Urban Planning Blog

By Naama Blonder and Josh Papernick Finding and designing development solutions to unlock the City’s “Neighbourhood” areas has been a major focus at Smart Density. I have been a strong advocate for Missing Middle housing and rethinking how the City can take advantage of its

10 reasons to choose Modular Construction: Webinar Recording + Summary As part of our Educational Webinar Series, we hosted a special webinar led by Chris Smith, a Project Manager and Temo Cruz, Prefabrication & Modular Coordinator at ED Modular. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OKPGgToNcQ&feature=emb_logo Below is a summary of

Financial Incentives for Affordable Housing Last week, the City of Toronto has released the 2020 Open Door Call for applications. What are the different programs, incentive tools and streams that exist today in order to accelerate affordable housing construction? Here’s a summary of the municipal,

12 Little Anecdotes from ‘Happy City’ by Charles Montgomery Written by Josh Papernick 1. A Swedish study found that people who endure more than a forty-five-minute commute were 40 percent more likely to divorce 2. A person with a one-hour commute has to earn 40

Infill Development in Apartment Neighbourhoods The Official Plan provides criteria for infill development within Apartment Neighbourhoods. Compatible infill development may be permitted on sites with existing apartment buildings if they improve the existing site conditions. The major requirements are as follows:  Compatibility Be compatible in

Recently, there is finally discussion in Toronto about the Yellow Belt. This brilliant term was coined by Urban Planner Gil Meslin in 2016 to liken the severe restrictions on development in most of the area of the GTA, in all areas designated as “neighbourhoods” (coloured

Dutch Urban Design – What can Canadian cities adopt? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORvgxcLZodw&feature=emb_logo When it comes to urban design, the Dutch seem to get it right. Cities in the Netherlands are livable and vibrant. Single-family housing is not common and their streets are not designed for the car.

An Immigrant’s Thoughts on Housing Happy Newcomer Day, Canada! Earlier this year, we received our Canadian Citizenship and I would like to offer some thoughts about Housing – by one of Canada’s newest citizens. In almost any large city, families who live in central areas

Written by Naama Blonder | Edited by Josh Papernick In July 2019, Mayor Tory and Deputy Mayor Ana Bailao motioned to review a timeline to increase housing options and planning permissions in areas of Toronto’s Official Plan (OP) designated as Neighbourhoods. The original date to

Could COVID-19 be the best thing that happened to the traditional Open House? CreateTO and City Planning have held its first-ever online-only Open House yesterday, for the HousingNOW revised proposal for 705 Warden St. COVID-19 forced us to rethink and adjust many of our daily

Check out our concept for the Danforth GO + Main Street Subway Pedestrian Connection This summary is meant to cover the main points regarding planning and development that were raised in the Open House, October 7, 2019, for the Area Study at Main Street and

This summary is meant to cover the main points regarding planning and development that were raised in the Open House, September 16, 2019, for the development application at 50 Wilson Heights Blvd led by City Staff and CreateTO. It is not meant to provide an

This summary is meant to cover the main points regarding planning and development that were raised in the Open House, September 12, 2019, for the development application at 705 Warden Ave led by City Staff and CreateTO. It is not meant to provide an exhaustive

As transformative as the RER can be, its potential is not treated accordingly by the media or the government organizations. Subway projects like the Relief Line or the potential extension of Line 1 to Richmond Hill, and even the Eglinton Crosstown project, which is an

Because of these differences in access to the stations, the RER supports a very different type of urban structure than a subway does. The stations are far apart, but the high speed of travel means it is easy to travel between stations across a large