Walkablecentresfinalreport 2018

Achieving walkability in Urban Growth Centres Final report to the Places to Grow Implementation Fund

By Dr. Pierre Filion, Neluka Leanage, Monika Oviedo and Samantha Leger April 2018

About this report This report is intended for practitioners and public audiences interested in improving walkability, liveability, downtowns and suburban environments. The project was supported by the Places to Grow Implementation Fund. The report’s contents are organized according to the multiple project components. The project explores how to improve walkability in Urban Growth Centres in the Greater Golden Horseshoe and supports Ontario’s Growth Plan objectives to reduce land consumption and automobile reliance while fostering compact, higher density, walkable, transit-oriented and complete communities.

Acknowledgments Key people and organizations were also instrumental to the successful delivery of the project and this report.

The authors thank the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs for providing a grant focused on the importance of walking. Kyle Pakeman was especially helpful in guiding the project.

Talented fourth-year studio students, Yasmin Afshar, Trevor Alkema, Natalie Chiang, Olivia Falcone, Samantha Leger, Dominik Simpson and Design Instructor, Karen Hammond judiciously evaluated three Urban Growth Centres and developed creative strategies and visualizations presented herein. The School of Planning and the Office of Research also provided support for which we are grateful.

Many thanks to Tony Iacobelli and staff at the City of Vaughan, and Brandon Sloan, City of Kitchener who rapidly helped to organize and promote the workshops across their regions. We also deeply appreciate the feedback and discussion from planners, public health officials and consultants engaged in the interviews and workshops. We acknowledge your professional and sometimes personal commitment to implementing walkable visions and hope they become realized.

Additional information For more information about the project and team, please visit walkablecentres.ca. Other research and material will be made available on the website. Thanks to Elizabeth (Lisa) Liu who designed the website and produced the video. Inquiries can be directed to Pierre Filion (pfilion@uwaterloo.ca) or Neluka Leanage (nleanage@uwaterloo.ca).

Photo and map credits: Neluka Leanage, Samantha Leger, Elizabeth (Lisa) Liu and Monika Oviedo unless otherwise noted. Baseline maps courtesy of Google Earth and GoogleMyMaps.

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Contents 1

Framework for achieving walkable centres

List of Tables

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Ontario context

Table 1: Research Focus of articles aligned with our conceptual walkability framework

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Project Focus: Three UGC categories and 10 mobility anchors

Table 2: Summary of UGC-specific municipal planning documents in 3 case studies

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Current trends in the improvement of pedestrian environments in North America

Table 3: Municipal focus of walkability-relevant documents aligned with our conceptual

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Initiatives within the GGH to upgrade walkability

framework

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Inventory and comparison of UGC urban environment conditions

Table 4: Interviews grouped by region

Case Studies

Table 5: Number of interviews by UGC category

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Feedback on findings, strategies and visualizations

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Conclusions and recommendations

Framework for List of Figures achieving UGC Figure 1: Urban Growth Centre walkability framework activity integration through Figure 2:walkability Location of UGC categories

Appendices Appendix A – Research literature review search method Appendix B – Inventory of trends and successful instruments Appendix C – Detailed morphological analyses Appendix D – Municipal document types

Figure 3: Place-based coverage of research articles

Appendix E – Inventory of municipal walking interventions

Figure 4: Number of trends and successful instruments within each theme identified in the

Appendix F – Interview letter and questions

research literature

Appendix G – Inventory and assessment report of three case studies

Figure 5: Frequency of walkability-relevant documents across 20 UGCs

Appendix H – Detailed visualizations

Figure 6: Attendee origins and numbers from the Greater Toronto Area

Appendix I – Summary of outreach activities

Figure 7: Workshop sold out and page views reached 293

Appendix J – References

Figure 8: Workshop and page views reached 252 Figure 9: Attendee origins and numbers from the Waterloo and Guelph region

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Framework for achieving walkable UGC activity integration centres through walkability

Framework for achieving walkable centres

specific elements such as the presence of sidewalks, parks, trails, crossings, etc. The present research exists at the intersection of public health, urban and transportation planning, and design. It began as a response to the growth in chronic illnesses like obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer and for ways to increase daily physical activity.

1 - Framework

1 - Framework

Our framework for this project builds on current and past understanding of walkability and proposes a lens through which to consider, and combine, a full range of pedestrian activities and opportunities important to any type of centre. The scope of our reviews, analyses, assessments, visualizations and recommendations is inclusive, comprehensive and intended to make exploration of potential solutions suitable to the unique context of different categories of UGCs.

1.1 Walkability Current and past walkability definitions and assessments Over the past twenty years and continuing today, walkability has been researched as a way to measure the conduciveness of the built environment, its composition and its contributions to physical health by encouraging walking and other forms of active mobility (Badland and Schofield, 2005; Ewing and Handy, 2009; Frank and Engelke, 2001; Frank et al., 2005; Frank et al., 2006; Frank and Hawkins, 2008; Frank et al., 2010; Handy et al., 2005; Lopez et al., 2006; Pafka and Dovey, 2017; Walkscore, 2007-2018; Xionbing, 2010). Aspects of the built environment with an impact on walkability include street patterns, streetscapes, design, density, demographics and more

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Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, Š 2018

The earlier work by Jane Jacobs in the 1960s, which expressed the perils of planning for automobility, fostered significant momentum still evident today through the works of Jan Gehl, major organizations (Congress for New Urbanism, Smart Growth America, National Complete Streets Coalition) and a multitude of researchers (Jacobs, 1961; Gehl, 1996, 2011, 2013; see also, Boer, 2007; Filion et al. 2004; Forsyth et al., 2008; Morris and Zisman, 1962; Owens, 1993; Robertson, 1993; Southworth, 1997). Jacobs criticized transportation planners and engineers.

She stressed the importance of compact built form, functional diversity, older shops and facades for walking and social relationships. Knowledge on walkability also encompasses pedestrian activities defined more comprehensively, i.e., beyond utilitarian mobility, thereby addressing the integration of uses and scales, the public realm, a range of pedestrian activities and perceptions. It also speaks to transforming cities, centres and neighbourhoods into places giving priority to pedestrians, cyclists and transit riders of all ages.

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1.2 Conceptual framework: Importance of walkability for urban growth centres Why is walkability important for UGCs? In this section, we explore both the importance of walkability in all urban contexts and concentrate more specifically on its contribution to the economic success and placemaking important to UGCs at different stages of development.

We consider five roles urban walkability can play: its contribution to health, reduced car use, the image of the city, social vitality, and synergy effects in multi-functional environments.

1 - Framework

There is an abundant literature linking dense, mixed-use and pedestrian-friendly urban environments to fitness and health (Badland and Schofield, 2005; Brown et al, 2009; Frank, Engelke and Schmid, 2003; Frank et al, 2006; Saelens, Sallis and Frank, 2003; Vernez Moudon et al, 2006; Weinstein, Agrawal and Schimek, 2007). Urban sectors where people walk, cycle and use public transit (whose journeys involve some walking) generally score higher on health indicators (Besser and Dannenberg, 2005; Frank and Engelke, 2001). Conversely, sectors that are nearly fully dependent on the automobile present higher rates of obesity, associated conditions and other types of chronic illnesses. The research on this theme is, however, quick to acknowledge the complexity of the relationship between the nature of urban environments and health outcomes. Intervening variables indeed come into play. For one, there is a selfselection process motivating people whose values are compatible with healthy lifestyles to choose to live in certain urban areas. Accordingly, the walking conduciveness of these areas would be one among other factors contributing to their good health. For another, central areas of metropolitan regions are most likely to provide favourable walking conditions. With the generalization of gentrification in these central areas, their residents tend to be increasingly rich. As we know, wealth itself is an important contributor to health. Still, in an environment that supports walking, there will be fewer people adopting a sedentary lifestyle and this will likely result in improved health outcomes compared to people living in more car-dependent areas.

There are fewer automobile journeys generated by an urban environment where people can walk to different locations, as utilitarian walking trips replace automobile journeys (Boarnet et al, 2011; Ewing and Cervero, 2010; Ewing et al, 2011; Handy and Clifton, 2001; Hess et al, 1999; Saelens and Handy, 2008). While in a low density and functionally specialized area, all journeys (whether they be work, school, shopping, services, transit or entertainment) depend on the car, and most often involve a separate automobile trip for each purpose, in a high-density, compact, mixed-use environment these journeys can be done on foot and combined. Fewer automobile journeys translate into reduced pollution and use of fossil fuels, traffic congestion and need for road and highway infrastructure. Walking thus provides a cheaper, efficient alternative to driving for individuals and governments, while also avoiding the adverse environmental, landconsumptive and health consequences of driving.

1 - Framework

The contribution of walking to health

Walking and reduced automobile reliance

Walking and the image of the city There have been over time different ways of symbolizing the success of cities. In the 19th century, depictions attempting to emphasize the economic prosperity of cities accentuated the presence of chimneys spewing large amounts of smoke. Prosperity was then associated with industry, which at the time was steam powered. In the next century, in the age of

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Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, Š 2018

Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, Š 2018

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Pedestrians create social vitality and make places One of the best indicators of a great place is whether people are present in its streets – walking, shopping, stopping to look, chatting, waiting, sitting, playing and so on or what Gehl (2010) calls public life. These actions constitute a range of pedestrian activities inclusive of and beyond travel functions that when concentrated, generate a critical mass of pedestrians and fuel a reinforcing cycle of attraction. The legacy of automobility, its wide right-of-ways, removal of other modes of travel, and single-minded focus on mobility performance continues to shape streets and diminishes opportunities for and concentration of pedestrian activities. Efforts to reclaim space for pedestrians (and cyclists) within public rightof-ways, to design high quality streetscapes, to invest in public realm improvements, and placebranded communication to shop, live, work and play demonstrate the growing recognition of pedestrians and their capacity to gather and generate the needed critical mass of people vital to re-orienting city centres as destinations and places for everyday activities.

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Walking, multi-functionality and synergy Walking can deliver another economic advantage, which is of direct relevance to UGCs. To understand this economic advantage of walking, we first need to examine how interactions between different activities take place within healthy downtowns. Activities opt for downtown locations, despite their higher cost than other locales within a metropolitan region, for three reasons. There are first the accessibility advantages of downtown locales, thanks to their position at the heart of the metropolitan area and their role of primary public transit hub.

Second, activities are attracted by the prestige of a downtown address. And third, and of most relevance to this study, land uses choose downtown locations to benefit from synergy effects resulting from frequent interactions between downtown activities. Synergy effects refer to mutual benefits deriving from inter-relations between activities. Examples of such effects in downtown areas comprise, for example, the mutually beneficial relation between hotels and a convention centre, between residential and office buildings, and between residences and offices, on the one hand, and restaurants and entertainment, on the other. Of course, all of these activities also interact with retailing and cultural activities.

1 - Framework

1 - Framework

managerialism and mass consumption, the symbols of urban prosperity took the form of downtown skylines dominated by corporate headquarters and extensive residential subdivisions criss-crossed by arterials and expressways. Currently, the accent is on quality of urban life defined in large part by the presence of stimulating pedestrian-conducive environments. Publicity for cities or parts thereof habitually presents animated places filled with happy pedestrians with things to do including socializing in the outdoor space of cafés, restaurants and bars, walking to yoga, strolling with friends in urban parks. These have become depictions of urban happiness and health. Therefore, areas that conform to these images will attract residents and visitors sensitive to this now common definition of urban quality of life.

The presence of these individuals will stimulate economic activity. There is thus an economic dimension to the image projected by walkability (Sinnett et al, n.d.).

The high density of downtowns can be explained by the need for land uses to be within walking distance of each other, as walking is the vector through which downtown synergy effects take place. Hence, the coincidence between the size of downtowns and walkable radii. Very large metropolitan regions, such as New York City, where the downtown would exceed walking range, have more than one downtown. It is therefore important for the dynamics of downtowns that they offer an appealing pedestrian environment.

The more attractive this environment is, the more and longer people walk, the more intense the synergy effects and the larger the area over which these effects take place. The quality of the pedestrian environment is Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, © 2018

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a catalyst for synergy effects (Thomson, 1977). There is also a virtuous cycle inherent in the relation between the quality of the walking environment and the intensity of synergy effects.

Attractive walking conditions translate into high walking levels and frequent interactions between activities. Likewise, the more intense are synergy effects, the more stimulating is the walking environment thanks to the presence of numerous pedestrians and the health and appeal of establishments along pedestrian corridors, and the more walking takes place.

1 - Framework 9

Filion, Leanage, Leger & Oviedo - Walkable Centres - Š 2018 School of Planning, University of Waterloo

Many conditions must be met to achieve walkability. There is first the need for adequate walking infrastructures, such as accessible sidewalks and walkways. Basic walking infrastructures can be enhanced by widening sidewalks, providing street furniture, trees and planters, signage, weather protection and pedestrian-level lighting. Also important is the actual safety of pedestrians and their sense of security. Protection from crime can to some extent be achieved through CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design), but the significant real and perceived hazard for pedestrians comes from vehicular traffic. Intersections can be made shorter, safer and easier for pedestrians to negotiate, more options can be offered to pedestrians with smaller blocks and additional crossings, fast one-way streets can revert to two-way streets, road space can be narrowed to give more space to pedestrians and cyclists, and traffic calming measures can slow, and reduce the amount of, traffic (Southworth, 2005).

Walkability can also be improved by pedestrian environments that are stimulating, which are bordered by active frontages and animated by large numbers of pedestrians.

Filion, Leanage, Leger & Oviedo - Walkable Centres - Š 2018 School of Planning, University of Waterloo

1 - Framework

These same pedestrian-based synergy effects have the potential of stimulating the development and economic performance of UGCs (Filion, McSpurren and Huether, 2000). The cores of UGCs are generally of a walkable dimension and contain, or aspire to contain, diverse land uses, which could benefit from mutual interactions. Indeed, a large proportion of the core areas of UGCs under study here (those outside the City of Toronto) are traditional downtowns, albeit obviously smaller downtowns than those of large cities. Even the core areas of UGCs, which are not traditional downtowns, either cluster, or plan to cluster, a diversity of land uses.

Accordingly, all the UGCs investigated in this study would benefit from a walkable environment that would stimulate synergy effects.

1.3 Perspective on urban growth centres and walkability

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Our perspective raises a number of questions that will be addressed in the study.

1 - Framework

Denser housing and street-level establishments play dual roles. They supply and attract residents and visitors, and thus add pedestrians to animate commercial streets and civic spaces every day of the week. At the same time, they are major contributors to lively, social pedestrian spaces and therefore to the overall walkability of the areas where they are located.

Improved walking conditions would encourage pedestrian-based interactions between different activities within walking range, and thereby make it more attractive for them to locate in such an area. We can note the interdependent nature within a given area, such as the core of an UGC, of attractive pedestrian environments and land uses like offices, residential buildings and public facilities. The walkability of these areas depends on both the presence of pedestrian-hospitable spaces and of land uses capable of attracting people, in other words, potential pedestrians. Without these two conditions, it is difficult to achieve a stimulating walking environment, and synergy effects that would benefit the different types of land use would be reduced.

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• What characteristics are most likely to foster a pedestrian friendly environment?

• What form should such an environment take to maximize its impact on the quality of life and economic performance of the cores of UGCs? • How can walking environments be adapted to the different types of UGC cores under study?

• What is the nature of the pedestrian environment issues confronting these different types of cores?

