growth - Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition

15-Minute Communities

The 15-minute community (sometimes also called 15-minute ‘city’ or ‘neighbourhood’) is a vision for development that is human and community oriented.

15-minute communities occur where the basic things we need, like groceries, workplaces, doctor’s offices, community services and childcare, are all available within a 15 minute walk or roll from home.

SCGC, along with other organizations, has been advocating for a move towards establishing 15-minute communities in Simcoe County before development occurs outside of the built-up area.

What this would mean, in practice, is that existing communities would continue to be developed until residents are able to access basic amenities within a 15 minute walk. Only after that condition has been met would development to expand the community outward be allowed.

Read on below for reason why this makes sense, financially, for our health and safety, and for the environment.

What are 15-Minute Communities?

The 15-minute community (sometimes also called 15-minute ‘city’ or ‘neighbourhood’) is a vision for development that is human and community oriented. 15-minute communities are communities where the basic things we need, like groceries, workplaces, doctor’s offices, community services and childcare, are all available within a 15 minute walk or roll from home.

Many of us live in suburbs because this has been the norm since urban sprawl was adopted in the 50’s. But more municipalities are realizing that this is a really inefficient way of organizing our communities.

Developers give money to municipalities when they build that is meant to pay for infrastructure, but this up-front cost doesn’t cover repairs and upgrades needed later on.

When infrastructure is built in a way that is spread out, like with sprawl, the tax the municipality is able to collect on a per-person basis is also spread out, resulting in a tax-base that is much smaller, or spread out, in proportion to the larger infrastructure build.

Ontario's Infrastructure Deficit

Ontario’s current infrastructure deficit is estimated by the Financial Accountability Officer at $52 billion.

Roads make up the largest share, at $21.1 billion, with buildings and facilities at $9.5 billion, wastewater at $7.3 billion, potable water at $5.3, bridges and culverts at $4.3, storm water at $3.8, and transit at $1 billion.

Click on the image for a larger version, or click through here for the whole report.

Building more efficiently means we can do more

By building in a way that brings things closer together, mixing different elements that we all need, such as grocery and clothing stores, cafes and other local shops, into the same neighbourhoods, we maximize that use-value of the land.

This means, because it’s more efficient, that we can do more of what we want, such as funding public services like transit, building more playgrounds and parks, or funding community centres and theatres.

Sprawl hurts us all in ways that are often difficult to see, and the squeeze it puts on the public, the difficult choices municipalities are forced to make between maintaining a road into suburbia or building a childcare centre is just one example.

Did you know?

Canadians spend an average of $10,000 per year on owning a car. Multiply that by the number of cars your household has.

What could you put that money towards if you didn’t have to drive everywhere?

Would you retire early? Help with your child’s education? Take time to explore the world?

$ 0

And, there are more benefits...

These kinds of communities improve quality of life and make the places where people live more, well, livable.

As the places we need to go are brought closer to homes, our commutes and need to drive everywhere shrinks. We spend less time in traffic and more time being out in our community, interacting with neighbours, supporting local businesses, exercising and socializing.

15-minute communities are also good climate policy. Low-rise density development produces the least emissions, while sprawl produces the most (with high-rise development somewhere in the middle). This is because these communities require less car and land use, and attached buildings are much more efficient for infrastructure and servicing (especially if this denser development is occurring in already-serviced areas, rather than undeveloped land). With about half of domestic carbon emissions being under control of municipal land-use planning, this is a pretty big deal for meeting our climate targets.

An increasingly popular form of planning

We’ve seen a huge rise in popularity of the idea of the 15-minute community during the pandemic, as many people stopped having to commute for work and were spending more time in their own neighbourhoods. People are realizing what their neighbourhoods were missing and the potential of what they could be.

15-minute communities have the potential to address so many of our current problems with the same planning approach, largely because of the density they require to make things walkable:

Climate Action

- Low-rise dense neighbourhoods produce the least emissions¹²;

Cost Effective

- Uses land, energy and infrastructure far more efficiently, while actually saving municipalities and taxpayers a tonne of money compared to sprawl;

Transportation

- Density is required to support cost effective, good public transit³ and active transportation infrastructure⁴ to make these actual options for people, which will help move us away from car-dependency (another financial boon for local governments and businesses);

Public Health

- Decades of research shows the physical and mental health benefits of physical activity and spending more time outdoors, which improves our quality of life and wellbeing, while decreasing rates of chronic diseases and healthcare costs⁵;

Local Economy

- Because 15-minute communities are mixed-use, we would have local businesses mixed in with different types of housing, allowing many more people shop local and support our local economy⁶;

Affordable Housing

- Denser development facilitates affordable housing, and diversity in housing to match diverse households, so we can house more people in appropriate homes⁷;

Aging in Place

- Mixed housing is required for Age-Friendly communities, so that seniors can downsize without having to leave their own neighbourhoods;

Social Health

- 15-minute communities have higher social cohesion, while less traffic correlates to more friendships; this promotes a stronger sense of community, less isolation and loneliness, and stronger social networks;

Child-Friendly Communities

- Denser neighbourhoods have less cars and more eyes on the streets, making these much safer for children to play outdoors and practice independence, which is a huge benefit for their development and health.

15-minute communities in Simcoe County

In Simcoe County, we’re not all big cities (Barrie and Orillia aside), but we do have Primary Settlement Areas, which are places where the province is directing a portion of population growth that we need to accommodate here. These are the perfect places to embrace the 15-minute community vision.

