Contested Places: Neighborhood Conflicts and Densification Flashcards
Describe the term Neighborhood:
Neighborhood = a district with an urban area.
- Difficult to define, exists as an idea among urban residents.
- Neighborhoods and communities are NOT synonymous. When looked at a local level, there’s an implicit link because an assumed set of shared values/interests.
- Socially constructed, with real material consequences. Social values associated with them.
Characteristics of Neighborhoods:
- Always in processes of change. People move in and out of neighborhoods, housing deteriorates over time.
- Under more pressure to change because of climate change and need for sustainable cities.
What are the 5 Big Moves to make Ottawa neighborhoods more sustainable?
- Want to move away from greenfield development (converting rural land to urban uses). More expanding DOES NOT = more services.
- More sustainable public transit (tough because car culture is firm).
- Moving away from zoning rules that control WHO lives in a neighborhood, towards what the neighborhood looks like.
- Want to care more about climate change.
- Improved economic development
Why is a focus on sustainable cities so large right now in Ottawa?
- From 2021 to 2046, will see 400,000 more people living in Ottawa. Need more homes, but need them to be sustainable.
- Most dwellings are moving towards small, single households.
- Need to put more focus on the inner and outer urban areas (low density), not downtown Ottawa.
Explain the idea of 15 minute neighborhoods:
- Range of house types with multiple sizes, prices, and lifestyle accommodations.
- Local access to personal services (food, schools, child care).
- Trees, recreation, greenspaces.
- Walkable streets cycle paths, better transportation, densification around the LRT to make everything easily accessible.
Summarize the New Official Plan:
Quantity = Identifying where and to what extent intensification occurs.
- Growth management and zoning implementation.
Quality = achieving quality design through regulatory tools.
- Neighborhoods with evolving overlay and interior of neighborhoods.
- Worried about the general way neighborhoods look, want to regullate that.
Support = Move to 15-min neighborhoods and coordinate services and programs
What does intensification mean in regards to downtown Ottawa? Why is that challenging?
- Downtown has the highest number of units per hectare (UPH).
- Want to try and INC UPH in outer areas as well (intensification).
- Challenging because there’s a huge emphasis on single family homes.
- 70% of all new housing development is high cost, mid/high rise apartments. Very low amount of construction on low unit homes.
What are the challenges of redeveloping neighborhoods?
- BIGGEST challenge of building sustainability is pre-existing built environment. Private property rights are very strong, and community organizations operate around what “neighborhood” and “community” are. Suburbs will always be a focal point of redev.
- Place-Based Collective Action Frames (PBCAF) highlight relationships between activism based on an idea of neighborhood and the material experience of that place. (Imagining how an ideal neighborhood should be).