1 - Framework

It is, however, impossible to provide stimulating walking environments without nearby destination activities that attract people and thereby motivate visits, trips and generate pedestrian movement. Without such activities, walkable corridors could be well designed and feel safe, but lack stimulation and animation, and suffer from the absence of foot traffic and of lively street-facing establishments. Such a situation confronts municipalities that have improved their downtown walking infrastructure only to see the beneficial effects of such interventions negated by empty façades and a scarcity of pedestrians. To avoid this outcome, it is essential to invite land uses that can generate pedestrian movement and thereby bring life to the streets and centre. Figure among such land uses: office buildings, high-density residential buildings, farmers’ markets, bus terminals, train stations, satellite college or university campuses, cinemas, theatres, concert halls, arenas, parks and civic spaces. By stimulating pedestrian movement, these land uses create conditions favourable to more streetlevel establishments, such as stores, services, restaurants, cafés and bars, and as result to a stimulating pedestrian environment.

• What land uses are most likely to contribute to the walking environment?

• How should these land uses be located relative to pedestrian spaces?

• What obstacles confront planners in their effort to improve the pedestrian environment?

Our framework (Figure 1) draws upon the major bodies of work described above to identify three of our four pillars: built environmental conditions, multi-functionality/diversity and activity integration as necessary conditions for generating walking and pedestrian activities. We also added a fourth pillar, temporal dimensions (time coordination essential to interactions between activities and times over which walking takes place), that seems to not have attracted the attention of researchers, yet we believe to be important for centres in producing needed pedestrian activity and synergies.

Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, © 2018

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Figure 1: Framework for achieving UGC activity integration through walkability

Multifunctionality/ diversity

1 - Framework

Greater pedestrian activity and walking

Temporal dimensions

1 - Framework

Built envrionmental conditions

ordination, cultural attractions and public spaces for residents and visitors need to enable engagement over a broader spectrum of time. The temporal dimension also includes walking duration (related to distance). Where functions are stretched beyond convenient walking distances, other modes of travel become necessary. This is obvious when major land uses are separated, e.g. employment parks away from residential areas. However, the same can be true within centres where uses and activities are concentrated at extremities of large centres, e.g. entertainment uses at one end making distances too far and time consuming to walk to patronize hospitality establishments at the other end.

Activity integration

The significance of our framework is twofold. First, it brings earlier research together that simultaneously recognizes UGCs as both places and travel corridors, yet in a new way that recognizes four circumstances necessary to increase walking and pedestrian activities in centres. The ideal scenario may be best imagined at the end of the work day along a main street where some people may be en-route to catch transit, others outside buildings talking to colleagues, a family stopping to shop before walking home, friends on a bench waiting for the rest of their party to arrive before finding a restaurant, and other people walking to an evening event. These synergies, yielding a concentration of pedestrian activities deliver the critical mass of people in centres to fuel a reinforcing cycle of attraction. Accounting for the full range of pedestrian activities, i.e. the full pedestrian experience, makes it easier to achieve walkability and synergies in centres.

Second, the importance of time should not be overlooked. Many traditional downtowns are ‘dead’ after six o’clock or on a Saturday night, reflective of their catering to daytime and weekday hours only. Transit service is often slowed or stopped after peak hours, causing reliance on car journeys or expensive taxis for journeys to and from centres. In addition to transit co-

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Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, © 2018

Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, © 2018

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2.0

Ontario context

Ontario context 2.1 Places to Grow initiative The project intersects with and supports Places to Grow goals and objectives.

2 - Ontario context

Walkability contributes to increases in active transportation and thereby improves the fitness and health of people in UGCs. Interconnectivity between different land use categories fostered by walking enhances the community dimension of UGCs by making it possible for people living and working in these centres to have easy access to a wide range of activities.

Increasing intensification and addressing barriers to it Many planning and design interventions that support pedestrians also support intensification, including mixing uses and clustering amenities, increasing residential density and transit servicing, smaller lots and building frontages, streetscape improvements and more.

Improving design plays a foremost role in walkable UGCs. A problem with many existing UGCs is the missing connective tissue between their major structures or the poor quality of this tissue.

Aligning land use planning with economic development strategies and emerging trends Walking-induced synergy can extend activity duration over a longer period of time supporting business growth as well as attraction and retention of working and retired demographics within UGCs.

2 - Ontario context

Building healthy, complete communities in urban, suburban and/or rural contexts

Designing high quality compact built form and public open spaces

Integrating land use planning with investment in infrastructure and public service facilities Walkability may include both improvements of pedestrian infrastructures and adjustments to the development patterns of these new infrastructures. Both contribute to an integrated walking environment.

Mitigating and adapting to climate change and creating low-carbon or net-zero communities Shifting journeys from the automobile to walking (and by extension to public transit), this project explores means to reduce carbon emissions.

Achieving transit-supportive densities Synergy effects generated by a walking-hospitable environment attract further development and thereby create conditions for increased density. Equally important are how synergy effects help to maximize density impacts in terms of interconnections between different categories of activities, street and public space animation, and public transit use.

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Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, Š 2018

Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, Š 2018

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Figure 2: UGC categories in the Greater Golden Horseshoe

Outer GGH Outer Suburbs City of Toronto Traditional Downtowns Undeveloped Centres Mall-Focused Centres Downtown Toronto and Subway Centres

2.2 UGC categories in the Greater Golden Horseshoe UGCs come in different forms, each requiring a specific approach to walkability. From a land use perspective, we identify 5 categories of UGCs shown in the adjacent map (Figure 2):

1) Downtown Toronto

3) Traditional downtowns or satellite urban areas Twelve outer UGCs are composed mostly or in part of traditional downtowns, either in towns and cities absorbed by the GTHA’s suburban belt or satellite urban areas within the GGH: Downtown Peterborough, Downtown Barrie, Downtown Oshawa, Downtown Brampton, Downtown Burlington, Downtown Hamilton, Downtown St. Catharines, Downtown Brantford, Downtown Cambridge, Downtown Kitchener, Uptown Waterloo, Downtown Guelph.

Downtown Toronto constitutes a category of its own given its scale and the intensity of its development, and the fact that it is the public transit hub of the metropolitan region.

2 - Ontario context

2 - Ontario context

4) Mall-focused centres

2) Subway station intensification Three UGCs are the outcome of high-density redevelopment within City of Toronto sectors served by one or more subway stations: North York Centre, Yonge-Eglinton Centre and Etobicoke Centre.

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Three suburban growth centres are existing suburban centres within the GTHA, which have grown around a regional shopping mall: Scarborough Town Centre, Downtown Pickering and Mississauga City Centre.

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5) Undeveloped centres

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Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, Š 2018

Many UGCs have Metrolinx Mobility Anchors (or labelled Gateway Hubs). Mobility Anchors are defined as UGCs which are located in the GHTA and contain a primary public transit station (Metrolinx, 2008). In a report, Metrolinx recognized the potential for conflicts between these transit stations and UGCs development goals. Such conflicts would arise from the modal transfers occurring around these public transit stations (Metrolinx, 2011). Transfers between buses and rail transit, and especially a high demand for parking space by commuters using the GO Rail system risk erecting barriers to high-density pedestrian-oriented development, in the form of large parking expanses, busy bus loading and offloading areas between these stations.

To deal with this issue, the Metrolinx report proposes remedies inspired by international case studies.

Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, Š 2018

2 - Ontario context

2 - Ontario context

Six UGCs are yet to be developed or are at an early stage of development: Newmarket Centre, Richmond Hill/Langstaff Gateway, Markham Centre, Vaughan Corporate Centre, Midtown Oakville, Downtown Milton.

2.3 Mobility hubs

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3.0

Project focus: Three UGC categories and 10 mobility anchors

Project focus 3. Project focus: three UGC categories and 10 mobility anchors

The traditional downtowns (Category 3) have suffered a considerable loss of activity over the last decades and, despite successive attempts at revitalization, are facing difficulties at bringing street life back. In their case, obstacles to a pedestrian-friendly environment do not relate so much to urban design considerations, as virtually all these downtowns have been the object of recent street improvements, as they do to insufficient activities within their midst to generate street life and to the auto-dependent built form that surrounds traditional downtowns. The most common image these downtowns conjure up is that of well-designed streets and sidewalks, but with deteriorated, often vacant, building facades, and little pedestrian traffic.

3 - Project focus

3 - Project focus

We will focus on UGC Categories 3, 4 and 5 because these are the ones whose walkability is, or may in the future, be most challenged. As ten of these UGCs are Mobility Anchors, this project acknowledges the potential barrier effects to walkability caused by the presence of major public transit stations and will focus on integrating these primary transit stations within an improved walking environment of UGCs. Such considerations are of foremost importance to our project because of the close connection we identify between walking and public-transit use.

3.1 Traditional downtowns or satellite urban areas

3.2 Mall-focused centres Category 4 UGCs offer pedestrian-conducive environments in the indoor space of their shopping malls and sometimes in public plazas. But beyond this, these UGCs suffer from poor pedestrian connections, due to the prevalence of walking-phobic land uses such as parking lots and wide arterials, as well as to the coarse-grain nature of their development, whose rhythm is out of sync with the speed of walking, and the absence of activities appealing to pedestrians at the ground level of buildings. Poor walking conditions result in the lack of integration of these centres’ different functions. These conditions severely limit connections between office, civic, retailing and residential sectors within this category of UGCs.

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Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, Š 2018

Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, Š 2018

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3.3 Undeveloped centres Markedly different is the situation prevailing in Category 5 UGCs because in their case we must anticipate their walking condition mostly from plans. We will explore the extent to which lessons learned from the two previous categories of UGCs can be useful to the planning of Category 5 UGCs.

3 - Project focus

3 - Project focus

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Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, Š 2018

Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, Š 2018

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4.0

Current trends in the improvement of pedestrian environments in North America

Current trends in the improvement of pedestrian environments in North America

All 88 articles reviewed related to urban environments, and 66 pertained to suburban places.

Some geographies received more attention in the literature, with downtowns and main streets being directly addressed in 61 of the articles and neighbourhoods being studied in 65 articles.

There were also 62 articles related to mid-sized cities (100,000-500,000 people), with 67 articles reviewed addressing large cities (500,000 or more people).

Figure 3: Place-based coverage of research articles

4 - Current trends

The same method was intended to be used for the municipal document review. However, given the overwhelming number of documents, their rich content and the many relevant strategies they contain, we devised an alternative approach to the selection of documents. The approach is described in a later section along with the early findings from the three case study document review, which shaped the review method used for other municipal UGCs (amounting to almost four hundred (400) documents).

4.1 Research literature review We reviewed eighty-eight (88) research articles with a walkability interest. A significant number were relevant to UGCs and were associated with a variety of centre scales, places and conditions. Articles often touched on more than one of the following: medium‐ and large‐sized cities, urban and suburban contexts, developing areas, downtowns, main streets and other commercial areas, neighbourhoods, and transit hubs. Proportionately, this is reflected in Figure 3.

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4 - Current trends

As expected, there is considerable research and municipal documentation on walkability primarily originating in urban planning, transportation and public health publications. To manage the size of our literature and municipal document review, we devised a search and filtering method to sort, quantify and extract needed information on walkability interventions, trends and successes, and specific instruments applied by the UGCs under study (see Appendix A). This method has been used in the research literature review and findings from this review are presented in the next section. Our literature search identified material that relates land use and modal choice, with special emphasis on walking. It also included works on the nature of walkability strategies as well as on policies most likely to promote walking.

Finally, it covered research on transportation conditions favourable to walking and on forms of urban design suited to pedestrians. The literature review did not engage with technical design aspects of walkable environments situated in engineering research.

4.2 Literature findings: trends and successful instruments As expected, a vast range of interventions intended to support and generate walking were identified in the literature. Almost all the interventions reported in this literature fit well within our conceptual walkability framework relating to multi‐functionality, integration and built environment conditions. Other strategies were identified, ranging from a critical mass of people on the street, social interactions and walking groups, travel costs, financial incentives, marketing and awareness campaigns, and educational attainment.

Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, © 2018

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Table 1: Research focus of articles aligned with our conceptual walkability framework Activities, distribution of functions, multi-functionality and/or functional integration 76

Built environment

Temporal dimension

Other strategies

68

16

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Figure 4: Number of walkability trends and successful walkability instruments within each theme identified in the research literature

4 - Current trends

4 - Current trends

We found that considerably less attention to the role of the temporal dimension has been paid in the research literature, one of four pillars in our conceptual framework. Out of the 88 articles reviewed, only 16 made reference to the role of the temporal dimension. The temporal dimension includes a range of activity hours (e.g., throughout weekdays, weekends, evenings and nights) as well the coordination and integration of place and travel functions based on time. This dimension is critical to achieving higher volumes of pedestrians in centres as well as synergies between functions. In an ideal centre, life, work/school, shopping, eating, socializing, recreation and mobility functions are connected and coordinated from a temporal perspective.

From the research literature, we developed an inventory of walking interventions, finding trends (i.e., movement in a particular direction over time) and successful instruments, then organizing these into categories or themes (see lists below and Figure 4 with details in Appendix B).

We included instruments identified or suggested as effective, shown to have statistical significance, confirmed in more than one study – and raising little or no disagreement in the literature. Our inventory identified 199 walking interventions and, of these, 182 have been deemed as either trends or successful instruments to improve walkability in centres and other contexts.

The most popular walkability trends and successful walkability instruments (i.e., greatest number of interventions) fall into the following eight categories or themes: 1. Destination Diversity and Access (32 types of interventions) 2. Road Factors including Design (18 types of interventions) 3. Pedestrian Factors (17 types of interventions) 4. Land Use-Transportation Policy (10 types of interventions) 5. Building Factors (9 types of interventions) 6. Transit (9 types of interventions)

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7. Addressing barriers (9 types) and 8. Perceptions (7 types).

The fewest types of interventions were identified for the themes shown below: 9. Temporal Dimensions (2 types of interventions) 10. Financial (4 types of interventions) 11. Green/Park/Nature Factors (6 types of interventions) and Population Factors (Demographic and Residential Density) (6 interventions).

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Four predominant categories of potential intervention were identified by the research literature: changes to urban form/pattern (e.g., compactness, street layout, connectivity), land use policy and planning (e.g., land use types and mix), street-level interventions (e.g., sidewalks, aesthetics, safety), and individual buildings (e.g., design, facades, rhythm).

4 - Current trends

High population density, similarly to the mixing of uses, is also potentially supportive of walking, when it is integrated with other pedestrian supportive features. Employment density is also closely related to this intervention, though there are fewer articles that speak to employment density directly. While highly walkable places are likely to have the capacity to serve higher population densities and high residential densities supplies necessary people to centres, it is common to experience inhospitable walking environments with current building models delivering high population densities. The proliferation of large podium-style residential towers often lack a stimulating ground level environment, unmatched with walking rhythms and produce high and cold winds.

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Finer grain interventions that also affect walkability but appear to be minimally addressed or missing from the research literature are site-level integration, district level integration, nonautomobile mode integration and surface treatments and conditions. Site-level integration could include the relationship of buildings to other buildings as well as how buildings meet the public realm. These affect walking by framing the pedestrian experience and shaping interruptions, e.g. gaps between buildings often produce wind and can have (hidden) driveways. District-level integration addresses transitions between different land uses and districts within centres. Districts can often be separated by arterials or collector roads and produce automobile risks and create wind tunnels. Non-automobile mode integration could include how, when and where people access and wait for transit, switch between cycling and walking, and move between recreational or green spaces and built environments. Attention to walking surfaces may seem insignificant yet these are important for safety and accessibility.

As the research literature shows, walking behaviours are associated with a combination of interventions as none on its own will account for direct success in increasing walking.

Moreover, as our conceptual framework suggests, it is the concentration of interventions in a specific area and their interactions over time, that produce the synergies necessary for walking.

High population density

Key findings common to all UGCs The application of the research literature to Urban Growth Centres is discussed in this section.

Mixed use zones Mixed-used zones, areas and buildings can be supportive of walking, when there are other positively reinforcing features as well. But mixed-use alone is not supportive of walking activity. Many articles studied mixed-use and walking activity at different scales, be it a newly designated mixed-use area, a new mixed use building, and the majority of these agree that mixing land uses alone is inadequate for supporting walking behavior.

