current forum:Winnipeg Urban Issues & Provincial Affairs

[cancelbot]

^ The $1,000,000 question is whether council can resist the impulse to give developers the green light to go wild with suburban housing.

Just when Winnipeg started turning the tide in the late 90s/early 00s and population started to increase, the Province and City rammed through Waverley West (despite the fact that there was still a decent amount of room left in existing subdivisions). Putting a glut of new housing on the market reduces the appeal of older properties that could be renovated - and I'm not talking about creaky old West End houses, but also the 1970s bungalows in Westwood and the like.

Hopefully council will agree that the existing suburban developments (WW, Sage Creek, etc.) will be sufficient to handle demand for new houses and try to channel some of the rest of the growth inward.

For what it's worth, Edmonton didn't really see appreciable urban-oriented growth until it surpassed the 900,000 mark. Now that it's at 1,000,000 and growing strong, downtown Edmonton is coming along very well, and is a far cry from the downtown Edmonton of the 1990s. Not a bad model for us to follow.

[sputnik]

It seems that population projections are getting close to the 15,000 people per year mark.

It's possible that real redevelopment of the inner urban area can now be achieved via influxes of new residents.

As long as the City doesn't let suburbia sprawl too much then this will happen. I think the City should make it a policy goal for the inner urban area to capture at least half of all new residents moving to Winnipeg.

Within a decade one would notice real change in urban Winnipeg's character. This would start a momentum that would result in the majority of the inner urban area being revitalized.

It's finally happening. I hope the politicians don't miss this opportunity.

I would rather that Winnipeg start thinking more like a big city and focus on infrastructure that is scalable and supports a rapidly growing city.

Things like...

- Rapid Transit
- Transit Oriented Design
- Synchronized traffic lights
- Active Transportation
- Inner city TIF programs
- Smart New Urbanist residential development
- Elimination of rent controls to encourage more apartment development.
- Restrictions on residential development density (ie. 8-12 residential units per acre)
- Restrictions on commercial office development in areas zoned as industrial

The city will grow in size as people move here. However the city needs to focus less on preventing urban sprawl and more on ensure the city grows in smart and manageable ways.

[cancelbot]

However the city needs to focus less on preventing urban sprawl and more on ensure the city grows in smart and manageable ways.

Those are really two sides of the same coin - smart growth is desirable, whereas unmanaged urban sprawl is not. The reasons to favour the former are basically the same reasons to want to minimize the latter.

[Munchkinguy]

However the city needs to focus less on preventing urban sprawl [...]

I don't think they ever focus on this.