What is Urban Planning?

What is Urban Planning?

New housing is constructed that brings new residents to a neighbourhood and helps to revitalize the existing housing stock; a new rapid transit line is designed to connect people to the places they live and work; a contaminated industrial site is transformed into an urban beach. Changes like these are helping to improve quality of life in our growing city, and City planners are involved in realizing all of them.

What is urban planning? Simply put: urban planning impacts how you get to work, where you live, and where you shop.

The role of the City planner is to manage the city’s growth and change while helping to improve quality of life, based on a shared vision for the future of Toronto. We develop that vision by connecting with people like you, and working together to design a city that works for all Torontonians.

City Planning’s work helps to guide public investment on roads, transit, sewers, parks, recreational and cultural facilities, and other services. Planning integrates land use and transportation so that over time, people have more choices about whether to use their car, take transit, cycle, or walk. It helps to guide decisions around where growth should occur and where existing neighbourhood character should be maintained.

How do City Planners do this? Through a shared vision created through plans. What do these plans look like? They can be visionary in scope like Toronto’s Official Plan, which provides a long-term vision for how the city will grow. Or they can focus on the neighbourhood level, like our Secondary Plans, which consider particular communities that are facing development pressures. Secondary Plans provide greater detail than the Official Plan to guide and manage growth within a local context. Places like Scarborough Centre, King-Spadina, Etobicoke Centre, and North York Centre all have Secondary Plans.

City Planning also plans the city’s transportation network; and undertakes studies that provide direction for growth and make better use of our existing and planned infrastructure. Our work also improves building design with the Design Review Panel and Design Guidelines, and helps to preserve architectural heritage through the creation of Heritage Conservation Districts. We create these plans by consulting with people like you at public meetings, through online surveys, and by visiting events happening in your neighbourhood.

We think it’s important that our city is planned in a way that reflects the vision and values of all the people who live here.

We need your help to ensure that Toronto is a place where you want to live, work, and play: a place with access to affordable housing, a high quality transportation system, beautiful public spaces, and complete communities.

Visit our website www.toronto.ca/planning to learn about all the exciting things we’re doing to make Toronto a better place.

(PRESS RELEASE)