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Destination density and diversity Density and diversity of destinations appear to be a challenge for the three kinds of UGCs we are discussing. Large cities are capable of concentrating large numbers of activities belonging to different categories within their downtown areas. It proves difficult for less developed centres, mall-focused centres, and smaller traditional centres to achieve such an outcome.

This is a problem since a stimulating pedestrian environment requires a concentration of activities and a sufficient density of people walking.

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Non-compact walking grids in less-developed and mall-focused centres

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Despite the less-developed or yet-to-be-developed and the mall-focused UGCs missing walkingconducive features such as traditional grids with small blocks, high connectivity, a variety of older buildings and walking rhythms, these types of UGCs may enjoy greater flexibility allowing them to combine creatively a greater number and combination of interventions to improve walkability. Can the combinations of these interventions overcome their basic morphology, which is hostile to walking, to produce more walking, a critical mass of people and synergies?

may be difficult. The literature associates these centres with temporal challenges. It notes issues with limited opening hours, which reduces the potential of interconnecting activities within and between neighbouring areas.

Challenges in Traditional Centres

Scale creates integration issues in less-developed and mall-focused centres

Traditional downtown UGCs were originally blessed with an ideal walkable urban form, which was later compromised in some cases by the urban renewal projects of the 1960s and 1970s, e.g., Downtown Hamilton. These UGCs are compact with small blocks, high levels of connectivity, shorter walking distances, interesting facades and most have major transit services and/or are a Metrolinx Mobility Hub. However, these UGCs are challenged by the predominance outside downtowns of dispersed, low-density patterns adapted to universal automobile reliance. Their economic performance has been affected by the decentralization of activities to the suburb, particularly visible in the case of retailing and office parks. Moreover,

There is a risk that the overall scale/size of mall-focused, as well as of less-developed UGCs, could stretch functions and uses over larger areas, thereby impeding the ability to concentrate walking-supportive interventions in ways to generate needed synergies. Also contributing to such a dispersion would be their large block configuration. This could point to the need for activities within these UGCs to concentrate on smaller areas within the UGC, leading to a later extension of the cluster of activities to the remainder of the UGC. Mall-focused centres have one advantage unlike the other centres: they provide refuge for pedestrians from inclement weather, especially relevant to cold climates. However, integration of different travel modes has emerged as an important challenge facing these kinds of centres as they are likely to double as transit hubs, as well as places where people arrive by personal automobiles. Both transit station and shopping mall parking design interfere with safe walking access and passage. In this sense, integrating infrastructure and design supportive of walking

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in an often vain effort to compete with suburban locales, traditional downtowns have been adapted to a generalized use of the car, with deleterious effects on walking conditions.

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4.3 Findings: research gaps A number of gaps in the research literature were noted. These are explained below.

Little research on un- and less-developed centres

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Though the term ‘active transportation’ may be raised within references to walkability, there is still a clear separation in the analysis of the modes and limited discussion of how to support interactions and interfaces of travellers transitioning between cycling and walking, transit and walking or any modal combination, as part of a single journey or multiple trips.

To make matters even murkier, oftentimes the term cycling is routinely substituted for the term ‘active transportation,’ with little or no mention of walking or pedestrian-supportive facilities.

Sometimes it seems, the term cycling is used to represent both walking and cycling despite important differences. This may be related to cycling infrastructure being largely planned and coordinated by transportation planners and engineers, who work with roads more than any other aspect of urban planning. It may also reflect a bias in the importance given to cycling by organized advocates, despite the ubiquitous and necessary nature of walking. Further research is needed on the walking-cycling interface.

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As can be seen in Figure 3, a noticeable weakness in the literature is the scant coverage of undeveloped areas or in-development areas. Only twenty-six (26) articles were related to this category. While it is intuitive that there would be fewer opportunities to study undeveloped downtowns in particular, this limits the direct knowledge that can be transferred to the 5 UGCs that are currently in development. Although there is not a large body of knowledge on planning that is supportive of pedestrian activity in areas in development, more general trends and successful instruments of relevance to this type of UGCs can be drawn and applied from the other articles reviewed. As an example, those UGCs that are in close proximity to Toronto (such as Vaughan Metropolitan Centre) and which expect to become large centres in the near future, may find that research on pedestrian activity in large city downtowns is quite applicable to them as well.

Walking-cycling separation and mismatch

Insufficient attention to transit hubs and their multi-modal interfaces Transit hubs constituted the next least-covered place category in our review, with just 32 articles in this category. This body of work may prove useful to those UGCs that are structured around a transit station. The fewer number of articles may partially be explained by research often focusing on one specific travel mode, in a fashion that excludes walking. For example, a transit user may be referred to exclusively as a transit user, rather than a transit user and pedestrian or cyclist or driver. Researchers may find the blurring of transportation lines difficult to address in studies that seek to focus on one type of travel behaviour. However, in terms of planning, the transition between modes is important for planners to understand. Related to this, was the finding from our literature review that the integration of cycling and walking was largely absent from research. These modes of travel are almost always discussed independently one from another.

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Initiatives within the GGH to upgrade walkability

5.1 Analysis of UGC plans

In some cases, regional or county plans exist when municipal plans are absent, e.g. Simcoe County’s transportation master plan covering Barrie and Orillia and Peel Region’s truck routing plan covering Mississauga.

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Municipal Document Review We began this review for three UGC case studies: Downtown Kitchener, Mississauga City Centre and Vaughan Metropolitan Centre using the same search and filtering method as the research literature review to sort, quantify and extract needed information on walkability interventions. Municipal documents were identified on government websites and by interviewees. The sheer volume of municipal documents for all 20 UGCs prevented in-depth review of all 20. However, early findings from the three case studies enabled the development of a municipal walking intervention inventory and categorization of these instruments in a way that is similar to that employed in the research literature review. We can comment on the body of UGC municipal documentation and findings from the three case studies, presented in the next section.

Findings: municipal planning documents We found 375 municipal documents relevant to walkability across the 20 UGCs. We categorized these documents into 38 types. These documents touched on land use, transportation, streetscaping, transit, urban design, mixed use and tall buildings, recreation and culture, services, programs, sustainability and marketing at various scales. Some documents were place-based, e.g. neighbourhoods, downtowns/centres, and others had function-specific designations such as employment, civic and entertainment districts within centres. We also found a finer grain level of walkability interventions that occur through planning, servicing and management of by-laws, sidewalks, traffic calming, patios, crime prevention, lighting, and so on. A full list of municipal document types and frequency across 20 UGCs can be found in Figure 5 while Appendix C illustrates which document types relate specifically to UGCs.

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Initiatives within the GGH to upgrade walkability

Ten of the 38 document types were UGC-specific, including downtown secondary plans, downtown master plans, downtown urban design guidelines, mixed use/tall building design guidelines or UGC specific community improvement plans. Some plans, including streetscape master plans, public art plans or transit station plans can be UGC specific or contain UGC specific chapters with pertinent policies. Downtown Master Plans or Secondary Plans were the most extensive document type attempting to consolidate several city-wide objectives relevant to UGCs. For example, both Mississauga’s and Vaughan’s UGC-specific documents encompass open space, street network, building frontage, districts, land use and more.

Our in-depth case study review of fifty (50) documents for the 3 UGCs, Downtown Kitchener, Mississauga City Centre and Vaughan Metropolitan Centre showed that each municipality had their own approach to integrating UGC-specific planning. Three inter-related documents were found for Vaughan that will guide development in their undeveloped UGC whereas the Downtown21 plan is the primary guiding document for planning Mississauga City Centre.

Kitchener’s recent transit efforts and the Planning Around Rapid Transit Stations (PARTS) document seem to have jumpstarted their present downtown plan. Each of these plans dealt directly with pedestrian movement through a range of strategies. A summary of each of these documents is in Table 2.

Similar to the research literature, municipal walkability strategies seem to align relatively well with our conceptual framework. They also focus more on spatial aspects of walkability than over its temporal dimensions, although some proposals addressing time were found, e.g. lighting strategies, promotion of civic and recreation uses in downtowns. In addition, municipalities with UGCs addressed walkability through other types of strategies not yet found in the research literature e.g., public art strategies, truck route plans, and pedestrian charters to name a few, as shown in Table 3.

A growing number of municipalities have specific walking policies, plans and design directions on par with major municipal planning frameworks such as transportation master plans (e.g., active transportation master plans, streetscape guidelines and sidewalk snow clearing policies). There is evidence of increasing commitment to such measures. However, the ability of such plans to alter other high priority strategies and services, such as those involving road and traffic management for example, will be a challenge.

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Figure 5: Frequency of walkability-relevant documents across 20 UGCs

Prioritizing walkability over other initiatives confronts obstacles of a systemic nature - institutional, political and community mobilization - as seen with attempts to reduce parking, increase density and remove travel lanes for example. Where automobile use and culture are strong, like in many of the UGC municipalities, these challenges can be daunting.

Table 2: Summary of UGC-specific municipal planning documents in 3 case studies Vaughan

Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Open Space and Streetscaping Plan Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Urban Design Guidelines Vaughan Secondary Plan

Mississauga

Downtown21

Kitchener

Planning Around Rapid Transit Stations (PARTS)

Comprehensive plan which outlines the plan for public realm within the VMC. Includes policies proposing changes to street classifications to promote more walkable streets, and improved active transportation connections. Plans achieves high-level of detail through identifying outdoor lighting provisions and recommended street furniture types.

Broad-scoped plan that determines the look and feel of buildings within the UGC. Includes policies delineating uses, districts and building types and styles. This plan goes into a level of detail which recommends block types for each of the nine proposed districts within the UGC. This plan provides guiding principles for the UGC. As the guiding document, it includes less implementation and more visioning such as policies which generally promote the desired built form and transportation network to be built in the UGC. This comprehensive plan, which was a plan following an OPA promoting grid-like streets in the UGC is the all-encompassing design plan for Mississauga City Centre. This plan includes policies for land use, building type, street interventions and fostering sense of place.

This plan was a result of the ION rapid transit currently being implemented in Kitchener. It is the most comprehensive plan for the downtown and focuses on enhancing public realm and building facades surrounding the ION transit stations within Downtown Kitchener.

Like in the research literature, integration between scales and temporal dimensions receive the least attention in planning documents. There are attempts to integrate scales by directing and prescribing height variations between edges of UGCs and residential neighbourhoods. For example, Kitchener’s urban design guidelines provided transition policies which identified how built form should be modified between the different districts within the UGC. Closer examination of temporal factors by the case study municipalities is discussed next.

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Table 3: Municipal focus of walkability-relevant documents aligned with our framework

Temporal dimensions evaluation Six approaches to addressing temporal factors within municipal planning documents were found.

Findings: case study walkability improvements Downtown Kitchener, Mississauga City Centre and Vaughan Metropolitan Centre are the three case studies representing the UGC categories of traditional downtowns, mall-focused and undeveloped centres respectively. A total of fifty (50) documents originating from these 3 case studies were reviewed in detail to develop an early inventory of efforts to improve walkability.

Nearly 70 different walkability strategies were identified, which we grouped into 19 themes (see Appendix D for details). Themes ranged from land use policies to building specifications, density to street, sidewalk and intersection interventions, and parking and driveways to art, parks and creating a sense of place. The magnitude and array of walking instruments demonstrate municipal awareness, intent and the wide variety of available options. Some municipal efforts were not yet reported in the research literature, suggesting that planning, design and practice may have a deeper, richer and longer experience than recent walkability researchers do (e.g., laneways, signage and prohibition of drive-throughs). It may also indicate that planning and design practice generate combinations of walking strategies across different areas of planning intervention.

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• Transportation demand management: encourage working hours outside 9.a.m5p.m., encourage flexible working space.

• Residential intensification: many municipalities referred to increasing residential use within the downtown to encourage 24-hr community life.

• Extended civic services: occasionally, extending hours of civic buildings or downtown transit lines were also discussed in policies to encourage safe late-night activity in downtowns.

• Night time event programming: some municipalities referred to nighttime event programming as a means to increase evening public life.

• Lighting: enhancing downtown lighting was the most common of the temporal factors • Reviews of the other UGC municipalities showed that lighting was common and may be the only reference to building a 24 hour community.

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Comparison of 3 UGC Case Studies

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Common to all 3 cases, the following elements were found to be consistently emphasized within their UGC plans: • four designated, character-based districts – civic, entertainment, employment and commercial; • parking structures with covered facades and ground floor mixed use, • active-use at grade, • encouraging mixed use, • encouraging bicycle parking, • implementing public art,

Unlike the Mississauga City Centre and Vaughn Metropolitan Centre, Downtown Kitchener has a heritage-rich built environment. Its plans like those of other traditional downtown areas identified its preservation, façade improvement programs and upper storey renovation incentives as key components of revitalization strategies. Downtown Kitchener also adopted marketing and communication campaigns aimed at attracting visitors and residents to the core for outdoor, recreational and cultural events and festivals, as well as at promoting a restaurant scene particularly geared to younger professionals and families.

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The three in-depth municipal document reviews and interviews revealed that walkability was considered a high, if not the highest, priority among UGC interventions concerning design and transportation. Interestingly, Kitchener had the greatest number of relevant documents with Mississauga next, followed by Vaughan. However, the number of documents does not seem to reflect the importance given to walkability in each case. Embedded within Mississauga City Centre and Vaughn’s fewer documents were many of the same elements that are spread among Kitchener’s various planning documents. We suspect that the historical struggles faced by Kitchener and most mid-sized city traditional downtowns have led to significant efforts to restore, revitalize and bring residents and visitors back to the core. The succession of such efforts over a long period accounts for the numerous documents. It will be interesting to see whether the visions for mall-focused and undeveloped centres that have walkability as a prominent objective within and across fewer planning documents will translate into the implementation of ambitious walkability policies.

Traditional Downtown Findings: Kitchener The most prominent finding emerging from plans concerning Kitchener Downtown is their focus on fostering sense of place and connection with their residents. They want the area to be defined by their residents. As such, they have launched many grassroots initiatives such as community murals and resident-led traffic calming to encourage pedestrian activity in the downtown. They are also focused on improving night-long activity, an objective that was emphasized in their DTK Public Consultation Document. Further, through the PARTS plan they prioritize pedestrian movement from transit connections, wayfinding and public art as key factors fostering walkable downtowns. However, aside from the PARTS plan, there is no current downtown master plan (it is being updated).

Mall-focused Centre Findings: Mississauga City Centre Mississauga’s UGC plan emphasizes the integration of uses throughout the downtown through efforts to attract more employment and day-time uses. Further, by prioritizing the existing civic centre, the Downtown21 plan envisions the UGC as a prime area for event space, which is further supported by its policy encouraging curb-less streets and wayfinding. Parking is a major barrier to walkability in Mississauga City Centre and as such the City has adopted specific parking strategies for the UGC to mitigate its impact on pedestrian movement throughout the UGC. In Downtown Mississauga public art is highly encouraged as is the fostering open space and the design of the Sheridan UGC college campus. Creating more activity through the daytime working hours is also important to support a more vibrant UGC.

• prioritizing transit, • reducing parking standards, • sidewalks on both sides of UGC roads, and • encouraging tall buildings to be podium buildings.

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5.2 Interviews with planners responsible for UGC strategies We conducted seventeen interviews with planners across the Greater Golden Horseshoe, all of whom work or have worked on land, development, design and transportation planning in Urban Growth Centres. A copy of the interview letter and questions are included in Appendix E. All interviewees were currently or previously employed in municipal and regional municipal governments. To protect the identities of interviewees, Table 4 shows the number of interviews grouped by the region in which respondents work or have worked.

Table 5 shows the number of interviews grouped by Urban Growth Centre category contrasted with the number of UGCs in that category. Some interviewees were able to discuss more than one centre amounting to greater coverage of UGC categories than suggested by the number of respondents.

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Undeveloped Centre Findings: Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Vaughan’s UGC planning seems to be all-inclusive.

