Twain asked how zoning helped mankind. There was a long pause. He looked directly at me “I have found that the more complex a law, the less effective.” I agreed. He nodded “you look well meaning, but I think your profession suffers from self importance. Try painting a fence.”

I’ve sat in hearings where one question slowed everything down. Rosetta Zone was built so planners don’t have to pause to dig for answers. APA members, try Rosetta Zone at ZoningTrilogy.com - let me know what you think zoningtrilogy.com/?ap2c=APA #APAMembers @APA_Planning

APA Members Gain Early Access to AI Zoning Assistant with Free Trial Offer einpresswire.com/article/814…

Reykjavik, Iceland.

The 500 lot area in Charlottetown, Broad N-S streets with opportunity for events, angled parking & restaurant bump outs. Some narrow E-W streets closed to cars & lined with restaurants. 200 year old planning provides opportunity for 21st century urbanity. Tnx @O2design

Hats off to Melanie, the owner of Groovy Tuesday’s restaurant opposite City Hall. She brought food to those camped out at City Hall protesting the by-law that would criminalize her compassion and generosity #Barrie #HumanRights #Campout4Kindness #cdnpoli #RyansHope #MSTH

These targets are in most Official Plans now – but will they stay, it is not clear as the draft PPS has eliminated the targets and hinted at future “provincial guidance”. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

As one example, the co-ordination of major road and transit infrastructure was detailed in the Growth Plan, that is no longer the case. The GP set out population targets by Region that were used in all manner of long term infrastructure planning – schools, roads, pipes and wires.

However – while the control over growth management is proposed to devolve to local governments it is not clear if there is a long term vision of how the Province, and the Growth Plan area will evolve.

It created enormous amounts of work for planners and according to one analysis, increased the budgets of planning departments in the Growth Plan area by 30-40%.

The proposed PPS changes & elimination of the Growth Plan puts the planning controls back in the hands of local municipalities. A good thing from my perspective as the Growth Plan became an end in itself rather than an evolving policy document that allowed for local circumstances

The planning approval authority of these Regions/County was taken over by the Province and/or eliminated – a totally appropriate structure when growth management is primarily controlled by the Province.

The planning role of regional govmt began in the mid 70's. 50 years later there were approximately 340 planning staff working in the planning departments of the six regions and 1 county that had their planning authority eliminated by Bill 23. The combined budget was about $45M.

Last year Bill 23 removed the regional and county government’s planning role in most of the Growth Plan area. This was a much needed change since the Province took control of growth management in 2006, making the regional government role in planning simply redundant.