Can consultative planning processes achieve Smart Growth? An assessment of visioning and growth management in Waterloo, Ontario

This thesis is about understanding the process of planning and how processes could be improved to better achieve the goals of Smart Growth. The term 'Smart Growth' as it applies to urban growth and expansion, highlights the fact that communities in general have some concern about the impact of urban growth. In particular, there is concern with the loss of agricultural and environmentally sensitive lands to urban development and also about the impacts of urban land use and transportation patterns on air and water quality. Equally important, Smart Growth advocates call for greater public participation in planning and decision making.; The study seeks to understand if a bottom-up participatory planning process or a hybrid planning process (that includes elements of a top-down process and elements of a bottom-up process) is better at achieving Smart Growth goals. The City of Waterloo was chosen as a case study and the Imagine! Waterloo community vision (a bottom-up process) and the Height and Density Policy Study (a hybrid process) were compared to advance our understanding if one was more effective at advancing the goals of Smart Growth.; The findings of this research show that a hybrid planning process that merges the bottom-up, transactive planning model of incorporating community engagement at the beginning of the process with the top-down, rational comprehensive model of professional expertise is useful for complex issues such as Smart Growth. However, this research suggests that in order for the hybrid model to be successful, a number of other planning reforms are required. First, planning processes must evolve to better address conflict because community consensus on complex issues is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. Second, planning processes must be improved to engage the community at the beginning of the process and be more inclusionary and representative of the community. Third, planners need to develop a better understanding of the object of planning: i.e. the city. A new model of good city form is needed to be able to communicate to communities what a more compact, more densely populated city would look like and function like. A new model of good city form also needs to be coupled with a progressive social agenda which demonstrates to individuals that the achievement of good city form is good for them.; A key outcome of this research is the idea that the role taken by the planner is critical to the success of the hybrid planning model. If planners are going to be successful in implementing Smart Growth goals it is necessary that they educate people about how the Smart Growth city can benefit them. There needs to be communication and understanding that will cause a shift away from the entrenched preference for dispersed urban forms. Another element of the planner as 'educator' is the need for planners to advocate for the future. A return to the focus on the future is one of the most successful elements of visioning. It is important that planners build on this by developing better tools and techniques that help community members visualize different futures. Equally important, planners must advocate for the future and combat those who desire to achieve short-term goals at the expense of long term ones.