This is likely due to it enjoying more policy freedom in developing a centre from scratch. The VMC comprehensive planning framework provides direction for nearly every element of UGC life, including land use designations, building heights and setbacks, sidewalk widths and pavement type, street furniture types and street plantings.

As a planning objective, the City of Vaughan proposes the achievement of a complete and well-designed community. However, there are some elements of an organic downtown that are difficult to achieve through planning policy alone.

Many of the proposed VMC developments remain large scale as do proposed block sizes. Plans do recommend mid-block connections, but these are unlikely to be numerous enough to change the configuration of the UGC. Vaughan’s strategic location surrounding the newly developed TTC Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Station provides a unique opportunity to create transit based synergy throughout the site. However, it is also flanked by a major highway interchange which will likely reduce its public-transit modal-split.

Interviews: overview findings Walking/Pedestrians deemed most important In the eyes of all but two interviewees, walking was ranked as the most important mode, hence the necessity of creating vibrant, mixed use, compact, and pedestrian- and transit friendly centres. Two interviewees ranked walking and cycling, and walking and transit as having equivalent importance. Of the two who did not rank walking as the highest modal priority, transit was identified as most important by one interviewee and the second interviewee indicated that not one mode should be given the priority, that they had to be balanced.

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Interview general region Brantford and Cambridge Durham Halton and Guelph Hamilton and St. Catharines Peel York Waterloo

Number of interviews in general region 1 1 2 1 4 5 3

Total number of interviews

17

Walking mode share unknown None of the interviewees was aware of walking mode share targets. Some indicated that they had not yet been developed and others that they were under development. Some interviewees thought that specialized staff in transportation/engineering divisions might be aware of these targets or could be developing them. It is unclear why knowledge about present and targeted modal shares is so limited.

Transit 11%

Cycling 1%

Walk*

?%

AutoPassenger 18%

Auto-Driver 65%

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Table 4: Interviews grouped by region

Table 5: Number of interviews by UGC category Traditional downtowns 9 interviews 12 in category

Mall-focused centres 5 interviews 2 in category

Less developed centres 5 interviews 6 in category

Most interviewees could point to the language and documentation in official visions and plans reflecting the importance given to walking, though they agreed that present conditions were favourable to the automobile. They expressed frustration at the frequent challenges they face in their attempts to give priority to walking. Some interviewees lamented that if they as professionals have to face such obstacles at changing things in ways that favour walking, things must be worse for the general public. Several planners described steps they took internally to advocate for different traffic planning and management practices or to develop alternative parking concepts, but with limited or no success.

Nevertheless, a few interviewees stated that automobiles had and would continue to have a significant share or role. One interviewee feared that prioritizing pedestrians could lead to conflict, that the GTHA had a satisfactory level of walking and public transit use, and questioned whether higher order transit could be supported in this region. Another contrasted the walking importance given by UGC plans, with the lesser attention given to walking in the rest of the region. These interviewees were speaking about traditional downtowns in the outer GTHA ring, surrounded by extensive car-oriented suburban environments.

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Initiatives and strategies to improve walkability Planners discussed multiple strategies within UGCs to improve walkability referring to: 1. overall visions and official plans for compact, multi-functional, multi-modal, dense, connected centres of activity, 2. policies and plans operating at different scales addressing employment and population targets, and densities between regional and local municipalities, 3. investments made in active transportation, streetscape improvements, pedestrian bridges, pilot projects, arts, etc., 4. plans to divide superblocks into shorter blocks with a tighter grid, improved pedestrian crossings, 5. discussions with Metrolinx and GO Transit on investments, routes and parking lots that impact the evolution of centres toward local visions, 6. increasing modal choice, especially active transportation, through transit-oriented development, station area planning and design, 7. transportation master plans, street designs, and transportation demand management,

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8. surface parking lot redevelopment as well as changes to parking standards and commercial loading strategies, 9. pre-zoning for height, density and mixed uses, new development approval tools and design guidelines to provide greater development clarity specific to districts, streets, sites, buildings and intent of visions, 10. building designs and incentive programs including tall buildings, second storeys, and facades,

12. signature civic placemaking investments such as squares and post-secondary institutions, 13. municipal-developer partnerships that encourage city-building rather than project Return-on-Investment (ROI) models, and 14. wider stakeholder engagement to build support for change.

Engineering standards and systemic automobile-traffic management practices Numerous interviewees described barriers pertaining to existing engineering standards, traffic management approaches with outdated level of service performance metrics and institutional divisions that interfere with all ranges of changes. Examples given included attempts at providing regular pedestrian crossing intervals instead of using pedestrianactivated crossing buttons, inability to alter wide and fast arterials, persistence of wide turning radii to accommodate emergency and waste vehicles, and internal conflicts between planning and engineering. One interviewee described how a developer managed to negotiate four travel lanes rather than two, which exceeded road capacity requirements. In the same vein, municipal traffic management units, whose role is to regulate flow and prevent road congestion, may be reluctant to prioritize pedestrians through modifications to signal timing, standards changes, etc., because wary of potential impacts on motorists and traffic performance. Another interviewee was concerned about not achieving narrower roads, as proposed in plans, within a UGC. Yet this interviewee was relieved that just beyond the UGC, a road segment had indeed been narrowed. A few interviewees pointed to widely accepted newer standards such as Context-Sensitive Designs by major U.S. engineering bodies like NACTO and ASSHTO. These standards were not, however, adopted by their municipal engineering counterparts on the grounds that they were not Canadian (and despite the fact that many Canadian municipalities use them).

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11. event programming and destination marketing to bring people back to older downtowns, entice them to stay, and brand centres as the primary urban place,

Systemic, powerful obstacles impede walkability The majority of identified obstacles could be considered systemic in nature with some embedded institutionally, professionally and through interactions, others within the reality of the physical environment, and others still, intersecting with powerful cultural domains. In situ, this translates into planners and designers fighting the status quo, that is the replication of automobility, on nearly every front, frequently and with all tools available to them.

Interviews: major challenges planners confront when trying to implement walkability strategies in UGCs Planners identified a range of challenges at various scales and throughout planning processes that they face when trying to implement walkability and pedestrian strategies.

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Long-term, incremental planning, present needs and trajectories Several planners discussed tensions between the long-term planning objectives of UGCs and the need to attract investment as a catalyst or to support existing and new residents with amenities and services in mall-focused and less developed centres. Furthermore, they mentioned that the quality of walkable environments does not occur instantly but over decades.

Existing superblocks and suburban patterns All interviewees discussed having to deal with the current road structure and its road hierarchies and having to plan for a suburban form that replicates wide arterials and generates free-flowing fast-moving cars. Interviewees offered many examples, at all scales of intervention, which attempt to alter the replication of the car-oriented suburban development model. One planner raised an example of a road diet, which was, however, not implemented in the UGC of their municipality.

It is clear that interviewees had tried to seek solutions to problems encountered when implementing walkability. Resignation was palpable in several interviews. It appeared for a number of interviewees that despite sustained efforts to advance walkability, the depth, complexity, systemic and cultural nature of automobility seemed insurmountable. Some interviewees indicated that only time and demographic changes would make a difference.

Provincial, regional and local municipal governance Different layers of governance were identified by respondents as impacting their ability to implement walkability strategies. Road and transit jurisdictions was one issue restricting local capacity to achieve their own planning and design objectives regarding pedestrian-friendly roads. In some cases, there were problems creating pedestrian hospitable interfaces between transit stations and UGCs, when these stations were owned by other orders of government.

In the case of less-developed or undeveloped centres, a chicken or egg scenario can emerge.

To unlock the potential land values and motivate landowners to redevelop, transit funding or announcements from Metrolinx were seen as playing an instrumental role in taking undeveloped or less-developed UGCs on a trajectory towards becoming dense, multifunctional and walkable centres.

Development pressure Some interviewees explained how through the development approvals process, measures meant to support a walkable environment were watered down, causing walkability plans and guidelines to be only partly implemented. These planners felt they were disadvantaged in their negotiations with developers, given power imbalances, insufficient leverage on their part in negotiation processes and the ability of developers to circumvent local planning controls via the Ontario Municipal Board.

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Strategies and suggestions to address challenges

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Quantity and size of parking around malls and GO stations Nearly all interviewees acknowledged the major impact that parking has on walkability: influencing modal choice and transportation demand, its space requirement preventing other pedestrian-generating activities within their centres, their physical barrier effect, their destruction of a safe, hospitable pedestrian experience. In some cases, the location of GO station parking and GO routes directly challenged existing municipal visions and plans, requiring extensive and protracted negotiations which are ongoing.

More than half of the interviewees from across all three categories of UGCs believe that a paradigm or cultural shift was needed to create walkable centres. According to the interviewees, the groups most in need of such a change of perspective were engineers, developers, elected officials and the public (who need to alter their travel behaviours).

Destination for people Several interviewees describing their struggles with downtown revitalization, due to competition with Toronto or other commercial areas within their own city, identified the need to attract people. This would best be achieved by making UGCs well-recognized urban destinations within their cities.

Engineering and vehicular changes Several interviewees thought that engineering standards and road requirements for special interest, such as large vehicles (emergency, waste, snow clearing and delivery trucks), were dictating road design and negatively impacting walkability. “If I could wave a magic wand, I would change engineering standards…” wished one interviewee. Interviewees thought that Public Works could be required to replace municipal vehicles with smaller equipment that could clear snow in cycling lanes and be capable of making small, tight turns. These vehicles are known to be in use in many other countries.

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Still, other planners collaborate with public health to challenge the engineering standards and assumptions and to promote walking and the needs of all-ages-all-abilities on the basis of safety, chronic disease and injury prevention, population health, healthy community frameworks, active and safe routes to school, air quality initiatives and so on. These planners have created tools and checklists to facilitate approvals of development that meet higher standards oriented toward health, walking and cycling. There is a sense that developers are consulting such guides and designing their projects in advance of submitting proposals, signaling these offer clarity, there’s early adoption and some developers are proactive.

Private development and city-building developers Some of the interviewees felt they already had delivered, or were in the process of delivering, several key components of walkability – compact grids, the right policies, plans and zoning – and in some cases, transit improvements which would generate more walking. These interviewees thought that more private infill investment by developers (in the case of traditional downtowns) and the attraction of the right “city-building” developer (in the case of a less developed centre) were key to achieving walkability.

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City-building developers were described as those who partner with cities to deliver the vision of a compact, walkable, denser centre. One developer was acknowledged as having played an integral role for implementing major portions of one UGC vision. The presence of more of these types of developers was seen to be a most important step in achieving walkability.

Laws and more prescription Other interviewees felt that policies used the right words but were too soft to ensure that walkability improvements would be implemented, particularly given power imbalances between planners and developers. These interviewees’ experiences showed that by-laws and the approval process could be manipulated so that important walking and public realm criteria would be traded off causing implementation to deviate from the intention or spirit of policy (e.g., faux facades, doors and second storeys). In worse case scenarios, influential developers could work around planners and approvals through political channels and the Ontario Municipal Board. With stricter laws and prescriptions, capacities to ensure the vision, goals and plans for walkability would be strengthened and less susceptible to manipulation.

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With routine conflicts encountered at every scale with conventional engineering standards, models and practices some planners have become internal champions and advocates. There was a sense of resignation spurring planners to refocus on what’s feasible – planning and designing for walking and cycling outside of road and traffic planning domains e.g., land use development, specific areas and sites, trails and paths, streetscapes, furniture and so on.

One interviewee described that there was an internal process to escalate issues to a commissioner level so that the commissioners of planning and transportation would resolve the conflict. This process had been used successfully. It is unknown how many of the UGC municipalities have this structure or appeal process and it would be expected that this process would be reserved for major conflicts as opposed to micro challenging, rendering systemic change unlikely.

Broader stakeholder involvement Some planners recognized that engaging wider audiences and other stakeholders would support their efforts. Keen elected representatives, public health officials, particular demographics such as millennials and retirees, community groups and environmental advocates could be valuable champions. Pedestrian advisory committees were also noted as potential advocates.

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6.0

Inventory and comparison of UGC urban environment conditions

Inventory and comparison of UGC urban environment conditions We conducted an inventory and comparison of urban environment conditions in three ways:

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2. closer examination of planning, base walking conditions and opportunities in the 5 less-developed UGCs, 3. site visits, walkabouts and photo documentation of 17 of the 20 UGCs, and 4. detailed inventory and assessments of 3 UGC case studies using a customized and enhanced version of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy’s 2017’s “Transit-oriented Development Standard” (TOD3.0) (https://www.itdp.org/library/standards-and-guides/tod3-0/what-is-tod/) described in section r 7 specific to the case studies.

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6.1 Urban form analysis of interconnectivity through walkability within the core areas of built-up UGCs Walkability in traditional downtowns and mall-focused Urban Growth Centres

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1. an analysis of the urban form of the core areas of 15 developed UGCs as perceived through the lens of walking,

The urban form analysis with photo documentation is presented below. The site visits, walkabouts and more photo documentation will be presented on the website and be adapted to engage a wider audience. The detailed TOD3.0 assessments (where the methods used to measure walkability of three UGCs originate) are introduced in Section 7 and a comprehensive report of the results of these assessments is presented in Appendix G.

Although the project is about the 20 UGCs located outside the City of Toronto, the urban form analysis considers only the 15 UGCs that belong to two categories: traditional downtowns of suburban municipalities or of self-contained mid-size cities, and centres that have developed around a regional mall. Five UGCs at a planning or early development stage were not included in this aspect of the inventory and environmental comparison (Downtown Milton, Markham Centre, Midtown Oakville, Newmarket Centre, Richmond Hill/Langstaff Gateway and Vaughn Metropolitan Centre). Discussion of these 5 UGCs is presented in Section 6.2, drawing upon planning documents to consider the intended form they will take and their potential walkability if they were to be developed according to plans.

There are 12 UGCs outside the City of Toronto that belong to the traditional downtown category and two to the mall-focused category. We consider only the relatively high-density core areas of these UGCs with actual or potential multi-functional connectivity, that is, those that have most potential of generating walking journeys and pedestrian activities (see Appendix F for the methodology and the detailed findings of the urban form analysis).

Urban Growth Centre area Core area with maximum walkability potential

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Slow-moving, narrow streets Wide sidewalks

Civic uses: library and city hall

The ideal description does not rely on futuristic visions, it is rather an assemblage of present features promoting walkability. Its intent is to show that when all present, and one may add, in the right proportion, these features can foster an ideal walking environment.

Redevelopment in traditional downtowns designed to generate high pedestrian activity could occur in a few key ways. The first consists of mixing and integrating land uses that supply people and produce walking along primary pedestrian axes within the traditional urban fabric. This could include infilling parking lots and adding stories above smaller buildings.

Of course, any new structure should maintain or improve the continuity of building facades and the adaptation of built form rhythms to walking. Another option, where there is interest in preserving the historical character or height of the main commercial streets, would be to concentrate redevelopment at the edges of the downtown walking axes, enabling convenient access on-foot to pedestrian-friendly commercial streets.

Active, transparent facades

Farmer’s market

Building on top

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Walking-supportive environments in traditional downtowns An ideal walking environment for traditional downtown UGCs would consist of slow-moving, narrow, two-way streets, divided into short blocks with safe crossings, lined with continuous and animated facades, an active retail scene with many hospitality and service establishments, and redevelopment on and close to these streets in the form of mid- and high-rise residential and office buildings. These buildings would generate foot traffic and consumers for commercial street retailing, hospitality and services. They would provide store facades at ground level that do not detract from the retail continuity of main street configurations. Also found on and close by these streets: a city hall, a farmers’ market, a major transit hub, a major grocer, an arena, a library, a court house, a college or university satellite campus, a concert hall, cinemas, a theatre, student, senior and affordable housing, open spaces, seating and shelter. These are all land uses and facilities that when interconnected with safe, compact environments, generate daily walking journeys and support people to stay, socialize and recreate in centres over a range of time periods.

Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, © 2018

Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, © 2018

Infill parking lots

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Wide, fast, loud arterials

The models of mid- and high-rise residential developments need further refinement to reach their walkability potential by ensuring they attach to adjacent buildings to create ground level continuous facades, smaller floorplates and transparent store fronts. There could also be pedestrian-friendly squares, plazas, parks and campuses. All of these would need to be connected to the mall by well-designed, safe, wind-mitigated, accessible pedestrian corridors.

Wide arterials and intersections of these long blocks require critical traffic calming, a greater number of crossings, as well as safety facilities and devices. Secondarily, for reasons of spatial equity, cost and visibility, easily reachable elevated or subterranean passageways could be considered. Redevelopment in these centres needs to be strategically coordinated, streetfacing and joined so as to frame and shelter the pedestrian experience, reduce the barrier effect of surface parking on pedestrian connections and transform these centres more into walking than automobile environments.

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Walking-supportive environments in mall-focused centres The situation is different in the case of mall-focused centres. These centres, especially Mississauga City Centre, possess many land uses that could potentially generate high volumes of walking: a multitude of high-rise residential structures, a civic centre, office buildings, grocers, performing arts centre, a community college campus, a local and regional bus terminal, and a large regional shopping mall. The main problems confronting such centres is that their environments stretch these land uses beyond walking distances and they have poor walking conditions due to the presence of wide, fast, loud arterials, large surface parking expanses and a lack of framing of the pedestrian experience in the form of human scale outdoor spaces. These centres are also large and segmented into specialized areas, and many of their buildings are large, missing a rhythm suitable to walking, transparent façades and maladapted to the street for foot access. As a result, the indoor space of the shopping mall serves as the main pedestrian- friendly environment for this category of centres. Although there are other places attractive to pedestrians (e.g. public squares and plazas), these are disconnected from the mall (the focal point of these centres) and require walking along long, windy, boring stretches designed for cars.

Density but long, boring and windy stretches to walk

Disconnected public squares and institutions

Enhancing the walkability of such centres and the integration of their different functions could be achieved through several coordinated interventions. The indoor mall could become multifunctional, for example by topping it with office and apartment structures.

High-rises, city hall and open public and recreational spaces

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Diversity among Urban Growth Centres Clearly, we demonstrate the existence of two radically different types of urban growth centres: traditional downtowns of suburban and self-standing mid-size cities, and the ones whose core consisted in greenfield development around a regional shopping mall. But even within these two categories there are important differences.

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• MCC is more than 3.5 times the size of Downtown Pickering (5.64 km2 vs. 1.6 km2), • The core of MCC offers a more substantial concentration of activities than the equivalent central district of Downtown Pickering, • MCC shopping mall is larger and the office floor space of MCC is more than ten times that of the core of Downtown Pickering, • There are 16 times more high-rise residential buildings in the central district of MCC compared to Downtown Pickering.

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These have, however, been insufficient to challenge the dominance of the automobile in this environment. Still, MCC pedestrian strategies can be credited for the presence of some street-related retailing, which is totally absent from Downtown Pickering. These efforts may set a trajectory for future development, notably high-rise residential structures with podiums and street-related retailing. When erected in an area where smaller blocks break from the predominance of superblocks (e.g., the northwest end of MCC), such development can contribute to the creation of pedestrian conducive settings including continuous façades along with right-ofway narrowing and road/traffic calming.

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Similarities and differences in mall-focused centres Shared characteristics of the two mall-focussed UGCs, Downtown Pickering and Mississauga City Centre (MCC) include being organized around a shopping mall surrounded by abundant parking, traversed by wide arterials, structured by large blocks, and land uses surrounding the mall segmented into specialized districts. Important differences in scale and functions between MCC and Downtown Pickering UGC are obvious:

There is another distinction that needs highlighting. While there have been limited interventions to improve pedestrian-based connectivity between Downtown Pickering land uses, Mississauga City Centre has been the object of more ambitious efforts of this nature.

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All these downtowns inherited an urban texture characterized by tight street grids and street-facing store fronts, which have been altered by assembling lots to create larger land parcels for larger buildings and demolitions leading to its partial replacement by parking lots or redevelopment. Everywhere, hospitality and services together outnumber stores. The highest percentages of street-level commercial premises occupied by stores are found in Downtown Guelph, Uptown Waterloo and Downtown Burlington (respectively 41.8%, 40.5% and 39.5%). The lowest such percentages are registered in Downtown Brantford, Downtown St. Catharines and Downtown Oshawa (20.3%, 22.8% and 24.6%). From a commercial perspective, the history of all these downtowns can be seen as successions of more or less successful adaptations to the loss of their former role of undisputed retailing centre of their city.

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Similarities and differences in traditional downtowns There are similarities in the portions of UGCs consisting of traditional downtowns. First, most of them have declined since the early 1960s from being the main retailing concentration of their urban areas to becoming either a marginal or a niche shopping district. Despite public-sector efforts at revitalizing these downtowns, many still bear the scars of this commercial downfall. In fact, in some cases urban renewal has impeded the walkability and retail economy of these downtowns by destroying portions of the pedestrian-friendly commercial streets and erecting downtown indoor shopping malls that soon failed and became a burden for the downtown.

Indoor malls still burden downtowns

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Earlier redevelopment: large lots, buildings and parking

This commercial space could play a valuable economic and walkable development role by making it possible to recruit significant foot-traffic generators i.e., satellite post-secondary institutions and grocery stores or establishments that can only afford lower rents to operate, such as alternative spaces for co-working, arts and entrepreneurs. Comparatively however, the capacity of these smaller establishments to contribute to an active pedestrian environment is reduced. The presence of hospitality establishments is more likely to support an active walking environment, especially when they interface with sidewalks by providing outdoor seating.

Worst of all from a stimulating walkable environment perspective, are commercial vacancies and the breakage of continuous store façades by parking lots and wide driveways.

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In most cases, UGCs with a traditional downtown at their core contain two parts: a more compact, historical area with small, windowed storefronts with architecturally-decorative continuous facades, key civic buildings and perhaps a square; and the edges of the core where commercial buildings can become larger, are detached from adjacent properties, break walking rhythms and lack historical and design details. These edge areas tend to feature more surface parking, driveway interruptions and road widening. Edge areas and their commercial streets contain a large share of retailing and services that are not of a nature that is likely to generate substantial pedestrian activity or to create a stimulating setting for pedestrians.

Redevelop edges of core areas with pedestrian-generating uses: institutes, supermarkets, denser housing, co-working and maker spaces.

Another similarity among most of these traditional downtowns is their compactness. For all of them, with the exception of Downtown Hamilton and Downtown Kitchener, core areas range from 0.10 km2 (Downtown Brampton) to 0.49 km2 (Downtown Peterborough). The outliers, Downtown Hamilton and Downtown Kitchener, cover respectively 1.48 km2 and 1.17 km2.

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Commercial vacancies, covered windows and facades discourage pedestrian activity

with low amounts of office space and little or no high-density housing. High commercial vacancy rates in these two downtowns are associated with a relatively weak presence of hospitality establishments: 18.8% in Downtown Brantford and 12.4% in Downtown Cambridge, compared with scores in the low thirty and high twenty percent range for most other traditional downtowns in our study. The poor retailing statistics of these two downtowns is not due to a lack of municipal intervention to revitalize the downtown. The City of Brantford and the City of Cambridge have both made efforts to improve the streetscape of their commercial streets and have attracted university and colleges as well as performing arts centre facilities. The City of Brantford’s signature action is a pedestrian-friendly civic square created by demolishing massive sections of historical buildings to open and connect to the second main one-way street and a future university-non-profit recreational centre. The City of Cambridge has expanded sidewalks, added benches and trees, slowed traffic with the use of curb extensions and beautified its walkways along the Grand River. To date, these have not proven sufficient to spur commercial revitalization, however.

Wide driveways and parking lots are pedestrian hazards that reinforce automobile orientation

Land use-pedestrian activity dynamics

Demolition for new civic square Downtown Brantford to create sense of place and key destination

We now explore the interconnection between key downtown land uses, their potential to generate pedestrian traffic (public and private office buildings, libraries, satellite campuses, grocer, higher density housing, etc.) and a healthy street-level commercial scene.

Lowest commercial vacancies are registered in Downtown Barrie, Uptown Waterloo and Downtown Guelph (respectively, 5%, 5.3% and 6.7%). Downtown Barrie and Downtown Guelph have moderate levels of office space, but they both have concentrated downtown most of their municipal functions. Uptown Waterloo has done this to some extent, but it also benefits from the nearby presence of two universities. At the other end of the vacancy spectrum are Downtown Brantford and Downtown Cambridge (29% and 17.9%), which are two downtowns

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Streetscape improvements in Downtown Cambridge slow cars and support wlaking and staying

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Boutique retail and hospitality experiences are found in Downtown Peterborough and Burlington

Downtown Peterborough and Downtown Hamilton are the only traditional downtowns to have a major, affordable grocery chain in their downtown.

We note a great deal of diversity among traditional downtowns in their achievement of walkability by linking the attraction of land uses capable of generating pedestrian traffic with a stimulating walking environment animated by an active retailing scene. Differences among downtowns regarding their economic performance, history, the nature and impact of past revitalization efforts, and the size and form of the downtowns point to the need for different approaches to walkability adapted to their respective circumstances.

Reliance on retailing and potential solutions There are issues arising from reliance on street-level retailing to create animated walking environments. While stores, services and especially hospitality premises are essential to the production of stimulating pedestrian spines, attracting establishments most likely to support pedestrian conduciveness is difficult given present transformations affecting the retail scene.

So is finding sufficient establishments to fill all commercial buildings along several downtown streets, let alone across the entire UGC. Similarly, attracting the necessary types of stores and amenities to address the needs of downtown residents is clearly a challenge. Except for two traditional downtowns and one mall-focused centre, all other UGCs and their core parts (what we also identify as the downtown portions of UGCs) are deprived of a supermarket and hardware store. Living there without an automobile for grocery shopping is next to impossible.

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Meanwhile, other downtowns offer a boutique retailing experience. Such a pattern is noticeable in Downtown Burlington, Downtown Peterborough and to a lesser extent in Downtown Guelph. Downtown Burlington, which is located in a wealthy suburb of Toronto, provides the only outdoor walking-friendly shopping option within a large area. Its proximity to a popular waterfront park has resulted in considerable high-rise condo redevelopment. Downtown Guelph and Downtown Peterborough have preserved their historical character and, we have seen, have attracted a wide range of activities susceptible to generate walking journeys.

In the current retailing context where small stores have to compete with nearby large format stores (i.e., big box) and the Internet, and where even local shopping malls are struggling (large regional malls may be the exception), the prospect for populating the frontage of commercial streets with stores is limited.

Major grocery stores are missing except in Downtown Hamilton and Peterborough

Big issues for downtowns with nearby big box stores: 1) Offer essential, affordable groceries and hardware, 2) require a car, and 3) diminish commercial attractiveness

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The link between retailing and walkability takes a different form in mall-focused core areas of UGCs. The Mississauga City Centre experience shows that with appropriate planning, high-rise residential development could take place in a fashion that promotes street-level retailing. In these instances, retailing could be supported by the high population density of this type of housing. Problems in these circumstances are larger floorplates and a lack of retail diversity – largely composed of pharmacies, variety stores, dry cleaners, medical-dental clinics, sometimes cafés and rarely restaurants. These uses are limited in their capacity to animate the pedestrian environment and attract clients from other locations.

Possible retail solutions A combination of possible private, public and non-profit solutions to this problem are discussed.

1) Rely on services, especially hospitality establishments to occupy space on commercial streets. Our inventory suggests this may just be beginning though it could benefit from more change as seen on other city main streets: replace retail and respond to the needs of residents and visitors to the core of the UGC with childcare, canine, mixing products and programming, as well as fitness/wellness services.

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Animal and childcare services can replace retail atgrade

Low-, mid- and high rise in one block supports ground-level retail in Mississauga City Centre

In addition, site control may dictate separation and side set-backs of buildings that prevent continuous façade development and create strong winds particularly between tall buildings.

Still, locating retailing at the base of high-rise buildings remains better than the presence of high-rise residential buildings bereft of ground-level retailing.

New types of “maker” shops offer unique experiences and draw pedestrians

2) Concentrate street level commercial activity in a smaller area than in earlier times, when downtowns were the retail hub of their urban area. Our inventory indicated that as we move away from the central parts of traditional downtowns, the standard of retailing and the condition of buildings decline. The implication would then be that, realistically, pedestrian links animated with active retailing are likely to become relatively short.

Hence, the need to plan compact downtowns to achieve retail-supported walkability.

This approach would also support residential densification strategies for these areas.

3) Permit other land uses, commercial-office activities and smaller floorplates using municipal zoning, incentives, partnerships and programming. Newer, smaller and specialized forms of goods manufacturing and their “makers” expand product offerings while creating a unique and engaging shopping experience unlike the ubiquitous major retailers. These makers may require different kinds of spaces, water and fire protection,

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and equipment than allowed in current by-laws. While some, like craft breweries and coffee roasters tend to be privately owned, other types of spaces could operate as nonprofit co-working and social enterprise spaces. There are successful examples of these in mid-sized cities, such as the presence of co-working in Downtown Guelph.

Particularly in mall-focused centres, where the housing scene is split into high-rises or lowrises, middle-rise housing could be encouraged. Middle-rise housing could contribute to a pedestrian scale streetscape, while appealing to a wider demographic wishing to live an urban lifestyle. Housing could be owner-occupied and/or rental and could include 3-5 storey units.

Such formulas have worked elsewhere.

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Typically, residential uses are not permitted at-grade along commercial streets. However, live-work arrangements with renovation incentives could provide options to convert vacant storefronts into smaller or flexible floorplates that include living quarters at the back for example. If twinned with economic development programming, such spaces could provide locally-supported entrepreneurs or start-ups an opportunity to test ideas alongside new living conditions. Live-work arrangements would animate pedestrian spaces, even if they were a transitory use as areas rejuvenate.

Denser housing can include a variety of housing types that need continuous facades for walkability

A range of higher-density housing types could be implemented

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Attracting residents and employment Many UGC cores we analyzed have benefited from the recent construction of high-rise condo buildings. This supply of residents can add pedestrian activities and stimulate the commercial and employment scene. Such buildings also have the potential of generating activity beyond office hours. We have seen in our investigation of UGCs that condo developments can take different forms in such centres: districts of high-rise condos with ground level retailing (new developments in Mississauga City Centre), districts of high-rise condos without retailing (Downtown Pickering and older developments in Mississauga City Centre), integration of high-rise condos in the historical texture of commercial streets (e.g., Downtown Burlington, Downtown Kitchener and Downtown Barrie), and the development of high-rise condos at the

edge of historical downtowns to preserve the character of these districts (Downtown Guelph).

There are few mid-rise developments yet, though some are emerging in MCC. In all these cases, residential developments can stimulate walking and commercial activity within core areas of UGCs. The relatively old age of office buildings in the UGCs points to the difficulty over recent decades to attract office employment to these centres. In most instances, new office structures are government buildings. Private office buildings tend to be older. This suggests that UGCs have problems competing with other locations, especially highway-oriented business parks with their relatively lower land prices and abundant surface parking.

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Priority should be given to Urban Growth Centre office development to allow UGCs to compete with highway-oriented and suburban business parks Different types of tall buildings can be integrated in UGC cores or at edges to generate pedestrian activity throughout all hours of the week

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More office employment would add to the multi-functionality of the core areas of UGCs, and by bringing more people to these centres, they could contribute to their day-time pedestrian flows and commercial activity, especially restaurants and cafĂŠs. Attracting office employment should be given as much importance, even prioritized over other office areas, as efforts to locate residential development and public-sector facilities (college and university campuses, performing arts centres, libraries, etc.) in the cores of UGCs.

