Urban Planning

This site is about Toronto planning from a more technical and legal perspective, not to mention political. Much of it is a history and assessment of the West Queen West planning fight waged by Active 18 Community Organization (A18 – for Ward 18) There are many links to their site. I hope all this is useful to community activists who want to dig a little deeper. One goal here has been to organize this complex history so others can learn from our experience. There is a narrative history in three parts, a simplified and more detailed chronology and (shortly) a set of Key Documents. Take your pick.

The devil is in the details in planning and for volunteer community groups to stay ‘on guard’ is difficult in the extreme. The story of West Queen West is the story of death by a thousand cuts. I’ve tried to assemble what I think might have helped us had we had this info when we started out. I happen to believe the West Queen West mess will be repeated many times but I am interested in any stories that indicate there is hope for better planning in Toronto.

A second purpose has been to summarize and analyze the experience, and think critically about the future. These thoughts are mainly found in the Rants on various topics of particular interest to me.

This site has material I have written. The Active 18 web site has material from the larger group. There are many cross-references.