A FEW GOOD LINES

In areas of high-density intensification there is the need to draw a few new lines. 

We are used to the simple attributes which planning endows upon properties being portrayed on flat-earth maps... so identifying land use designations, densities and heights.  It's so flat that in all of Toronto's '86 zoning by-law there is only one diagram in the vertical axis.

OMB FIX

I respect OMB Member Aristotle Christou for raising these issues with the OMB system.  At the outset he touched upon planning rules and neutrality, which deserve further attention.  If these are not addressed, then increasing the number of OMB Members to speed up the process... still leaves in question the appropriateness of the decisions that the OMB grinds out.

ICONIC PEDESTRIAN MOVEMENT

"Traffic engineers have much to say about streets and transportation; about cars, trucks, parking and public transportation - BUT - little about the streets as people places. Bigger buildings are being built; an ever-increasing population is being housed above the high streets - resulting in less street space per person."

 -  These were my words back in 2000.

It's now a decade after Yonge Eglinton was designed a principal Growth Centre where intensification is targeted to occur,  

I've seen a lot development proposals and their traffic studies.  None of these traffic studies have modeled, assessed or made recommendations about pedestrian circulation, nor for that matter bicycles.  Meanwhile, this designation presumes a highly pedestrianised context, where mobility is substantially reliant upon public transit and other non-automotive movement modes.