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6.2 Assessment of UGCs at an early stage of development

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1. car-oriented low-density development that is slated to make way to a more public transit- and walking-conducive high-density built environment;

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In section 6.1 we assessed the built environment conditions affecting the walkability of the existing core areas of traditional downtown and mall-focused UGCs. We considered the impact of legacy factors, predating the last decades of planning and development, as well as the effects of more recent growth-centre planning and development. In the case of the five core areas of UGCs that are undeveloped or in development (Markham Centre, Midtown Oakville, Newmarket Centre, Richmond Hill/Langstaff Gateway and Vaughn Metropolitan Centre) the situation is obviously different. (We exclude Downtown Milton here because part of the UGC assumes a traditional commercial street configuration, which makes it possible for this UGC to build on an existing potential pedestrian space.) We cannot comment on the present urban form of these five UGCs because they have not yet been shaped by UGC-related planning and development. They either consist of:

In other respects, these five UGCs are also disadvantaged relative to the other UGCs under study. They cannot build on existing walking spaces, would they be a large shopping mall or the commercial street of a traditional downtown.

Moreover, they will need to address their location in highly automobile-dependent suburban areas and their ambitious strategies do depart from this dependency. For example, the Richmond Hill Regional Centre Design & Land Use Study: Final Recommendations Report presenting the final recommendations for the Richmond Hill/Langstaff Gateway aspires to a 60% non-automobile modal share. But it remains that located as they are within the suburban super-grid, these UGCs will be bordered and/or traversed by wide and high-traffic arterials as well as major multi-lane highways.

2. green fields with occasional high-density structures; or 3. are at an early stage of UGC-like development but still lack major connectivity features.

For these five UGCs we look at the main plans formulating their development objectives rather than at their existing built environment.

Advantages and disadvantages of less developed centres The five mostly undeveloped UGCs are both advantaged and disadvantaged relative to the other fifteen UGCs we have investigated. Planning options are open for these five UGCs as they have less or no prior development to contend with. They can pursue new formulas, which are neither focused on a large shopping mall or on a traditional downtown configuration. Since all five of them are located in areas that have high highway and public transit accessibility in growing suburban areas, they can expect rapid development. Thanks to the attraction of real estate developers to these UGCs, planning will be in a powerful position to assure that projects conform to planning strategies. With a strong commitment to walking, walkability can be integrated in different ways in the planning of these UGCs.

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Ambitious plans may be insufficient to overcome the effect of wide, high-traffic arterials and major multi-lane highways on walkability

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The information presented in this section originates from planning documents pertaining to the five UGCs. Most documents are secondary plans, but also included are design, transportation and visioning plans as well as reports from consultants responsible for the formulation of concepts for these centres.

Content of planning documents: less developed centres

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There is a great deal of consistency in the walkability proposals aired in the planning documents of less developed centres. The only major difference between these documents has to do with the stage of the planning process of the five UGCs. In the case of Newmarket Centre, which is at an earlier stage of planning than the other four UGCs, the secondary plan proposes a list of guidelines that will support walkability as development unfolds. The other four UGCs are the object of development concepts, which all incorporate walkability. These concepts stress the role walking will play in the development and functioning of the UGCs. Planning documents for all five UGCs give priority to public transit and active transportation over reliance on the car. They all propose the creation of walking-hospitable pedestrian environments. These would take the form of plazas, urban squares, linear parks, pathways, and above all well-designed sidewalks bordered by active facades. These documents aspire to recreate the atmosphere of successful main street environments. They also propose measures to create micro climates that are favourable to pedestrians by sheltering them from rain and wind. Control over the massing of buildings is seen as a priority because the highrise structures that will occupy the five UGCs could, without attention to their massing, cause wind tunnels. All concept plans propose a finer grain grid, which is favourable to walking.

They also raise the possibility of relying on pedestrian mews and alleyways to further increase walkable options. Finally, all planning documents propose to make arterials more hospitable to pedestrians, with expanded sidewalks, boulevards, continuous façades adopting main street configurations and more intersection crossings. Not only would smaller blocks translate into more arterial intersections, but many planning documents also call for mid-block intersections.

Pedestrian mews and links provide walkable options

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Obstacles in less developed centres Like in our earlier reflection of the 15 developed UGCs, we comment on the obstacles to the walkability strategies advanced for the five UGCs under development.

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Specialized districts are likely to reduce walking potential

Reliance on retailing Another obstacle relates to the earlier identified reliance on retailing to animate pedestrian environments. As these are not favourable times for retailing, it may be unrealistic to count largely on stores to occupy the façades of pedestrian corridors. The main street approach to walkability voiced in planning documents may not be adapted to present circumstances.

A possible saving grace in the five less developed UGCs is the high density of their expected development. Such density may generate sufficient street level pedestrian activities to support a certain amount of retailing. The problem in this case would have to do with the nature of the retailing. Evidence shows that it can be difficult to create animated and stimulating outdoor pedestrian environments in new commercial settings. We can point in this respect to the mixed success of Vancouverism (high-rise condos with podiums occupied by grade level retailing and fronting on well-designed sidewalks) in this regard, despite combining many conditions supportive of walkability.

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Specialized districts One obstacle concerns the segmentation of these centres into specialized areas. Concept plans refer to districts (“character areas”) where land use tends to be specialized, although there would also be mixed sectors.

Such an approach would be less favourable to walking than finer grain multi-functionality, such as that found in successful traditional downtown areas. It would indeed force someone who needs to go from a predominantly residential to a primarily employment district to travel a longer distance than if these land uses were mixed.

High residential density supports street level retail and pedestrian activity

Wide, fast arterials The last anticipated problem pertains to the impact of arterials on pedestrians. The pedestrianizing of arterials would involve reducing space devoted to traffic and slowing down circulation by adding intersections, traffic calming and lowering the speed limit. Fast traffic threatens the safety of pedestrians while causing a deterioration of the quality of walking environments. The adoption of these measures could to a small extent reduce traffic flows and lengthen automobile journey times. But even minor changes reducing traffic flows can raise the opposition of drivers, motoring lobbies and road/traffic transportation units.

Slowing traffic will be imperative for the safety of pedestrians in Urban Growth Centres

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Long blocks and wide roads need midblock crossings to shorten walking distances

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Fast moving roads at gateways into UGCs need to be pinched

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7.0 In-depth case studies and visualizations

In-depth case studies and visualizations

Selection of case studies Three case studies were selected to represent the three categories of UGCs in the project: 1. Traditional downtown or satellite centre - Kitchener, 2. Mall-focused centre - Mississauga, and

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• inventory and assessment of existing conditions using an enhanced version of the investigation tool with customized walkability criteria of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy’s (ITDP) Transit-oriented Development Standard 3.0 (TOD3.0) released late 2017, • evaluation of major constraints and opportunities, • site visits, walkabouts and photography, • Google Earth, OpenStreetMaps and ArcGIS software and imagery, • identification of core areas within the boundaries of each UGC case that had the greatest potential to achieve high pedestrian activity, • combination and application of key successful interventions drawn from the research literature into conceptual designs and visualizations, and • presentation and feedback from professionals responsible for developing UGCs at workshops to modify and refine the proposed strategies.

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3. Undeveloped centre - Vaughan.

The criteria for selection included: • high(er) existing activity level or potential for high activity,

7 - Case studies

Case studies provide a method to examine in greater detail existing conditions, constraints and opportunities at a finer scale. They also make it possible to explore potential interventions and different forms of walkability in light of three different UGC contexts.

The case studies added to the analysis of municipal planning documents presented earlier in this report, by providing the following areas of exploration:

• advancements in planning and implementation, • presence of a mobility anchor hub and/or major transit development/growth, • walkability challenges, • potential representativeness for other UGC futures in the same category.

Downtown Kitchener contains three transit levels (Via, GO and regional/local), a new LRT is in place, activities have been increasing downtown, zoning and street changes have been implemented, does not register either the smallest or largest population in this category, still faces walkability challenges and as a result, can be representative of other traditional downtown UGCs. Mississauga City Centre is the largest mall-focused UGC and the most developed of these yet underperforming in terms of walkability. It has a comprehensive centre vision, plan and design, and has successfully attracted office, civic institutions and shopping uses. This UGC is home to a mobility anchor hub, a newly approved Hurontario LRT and another mobility hub nearby (Cooksville GO Station).

Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (VMC) is undergoing a massive transformation as a new UGC with its recent subway opening as part of its large-scale vision, plan and design. VMC has significant potential for growth and walking integration.

Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, © 2018

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7 - Case studies

7 - Case studies

Inventory and assessment of cases Grounded in the project’s conceptual framework and our four pillars of walkability, a team of fourth year undergraduate students from the University of Waterloo School of Planning specializing in design, undertook the case studies, their inventory, evaluation and visualizations. A complete inventory and assessment report is included in Appendix G. We reviewed ten types of walkability assessment tools and selected the TOD3.0 Standard for its comparatively comprehensive treatment and relationship with walking and the environment.

Still, there were gaps in some important walkability factors and therefore the tool was modified and enhanced. The scoring used proportionately reflects the revisions we made.

Our modifications to TOD3.0 result in a fuller range of pedestrian infrastructure and facets of the pedestrian experience. We also re-scaled the assessment to relevant core areas of UGCs (beyond only station areas) as this better reflects a walking landscape or “shed” capable of generating a wider variety of pedestrian activities needed for vibrant UGCs. However, due to data limitations, there were some components of the TOD3.0 assessment we were unable to conduct such as accurately counting the number affordable housing units within our case study UGCs.

Visual summary of inventory, assessment and proposed designs A visual summary of the inventory, assessment and proposed designs for each case is presented on the following pages with nine (9) case study visualizations panels (3 panels per case) in Appendix H.

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Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, © 2018

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Existing Activity Levels

Downtown Walkable Kitchener Design

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The major street intervention in Kitchener is converting three signalized intersections into four-way stops. These are highlighted in teal on the map. Further, all intersections will have clearly marked crossing areas that encourage safe pedestrian space when interacting with crosswalk markings vehicle traffic. Halls lane is also prioritized laneway revitilization for streetscaping and revitalization which will FREDERICK ST open up a300 new pedestrian connection.

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Two building interventions have been proposed for Kitchener, firstly, historic and locally significant buildings will be promoted for facade improvement and activation.

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The major public space intervention in Kitchener is the connection of more softscaped and hardscaped public space areas that could be programmed to encourage public life. Further, activating streets through streetscaping, particularly those that run south and north of King Street is vital to encouraging a diversified pedestrian flow.

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A sense of place is vital to pedestrian life. Developed downtowns are lucky to have unique architecture and an element of heritage which are an invaluable asset to encouraging public activity. The curated authenticity provided by local businesses, local street art, - experience should be celebrated. The adjacent map shows the existing and proposed character elements which will be enhanced

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Each of the UGC’s walkability was assessed based on the TOD 3.0 Standard. In order to receive a bronze award, the UGC needed to reach a minimum of 95 points. Mississauga scored 56 points, meaning it did not meet the TOD 3.0 standard for walkability. Mississauga lost the majority of its points in the built-environment section of the scoring, due to large building footprints and surface parking. Remediation measures to these shortcomings were prioritized within the design.

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This parking is needed to support the high traffic generated by Square One, however, its visual impact can be re-envisioned. As such, Park Park a raised public space is proposed to cover this parking lot. The design works with the grade and elevation changes to effectively cover the parking lot and give the space back to the public realm.

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The major street interventions in Mississauga include creating a finer grid network from Rathburn to Square One Drive major streetscaping improvements along Rathburn Street. These improvements allow for more fluid pedestrian movement as well as prioritizes pedestrians over vehicles. At the existing roundabout, a pedestrian advance signal will be implemented which will separate the pedestrian movements from the cars. Along Rathburn, multiple midblock crossings are being added with additional pedestrian scrambles on either side of Park Park. This was done to provide an uninterrupted flow of pedestrians between two public green spaces and to activate the street in the process.

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As part of our design integrated public space into the site. The design created a new public softscape park which connects to a school and adaptively reuses a go-kart track as a new trail network. Additionally, hardscaped public space is included around the re purposed cinema and at Park Park, which integrates public space above parking to merge the two uses into a cohesive space.

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Walkable Vaughan Metropolitan Design Centre

Building interventions in Vaughan were purposely phased in the design to showcase the opportunity, opposed to constraint of interim development. Buildings in green are interim strategies proposed to enhance the pedestrian experience while the area develops. The strategies are focused in key areas surrounding parking lots, fronting highway 7 where there is existing industrial, and in vacant lots. The interim development is envisioned to exist for a range of time periods: from daily use to structures that remain for multiple years. Our design also highlighted areas for permanent development, particularly with reenvisioned office and housing options which set the scale for future development.

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permanent building intervention New investment New investments Infill in pedestrian in public space Opportunities infrastructure

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Each of the UGC’s walkability was assessed based on the TOD 3.0 Standard. In order to receive a bronze award, the UGC needed to reach a minimum of 95 points.

Vaughan scored 40.5 points, meaning it did not meet the TOD 3.0 standard for walkability. The VMC lost points for lacking condense built form, safe and active pedestrian connections and low activity.

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The major street interventions in Vaughan occurred on Highway 7 where a new pedestrian scrambe was implemented at Highway 7 and Millway, a centre sidewalk was implemented between Interchange Way and Jane Street, and a mid block crossing was additioned at the new small local street. This street was also pedestrianized to promote the flow of traffic into the interior block.

Open space in Vaughan was vital to curating a unique sense of place. Given the proximity of Black Creek, very little softscaped open space was proposed however, an essential hardscape path network was used to further support east west pedestrian movements accross the site. new softscaped

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Modular buildings to frame parking The new Walmart on site also has a large surface parking lot as its street frontage. To mitigate this, temporary building will be used to create a street grid within the parking lot and encourage new use in the retail core of the area.

Highway 7 Pop-Up Shops n Changeable use stores aimed to have a shorter life span than container park, frames Highway 7 before new development occurs.

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Container Park: New tourist destination and shopping plaza, provides a unique sense of place to the VMC subway station, draws for industrial context of the location.

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8.0

Feedback on findings, strategies and visualizations

Feedback on findings, strategies and visualizations Tw workshops were held in March 2018 in two of the project’s case study locations: Vaughan Metropolitan Centre and Downtown Kitchener. The goal of the workshops was to seek feedback on our findings and proposals to planners and others involved in the strategies to (re) develop UGCs. The format of the workshops consisted of:

8 - Feedback

Workshop metrics from Eventbrite Figure 6: Attendee origins and numbers from the Greater Toronto Area 8 - Feedback

• a main presentation followed by questions, feedback and discussion,

Although the workshop was advertised on Eventbrite for about one week, the workshop sold out in a matter of a few days. Approximately twenty professionals engaged in the visioning and development of Urban Growth Centres and Mobility Hubs across the GTA attended. Participants included public and private sector planners, designers, public health officials and engineers from across the Greater Toronto Area - York and Peel Region, Vaughan, Mississauga and Toronto. Attendee metrics for the Vaughan workshop are shown next in two figures with additional workshop details located in Appendix I.

• a second presentation on the outcomes from the undergraduate studio course – their 3 case study environmental inventories, assessments and visualizations, and • questions, feedback and discussion on these.

Valuable comments and questions informed, confirmed and enhanced our understanding and findings on some of the challenges and opportunities that these planners identify in UGCs, as well as our proposed strategies. Although the discussions were short, they pointed to areas for further exploration and conversation which we hope to explore online via our website. Student visualizations were modified based on comments received. Additionally, feedback was integrated into a section of the April conference presentation on barriers and opportunities for growth centres. Lastly, comments will be distilled and analysed together with the interview findings for the research papers directed to Plan Canada/OPPI Journal and an academic journal. All feedback has been summarized by workshop location and then by theme.

