority to acquire more green space.But he did say one idea being looked at is an outdoor meeting place—a green space in the commercial area where people could sit down and talk.
Another topic was outdoor recreation opportunities. Times publisher Jim Cumming, who sits on the town’s active transportation committee, said they’ve met with the consultants about creating a trail network connecting park space in the east, west, north, and south ends of town.

A downtown historic building is spared the wrecking ball because of an effective network of newly empowered residents. Weaknesses in the city's approach to tracking historic buildings are identified. City council leads the way in expanding an outdated database and preserving other heritage properties. Forces within city hall try to fast-track the demolition of the Dunlop Arena by use of an omnibus bill. Neighbourhood and city residents unite successfully and keep the historic building for other purposes, mirroring the successful efforts of residents of Kingston.

The report identifies four major obstacles "blocking environmentally sustainable neighborhoods," including aging utilities and scarce transit lines, the high cost of building multi-level structures, regulatory barriers from planning and zoning laws, and tax incentives that favor suburban sprawl. The report recommends long- and short-term action steps that policy makers and industry professionals can take to remove these obstacles.

San Jose California Planning Dept has unveiled a new wiki for planning in order to encourage more local citizen engagement. Available in Vietnamese!

Very impressive modeling engine for rapid design if you have the $4000 to purchase

Jacobs is widely known for his publications and research in the field of urban design, including such books as Great Streets, Looking at Cities, and Making City Planning Work