Together, our Eventbrite advertisements attracted almost 600 views despite their relatively short window of viewing and registration opportunities. This demonstrates an appetite for research and engagement on walkability and downtowns/centres across the Greater Golden Horseshoe region.

8.1 Vaughan workshop: March 20, 2018 A catered workshop was jointly hosted by the City of Vaughan and the project team in Vaughan at the grand Civic Centre Resource Library.

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Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, © 2018

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Figure 7: Workshop sold out and page views reached 293

Finding 8) Temporal dimension seen as important for the three UGC types, but implementation likely be a challenge.

Feedback on student visualizations: governance and engineering challenges Finding 9) Governance and engineering standards were identified as a persistent challenge for planners, especially for UGCs in two-tier municipalities

Summary of feedback from Vaughan workshop Walkability and the public health connection Finding 1) Planners were very interested in the specific linkages between walkable environments and improving public health.

A second catered workshop was advertised for about 2 weeks on Eventbrite and held at Kitchener City hall. Participants included public and private sector planners and public health officials from across the region of Waterloo and neighbouring municipalities as well as community members active in downtown revitalization efforts.

Attendee metrics for the Kitchener workshop are displayed in two figures and additional workshop details can be found in Appendix I.

8 - Feedback

8 - Feedback

8.2 Kitchener workshop: March 26, 2018

Workshop metrics from Eventbrite Figure 8: Workshop and page views reached 252

Finding 2) Accessibility for all ages and abilities came up as an important planning value from workshop participants.

Public support and behavioural challenges Finding 3) Several comments conveyed the challenge of insufficient public acceptance of planning goals, and the pushback received when trying to shift away from predominant personal vehicle use.

Multimodality Finding 4) Planners in the room were thinking about all travel modes Finding 5) There are planning tools that have been implemented in UGCs and can support travel behaviour change.

Feedback on student visualizations: integration and vibrancy Finding 6) The challenge of integrating land uses, especially in the context of mallfocused UGCs. Finding 7) Programming the public realm seen as having potentially-significant impact on mall- and less-developed UGCs that often lack a sense of place

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Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, Š 2018

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Figure 9: Attendee origins and numbers from the Waterloo and Guelph region

but confronted with wide arterials inhospitable to pedestrians. Successes were also discussed from the implementation perspective drawing upon Markham’s partnership with a large UGC developer in achieving their vision, Kitchener’s neighbourhood engagement strategy and tools such as Peel Region’s healthy development checklists for use in development approvals for delivering walkability holistically.

8 - Feedback

8 - Feedback

In line with thinking about how to maintain ‘grit’ or identity, there was conversation around how planning policies could better support arts and culture to create even more identity, and there was discussion around how some locations can have many good walkability characteristics yet seem ‘sterile’. While planners noticed this in other municipalities, the focus of the conversation was how Kitchener could avoid these sterile environments. This is an interesting finding when compared to the discussion we had in Vaughan. While Kitchener is concerned about eventually losing the unique identity of the downtown with the process of rapid development and growth, Vaughan was interested in how to cultivate such an identity.

Finding 2) Planners and residents were interested in how they could attract specific kinds of businesses/ destinations

Summary of Kitchener feedback ‘Not losing what we have’ Finding 1) Planners were interested in and concerned about maintaining as well as fostering a unique identity and sense of place.

Planners asked about locations across the UGCs that were exemplary examples of active and walkable centres and wondered how they could draw inspiration from these successes. It was noted that there is no ideal UGC and achieving success was long-term process, but that some UGCs are quite successful at delivering certain elements. Guelph was pointed out as a place that has done a good job of maintaining important heritage, and also locating many activities and services within the UGC boundaries. Mississauga was noted of injecting many activities

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Details about the kinds of businesses that Kitchener wants to attract were raised, especially the introduction of a major grocer into the downtown. Residents attending the workshop also raised the lack of a major grocer as a major downside to ‘downtown Kitchener living’. Kitchener was additionally contrasted to Uptown Waterloo who has a Valu-Mart right in the heart of their UGC. Researchers noted that the traditional (and potentially suburban) business models of these kinds of business may not capture that there is a potentially profitable market in downtowns. The importance of advocacy and communicating that there is a demand and a desire for a certain kind of business could really be helpful. Diverse stakeholders and voices such as the Canadian Association of Retired Professionals (CARP) were noted as potentially playing an important role in advocating for the kinds of businesses that make downtown living more attractive.

Finding 3) Planners noted that negotiating within the constraints of certain business models is a challenge Planners expressed challenges when negotiating with retailers such as Shoppers Drug Mart who have strict business models that dictate the format and layout of their buildings. It was stated that these powerful businesses are sometimes unwilling to follow design guideline policies that the city implements, and that their own design practices result in uninteresting blank walls for pedestrians. Planners mentioned that they receive a lot of pushback on some of their policies such as Kitchener’s minimum fenestration requirements, especially from well-established corporations who prefer to apply for a minor variance just to maintain their business Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, © 2018

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There were also discussions around how a relatively few number of stakeholders can hold a large portion of the downtown land and who may not always be interested in improving the pedestrian experience. Researchers noted that landowners are not always rational economic actors who base their decisions solely on increasing their number of patrons. It was noted that these kinds of changes often take some time, and that convincing every business to invest in pedestrian scale design is likely not feasible. Interestingly, this concern was not raised in our Vaughan workshop. Perhaps traditional downtowns are more concerned with the details of which businesses and developments come into the pre-existing downtown compared to less developed downtowns that may be more focused on creating the conditions with land use and transportation decisions to get things built in the first place.

Questions around how to communicate with city councils and those who approve budgets and fund relevant projects were also raised. It was noted that we are fortunate right now because the typical vision of an ideal city, tends to be a walkable one, making arguments to council and other decision-makers a bit more widely supported than previously. Still, the importance of communicating walkability interventions to residents as well as decision-makers in ways that translate density and road changes into tangible and understandable benefits such as increased patronage at shops and restaurants was raised. Another clear benefit of walkability that could be emphasized during community discussion is the potential to improve safety on the streets in terms of less crime and reduced collisions. A recommendation was made that typical visual information at planning/development meetings better reflect these kinds of benefits clearly instead of showing only height changes that trigger fear in residents over density, parking, traffic congestion and so on. Engaging oppositional voices in community-building and placemaking activities was also identified as a means to reducing fears and demonstrating the benefits bringing more people into existing residential neighbourhoods through direct involvement in the benefits of urban intensification.

Communicating walkability benefits with those outside of the field of planning

Policy Changes that seek to foster diversity and vibrancy

Finding 4) Planners were interested in how to communicate benefits of walkability to engineers more effectively in an evidence-based manner.

A disconnect between how planners perceive evidence-based decisions compared to how engineers perceive evidence-based standards was raised. Both sides believe that their methods are founded in evidence and communication challenges were said to arise when these views are incompatible. An example was given about a request to put a bike lane into a street design which was met with the response that ‘it is highly unlikely that anyone will use it, but our models show that cars would make use of that space, therefore the space should be allocated to cars”. This confirms our identified challenge of the transportation engineer- planning disconnect that many planners discussed during our interviews.

There was some debate surrounding how planners are doing in terms of effectively communicating the benefits of planning for pedestrians. Some planners expressed that while communicating with engineers may have its challenges, that the general trend has been one of improvement and that their arguments for features like bike lanes or wider sidewalks are more likely to be heard now than previously.

Finding 5) Residents were interested in how to communicate the benefits of walkability interventions and how to address opposition within residential communities.

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8 - Feedback

8 - Feedback

models. Planners asked researchers if there is support in the literature for the importance of design and aesthetic requirements (design guidelines), and researchers mentioned that there is certainly evidence for the importance of design in the literature that can support Planners in their advocacy.

Finding 6) Planners wanted to know what kind of policy changes could be made to add in street-facing at grade housing into the downtown mix to create a personalization of space.

Planners noted that several municipalities may have many positive walking interventions and have been built with a ‘complete streets’ approach but lack active streets and a real sense of place. Planners wondered how and why this happens, and how such a situation in Kitchener could be prevented. Planners suggested that activating the streets and personalizing them by including street-facing at grade housing within the downtown may play a role and be able to mitigate these kinds of ‘sterile yet walkable’ places. Researchers noted that we need diversity and stimulation in downtowns which is difficult for Planners and Engineers to implement.

Rules regarding uses that are permitted at-grade which often exclude residential uses were noted by researchers as potential policies that could be changed to add in street-grade housing into the downtown mix.

Finding 7) Rigidity in policies and planning practices was identified as a barrier to placemaking and community vibrancy.

Planners noted that the role of arts and culture was missing from our discussion. Rigid policies that limit the arts and culture of a downtown were raised as a barrier. Planners expressed that some of the best and most attractive cities in the world are those with robust arts and culture sectors. While it was noted that facilities and spaces for arts and culture (such as cultural Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, © 2018

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centres, public libraries) do exist here, but that we still “don’t let arts to be expressed on their own” (without regulations). The need for more flexibility was identified, and current practices such as permit requirements for buskers and food trucks were noted as being extremely limiting. These planners add to our recommendations that, instead of just increasing the number of events in a municipality, planners may need to explore how to soften certain policies (such as business permits) to do a better job of supporting local artists and creative individuals.

This would contribute to the arts and culture scene year-round, and may make the downtown a more active and vibrant destination.

Findings from student presentation: pedestrian-priority and vehicle-free areas

8 - Feedback

Planners in this discussion questioned why students hadn’t proposed to pedestrianize King Street. This was stated as being a recurring topic of internal debate among planners. Planners liked the idea of activating Halls Lane and pedestrianizing that space. There were also comments on the need for clear and major walking connections to Victoria Park in the student designs. These comments showed that pedestrian-priority interventions are already in the minds of these planners, aligned with one of the more active interventions that emerged from our literature review. Connecting existing green space and creating synergy with the urban core was a theme that also came up in our Vaughan workshop, but in that case it was connectivity with Black Creek Park. Planners in both cities recognize that walkability should include building connections with green and open space assets and are looking for ways to improve integration within the UGC. Findings from student presentation: balancing higher population density while main taining ‘grit’ and identity Finding 9) Planners were curious about how to determine the appropriate scale of development so that a critical mass of people are in the downtown while maintaining the unique identity of the UGC that already exists.

Planners noted that the massing proposals of all 3 UGCs were very different, and wondered how they could make informed decisions about the appropriate scale of development for Kitchener. Concerns about inappropriately large buildings that would result in blank walls and sterile streetscapes were raised. Concerns about losing the existing smaller buildings that face the street were also raised. Planners wanted to be sure that they ‘get this right’ in terms of balancing increasing the critical mass of people on the street to support existing and new businesses that add to the liveliness of the streetscape.

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• The redesign of Queen Street which will hopefully be a great place with many activities. It was noted that the Queen Street redesign is an initiative that was advocated for by an engineer, highlighting the positive partnerships that planners and engineers can have!

• Multi-modal hub planning with the new LRT system is currently underway and will hopefully be a great example of improved walkability in the city.

• Ground floor active frontage zoning by-law policies are currently being drafted.

8 - Feedback

Finding 8) Planners had an interest in achieving greater walkability by pedestrianizing Downtown Kitchener’s King Street and green-space connectivity.

Finding 10) Kitchener staff noted several opportunities for creative planning on their horizon.

Upcoming planning initiatives were noted including:

• Kitchener has received a number of food store proposals in and around the downtown which they are excited about. Planners also noted that there are a number of incentives for food services locating in the downtown currently in place.

• Policies surrounding Office uses and transit corridors are up and coming in the new OP and zoning by-law for the whole city, not just the UGC. • New design guidelines are currently being written Kitchener staff also additionally identified a few takeaway findings and challenges that resonated with them: • Different UGCs have different challenges • Communicating across disciplines can be a challenge • There are systemic challenges within planning as well • Currently, walking infrastructure does not equal critical infrastructure which it should be!

• An important piece that we didn’t talk about today but that could be really important is the operational aspect of things: How do we maintain infrastructure, space activation, and downtown programming long-term?

• Kitchener has more work to do, but has grit and is therefore determined and excited about what is more to come!

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9.0

Conclusions and recommendations

Conclusions and recommendations: a holistic approach to walkability The literature review and the planning documents we have consulted point to the existence of different categories of factors contributing to walkability. These categories are distinguished by the ease and frequency with which planning can rely on them. They are also differentiated by the extent of their respective impact on walkability. But above all, they can be perceived as operating at different scales. At a fine grain scale, factors pertain to the design of the walking environment itself, whereas at the opposite end of the scale spectrum, they concern the insertion of re-configured pedestrian environments within suburban transportation networks.

We identify five categories of factors influencing walkability: 1) Pedestrian infrastructures, which are the most common object of planning intervention regarding walkability; 2) Safety and perceived security, which constitute the most basic need of pedestrians; 3) The animation of walking environments, the outcome of intense pedestrian flows and active façades; 4) Street patterns, in particular the size of blocks and the number of intersections, both considered to favour walking; and 5) Interaction between different land uses, especially interconnections between land uses capable of attracting people and thereby contributing to pedestrian flows and the animation of walking places. We now describe each of these categories.

9.2 Pedestrian infrastructure By pedestrian infrastructures we refer to sidewalks, squares, plazas, alleys and pathways.

These infrastructures have been the principal target of municipalities seeking to enhance walkability. And, along with plazas and squares, the main beneficiaries of such municipal interventions have been sidewalks of traditional commercial streets. The morphological analysis has indicated that virtually all commercial streets in downtown portions of investigated UGCs have been the object of design improvements over the last decades.

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9.3 Safety and perceived security

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9.1 Categories of factors impacting walkability

Explanations for such municipal enthusiasm towards the upgrading of these infrastructures include: 1) the fact that infrastructure improvement is one of the few walkability measures under the full control of municipal planning, and 2) the wide support it generally garners while raising little opposition. The problem with infrastructure upgrading is that, especially in the case of its application to commercial streets, it does not have much impact on walking levels on its own. The findings of the study have revealed the existence of a number of commercial streets where pedestrian infrastructures have been upgraded, but where walking traffic remains minimal and many store fronts are either vacant or occupied but poorly maintained.

The effects of infrastructure improvement programs on walkability are thereby defied by the state of façades bordering redesigned sidewalks.

If there were a Maslow-type scale for conditions favourable to walking, safety and perceived security would occupy the summit of its hierarchy. Indeed, in the absence of these two conditions, other factors that could be favourable to walking are unlikely to have much effect.

The main source of danger for pedestrians originates from vehicular traffic, its volume and its speed.

Of course, a foremost response to this problem could take the form of an effort to shift modal shares in favour of public transit. More reliance on public transit could result in less driving and, therefore, reduced road traffic and need for wide arterials. But in the context of the Toronto region suburban realm and of mid-size cities, achieving such a change in modal shares that would be of sufficient amplitude to modify traffic levels is a tall order. Public transit shares of journeys in such settings are low, often under five percent, and the land use of suburbs and mid-size cities is nearly fully adapted to reliance on the automobile and, as result, poorly suited to public transit. When considering transportation strategies affecting the walkability of the core areas of urban growth centres, it is important to acknowledge the transportation-land use dynamics of the areas surrounding them. The environs of the UGCs investigated in this study are car-reliant suburbs and mid-size cities. The dominance of the car in their surroundings affects the cores of UGCs in two ways. There is first the presence of high-capacity arterials traversing and/or bordering UGC cores and interfering with attempts to create a pedestrian hospitable environment therein. Secondly, these surrounding areas characterized by their high level of automobile reliance constitute the hinterland of the cores of UGCs. Hence, most people accessing these cores to work, shop, study, or for recreation purposes, will rely on the car, which will translate in high levels of traffic within these cores. The conclusion is thus that UGC pedestrian strategies must make do with a strong presence of the automobile.

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In such circumstances, the most realistic approach to walkability within UGCs would consist in the creation of pockets and corridors encouraging pedestrian movement through their design, animation and their efforts at keeping high road traffic levels at bay. At the same time, walkability strategies should improve walking safety and comfort in the numerous circumstances where pedestrians are forced to interface with high levels of vehicular traffic.

This is notably the case of intersections of wide and high-circulation arterials and of sidewalks along these arterials. We will revisit these considerations when discussing street patterns below.

To create a walking conducive environment, it is not enough to provide suitable infrastructures and adopt measures to assure that it is safe and perceived as such. If such an environment lacks animation, it is unlikely to attract pedestrians. The animation of a pedestrian environment requires many people walking and interacting as well as the presence of active façades, the source of visual stimulation. The animation of these areas therefore rests in part on streetlevel establishments that can attract people and contribute to the stimulation of the sector.

Such establishments include stores, restaurants, café and bars. Services can also play a role, but their impact on the animation and visual stimulation of pedestrian sectors is likely to be inferior to that of retailing and hospitality establishments. The morphological analysis has revealed two patterns in which street-level commercial establishments contribute to the animation of pedestrian environments. The first, which is by a long stretch the dominant pattern, consists in the alignment of such establishments along commercial streets. These establishments generally occupy traditional commercial buildings with narrow store frontages.

But such establishments can equally be found at the ground level of new office and residential structures built on commercial streets. The second configuration, which is mostly present in a sector of Mississauga City Centre, takes the form of retailing, hospitality and service establishments at street level in the podiums of new high-rise condo developments erected on former greenfield sites, thus without any connection to traditional commercial streets.

Issues with reliance on commercial premises There are issues with relying on commercial establishments to create animated pedestrian spaces. One problem has to do with the present circumstances confronting retailing, which represents an important proportion of establishments found on the commercial streets of traditional downtowns and of those establishments that are expected to occupy the base of condo buildings. For decades, street-oriented retailing had to endure competition from shopping malls. But now both street-oriented and mall stores are confronted with

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9.4 Animation of pedestrian environments

big box retailing and rapidly increasing Internet shopping. The consequence in terms of UGC walkability is that it is difficult to find stores to occupy façades along the full length of pedestrian-hospitable spaces. To be sure, more service and hospitality establishments have to some extent made up for the disappearance of stores, but they cannot completely compensate the effect of the decline of retailing on commercial streets. The results of the morphological analysis indicate that many traditional downtowns are struggling to find sufficient establishments to fill their commercial streets. The answer to this problem may be to concentrate walkability efforts on smaller areas, to downsize the walkable cores of UGCs while increasing their density. A second issue with the present retailing circumstances concerns commercial establishments at ground level in condo buildings, which are not located on traditional commercial streets. It appears that the range of such establishments is limited – convenience stores, pharmacies, dentists, medical clinics… While their presence is obviously superior from a walkability perspective to an absence of ground level commercial activity, these types of establishments have a limited capacity to contribute to the production of animated walking environments.

Programming is important Commercial establishments are not the only instrument apt to foster the animation of pedestrian environments. The programming of these areas with festivals, concerts, exhibitions, flea markets and other types of events can also contribute to their activity. So does the presence of street art such as sculptures and murals. But the effects of programming on the animation of pedestrian spaces are ephemeral compared to those of commercial establishments and street art is unlikely to attract as many people as these establishments.

9.5 Street patterns There is a measure of overlapping between our interest in the effect on the walkable cores of UGCs of street patterns and in that of safety and perceived security. Street patterns obviously have a determining impact on the exposure of pedestrians to vehicular traffic. There are, however, other dimensions to the relation between street patterns and the core areas of UGCs. The literature on walkability associates small blocks, and therefore multiple intersections, with walkability. One reason for the favourable effect of small blocks is lesser car traffic on individual streets than is the case on arterials in large block configurations, due to a more even distribution of automobile flows. Another, is the greater flexibility of movement it affords pedestrians. Small blocks provide them with more options to reach their destinations, and contrary to situations prevailing in the case of large blocks, do not force them to walk longer distances than necessary thanks to the frequency of intersections. There is finally the fact Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, © 2018

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Dealing with wide road types There are ways of mitigating the adverse effects of these arterials on walking. One could involve the taming of arterials through lower speed levels and reduced traffic volumes.

Arterials could be narrowed, “pinched”, thus transferring automobile space to the pedestrian domain. In addition, their barrier effects on walking could be attenuated by adding pedestrian intersections. Such measures to adapt arterials to a walking environment risk being a source of inter-governmental conflict, however. Typically, walkability policies are piloted by local governments while arterial networks are the responsibility of regional administrations. In these circumstances, regional governments may object to measures reducing the traffic capacity of arterials, thereby making it difficult to adapt them to walking environments. One possibility could be to rely on above- or underground passageways to cross arterials. Evidence, however, points to reluctance on the part of pedestrians to climbs steps to cross roads. Such resistance could perhaps be lessened were the passageways integrated in developments on both sides of the arterial (as in the case of plus 15 networks such as those of Calgary and Minneapolis).

9.6 Interaction between land uses Central to our argument regarding the walkability of UGC core areas is the need to combine the presence of pedestrian environments with that of land uses capable of attracting people and thereby contributing to pedestrian flows. We have noted the mutually supportive relationship between these land uses and walkable environments. To be animated and stimulating, pedestrian environments need the presence of the people who come to the core areas of UGCs to engage in the activities associated with their land uses: work, residence, study,

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entertainment… Resulting pedestrian traffic can support the ground-level establishments found in walking environments, especially on commercial streets. These establishments are themselves major contributors to the animation of pedestrian spaces. Meanwhile, pedestrian environments are instrumental in generating walking-based interactions between the different land uses present in walkable districts, such as pedestrian-oriented cores of UGCs. Walking environments are therefore contributors to synergy effects between land uses and as such play an economic development role by conferring an economic advantage to businesses present in pedestrian-hospitable districts.

A pedestrian strategy must therefore include the attraction of land uses capable of bringing people to the cores of UGCs. As seen, municipalities have supported the creation of satellite campuses in their downtown areas. Another example of a land use trend contributing to increase downtown pedestrian activity is the present high-rise condo development wave experienced in a number of UGCs. The placement of these land uses is also important to walkability strategies. They must be located close enough to pedestrian spaces, especially commercial streets, to encourage interactions with these spaces. At the same time, however, they should avoid disrupting the continuous frontages of commercial streets.

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that small block configurations are associated with narrower streets, which are more suited to walkability than wide, multi-lane arterials. While UGC cores that are traditional downtowns are generally characterized by small blocks, this is less often the case for more recent UGC cores, including those that are still at an early development stage. These cores generally occupy one or more super blocks within the super grid configuration that structures the suburban realm within the Toronto metropolitan region. In consequence, these UGC cores are either bordered or both bordered and traversed by arterials delimiting superblocks. These typically wide and busy arterials can segment these UGC cores and prevent their integration from a pedestrian mobility perspective. Even when they are only present at the edge of these core areas, arterials can have a deleterious effect on walking by making pedestrian movements between UGC cores and their surrounding areas more difficult than they would otherwise be. Not only do arterials limit the movement of pedestrians, but the noise and fumes their heavy traffic generates hinder the quality of the walking experience in close-by areas.

9.7 Recommendations

A Holistic perspective on walkability Informed by the above discussion, we explore recommendations for the improvement of walkability in the core areas of UGCs. The review of planning documents and the morphological analysis point to the importance given to design improvements of walking environments, the relation between road traffic and walking and the nature of built environments favourable to walking. The recommendations advanced in this report are mostly aligned with those aired in the consulted planning documents, the implementation of some of which was observed in the morphological analysis. But more than most consulted planning documents, the report emphasizes the interconnected nature of the different factors with an influence on walkability. Hence its stress on the need for a wide array of coordinated interventions operating at a design, land use planning, transportation and economic level.

These interventions include the improvement of walking infrastructures, an interface between walking and vehicular traffic that is favourable to pedestrians and a mixture of land uses that is conducive to the animation of pedestrian spaces. They also involve maintaining an active street-level commercial life in pedestrian corridors. In addressing these different areas of intervention, walkability strategies must operate at different scales, from very localized design Walkable Centres, School of Planning, University of Waterloo, © 2018

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improvements, to the distribution of land uses within the cores of UGCs in fashions that encourage walking, and to transportation considerations pertaining to the interaction of UGCs with their suburban and mid-size city surroundings.

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Coordinating walking strategies in space and in time One of the central themes of this report is that walkability rests in large measure on the existence of animated and stimulating pedestrian corridors encouraging interactions between different types of activities located in UGC core areas. We have seen that these activities are necessary to generate the pedestrian flows required to achieve the animation of walking environments, and that these activities can benefit from high walking levels. The interaction between activities stimulates walking and the more walking there is, the more interaction takes place between activities. The report has insisted on the importance of locating these land uses in a fashion that maximizes their positive impact on walking and their possibility of benefiting from pedestrian flows. But this bi-directional dynamic requires not only coordination in space, but also coordination in time. For interactions to take place, activities must operate in the same time span. People working in offices will interact with restaurants open at lunch time, but residents and people attending concerts or hockey games will patronize eating and drinking establishments open in the evening. Many planning documents express their interest in centres that support 24-hour activity, but for this to happen the operating time of their land uses must be coordinated. Both spatial and temporal synchronization are vital to interactions between activities supporting, and relying on, walking.

Diverse, place-based walking strategies to address UGC differences The study has brought to light the different types of core areas of UGCs and their need for walkability strategies that are suited to their respective requirements. While there are some universal aspects of walkability relevant to all contexts, such as the adaptation of the built

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Comprehensive walking strategies The findings presented in this report and their interpretation support the view that walkability cannot be treated as an add-on after other aspects of UGC core areas have been planned.

As it involves all aspects of the development of these core areas, walkability should be at the heart of their planning and, therefore, be a key consideration at each of its stages. Findings have shown that focussing on one aspect of walkability cannot on its own foster a pedestrian conducive environment. Likewise, gaps in factors supporting walking can imperil the outcome of a walkability strategy. For example, addressing most requirements of a pedestrian hospitable environment will be unlikely to yield desired outcomes if impacts on walking of wide and busy arterials remain unmitigated.

form to the rhythm of walking and the sheltering of pedestrian spaces from the intrusion of the automobile, walkability strategies must still be adapted to the specificity of different urban areas. The instruments at the disposal of these strategies indeed vary according to the nature of different urban contexts. For example, the UGC core areas investigated in this report present different walking circumstances and walkability potentials. Traditional downtowns inherited a walking environment, most notably a pedestrian-oriented commercial street with relatively short blocks and continuous commercial façades. But these downtowns have in most cases declined as their activities decentralized to the suburb, which makes it difficult for them to provide an animated and stimulating pedestrian environment. For these downtowns, the objective of walkability strategies is to reanimate a legacy pedestrian environment. In doing so, these strategies can capitalize on a morphology that contains some conditions favourable to walking.

The situation is different in the case of mall-focussed UGC core areas. If traditional downtowns contain spaces that could become attractive pedestrian environments but suffer from insufficient activities to animate these spaces, one mall-focussed core area, Mississauga City Centre, presents large concentrations of activities with the potential of generating pedestrian movement, but without outdoor pedestrian spaces providing walking connectivity. Here, as acknowledged in a major planning document (Downtown21), the solution rests in using infill development to transform parking lots into pedestrian friendly streets. There are also the UGC core areas that are at a planning stage. None of these envisages large mall-like concentrations of retailing and all are planning pedestrian conducive axes.

Distinctions within categories of UGC core areas also need to be acknowledged because they too call for place-specific strategies. Such distinctions have come to light in the case of traditional downtowns, which post contrasting economic performances and development potentials. At one extreme is Downtown Burlington with its active boutique and hospitality establishment scene. A major challenge for this downtown is the integration of new highrise condos within the downtown, including its commercial streets. At the other end of the spectrum is Downtown Brantford, which registers a high level of street-level commercial vacancies. It is difficult in this relatively large downtown, where commercial activity is depleted, to create animated walking corridors. In these circumstances, walkability strategies take on a strong economic development dimension. They indeed involve efforts to attract activities that will bring life to the downtown, such as those that have led to the establishment of a satellite university campus, and to fill empty stores on commercial streets.

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Retailing The present fate of retailing limits the possibility of generating stimulating pedestrian environments. One response to this situation would be making walking-conducive cores more compact, which would maximize the impact of the limited animated pedestrian space that can be produced. Such a solution would call for redevelopment and increased density. In traditional downtowns, it could require focussing commercial activity only on the most central part of commercial streets, which would admittedly be a politically controversial measure. The concentration of development in compact areas could also raise political opposition, in the form of NIMBY reactions to intensification.

9.8 Lessons

Walkability upgrading: the importance of a coordinated approach Virtually all traditional downtowns have been the object of commercial street sidewalk improvements. Sidewalks have been widened, adorned with street furniture, trees, planters and lamp posts. But such improvements did not generally translate into a more active commercial scene. Accordingly, while infrastructure has been improved, the environment has not become more stimulating for pedestrians. Likewise, two of the traditional downtowns, Downtown Cambridge and Downtown Brantford, have concentrated their efforts at attracting new land uses on universities. Their university-focussed strategy did not revitalize their commercial scene as evidenced by stubbornly elevated retail vacancy rates.

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Multi-pronged strategies Maybe the main lesson emerging from our investigation is that the creation of an active pedestrian environment in the core areas of UGCs requires multi-pronged strategies. Reliance on the improvement of one aspect of these areas is not sufficient to improve walking conditions and stimulate pedestrian movement. Walking strategies should entail at once the enhancement of walking infrastructures, façade improvement on commercial streets, efforts to fill vacancies therein, the encouragement of high-density residential development in or close to the cores of UGCs, the location of public sector employment and facilities in or close to these areas, and the attraction of employment (especially office employment) to these sectors. Those UGCs that benefit from the presence of a rail transit station should maximize efforts at creating TODlike development.

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Compactness The study has pointed to the important role the presence of commercial façades plays in the fostering of an animated and stimulating pedestrian environment. Without such façades, it is difficult to attract large numbers of pedestrians and create lively walking corridors. But at the same time, the report acknowledges the difficult circumstances presently confronting retailing, which make it difficult to fill commercial façades. Commercial street vacancy rates show that the expansion of the hospitality sector and the presence of services did not counteract the decline of retailing. Such a situation is most visible on commercial streets, but affects all areas relying on retailing. Yet, large regional shopping malls have been largely unaffected by this decline as has the ground space of high-rise condo developments. In this latter instance, extremely high densities support establishments catering to the needs of condo dwellers. But we have seen that the nature of such establishments makes them unlikely to attract people from outside their immediate area and to animate its sidewalks.

Pedestrian-orientation to generate pedestrian activity All of this takes us back to the identified need to both attract activity-generating land uses and improve the pedestrian environment to stimulate walking in UGCs. Because the presence of such land uses supports walking and because walking is favourable to positive synergy effects between these land uses and thus to the economic development of core sectors of UGCs, it is important to focus at once on the attraction of land uses and improvements to the pedestrian environment. We have identified a number of cases where a richer mix of activity-generating land uses would have had a positive effect on street-level retailing and therefore on the walking environment, and some situations, as in Downtown Hamilton and Mississauga City Centre, where a large and diversified activity mix does not yield high levels of walking because of a challenging pedestrian environment. In these two UGCs, land uses would benefit economically from improved inter-functional connections resulting from more walking.

Looking forward The walkability measures advanced by the planning documents of the five yet to be developed UGCs are mostly similar to those used in the other fifteen investigated UGCs. But given the fact that they start from a clean slate, the planning of the five UGCs is in a better position to adopt a coordinated approach to walkability, by jointly pursuing land use development and walkability.

The planning documents of these UGCs express strong commitment to such an approach.

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