In existing neighbourhoods, we can introduce gentle density to complete these neighbourhoods and give residents the nearby services that they deserve, while increasing the walkability and sense of community in these places. This means that less additional land will have to be developed and makes the direct and indirect cost (through taxes) lower for residents because it’s way more efficient for servicing costs.

Where new neighbourhoods need to be built, in Designated Greenfield Areas or where an MZO has been approved, these neighbourhoods should be planned as 15-minute communities to give future residents the best quality of life while being the most affordable they can be – for residents and municipalities. If we absolutely need to use more land, we should use it as efficiently, sustainably and cost effectively as possible. Moving towards 15-minute communities improves livability for current and future residents in these existing communities and because they are compactly built, more people can live in these places, so that less people need to move into the more rural areas of the County.

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"I knew development hurts ecosystems and drives climate change (literally drives it, in cars), but it just seems so ubiquitous – how do we stop corporations and councils from developing land when it’s so hard to get clear information about specific projects?"

Understanding how the local planning process works is crucial in the fight for climate action.

But here’s the thing – there’s so much about planning that isn’t so readily shared. I’ve been realizing that there’s so much more going on. I’ve found out about so many development projects, many right here in Barrie. See, I knew development hurts ecosystems and drives climate change (literally drives it, in cars), but it just seems so ubiquitous – how do we stop corporations and councils from developing land when it’s so hard to get clear information about specific projects?

Okay, so you see construction for a development project. You know it’s probably for-profit and won’t come close to meeting any climate standards. What do you do? Stopping projects once they’re started is hard, especially when our entire system is built to do everything for profit, no matter the real cost. This is why putting on the pressure during planning is so important.

These projects get sorted and contracts get signed long before the Earth gets dug and construction signs go up. This part is not so visible to the public. Sure, the councils must make some of this publicly available, but you really have to know what to look for and understand what the technical reports, bylaws and zoning stuff mean to do anything.

It’s like they make planning as uninteresting and seemingly inconsequential as possible so that people don’t actually get involved. A citizenry that’s not informed can’t participate very well.

Community supported, advocacy for a safe and secure future.

Governments have failed to act to protect our communities and the futures of our children and grandchildren, and they continue to treat our environment as if it’s incidental to life, rather than a foundation for it.

We need strong community organizations to fight for our future, now more than ever.

Please consider donating to support our work. It’s people like you who make us possible.

"...if I’m not a planner, why should I care? Turns out, the MCR is a big review of Simcoe County’s planning until 2051. It will determine how the County will plan and develop for the next few decades."

An example – the MCR, or Municipal Comprehensive Review. I hadn’t really heard much about it until recently and information on it is vague and bureaucratic. Cool, so if I’m not a planner, why should I care? Turns out, the MCR is a big review of Simcoe County’s planning until 2051. It will determine how the County will plan and develop for the next few decades.

AKA, it will determine whether or not Simcoe County meets the 2030 and 2050 climate targets.

Reduce emissions
50% by 2030

Reduce emissions
to zero by 2050

That’s a simplification to be sure, and only one implication of the MCR, but that’s a pretty big deal that people should know about. How did I not hear about this sooner?

And there’s other examples: MZOs (or Municipal Zoning Orders) basically let the province override local rules to push through development projects without the public consultation or environmental assessment parts of planning – two of the main parts of the planning process. The Ontario government has ordered a lot of these for private developers here in Simcoe County, and some are going to cut into local wetlands and other habitats that should have been protected.

Planning for climate change means planning within an ‘settlement boundary’, which is a limited amount of space that can be used to build new buildings and roads. This stops urban sprawl and the creation of new subdivisions or commercial areas that require more roads and cars to get to, and protects the land that we have left from being dug up for development.

Many current development projects aim to change the ‘zoning’ or categorization of land from ‘farming’ or ‘environmentally protected’ to ‘industrial’ so that it’s allowed to be developed. This means that we’re losing ecosystems and farmland that we need to protect to make our communities resilient to climate change and avoid flooding and food shortages.

My point is that learning about how planning works is important because it helps us get climate justice happening on the local level. It helps us understand how these changes can actually play out through local government.

"...learning about how planning works is important because it helps us get climate justice happening on the local level"

But there’s a lot to learn and not a lot of clear information, so how can we learn more?

Well, doing some quick research is a start – look for local groups that have campaigns about local development issues (like the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition and Simcoe County Environmental Youth Alliance).
Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition is working to become a good resource that translates the planning process into clear and simple terms for youth and the public (check out our Issues Map to see some of the current development projects happening in your community and how to get involved).
Talk to your friends and others you know about how the planning process today determines a lot about your lives and the lives of future generations.
Talk to classmates and teachers – is there a local issue that you can learn about as a class and turn into an action project? (hint: city planning can connect to all subjects in the curriculum, no matter what grade you’re in!).

Let’s continue this conversation and demystify the planning process to make it make sense for the climate justice movement.

Kelly, signing off.

P.S – I think of these blog posts as an ongoing discussion. You can share your comments below, on social media (links below!) or get in touch with me at kelly@simcoecountygreenbelt.ca.

Kelly Gingrich

SCGC Youth Engagement Lead

How Can You Get Involved?

Contact Kelly using the email provided above.
Follow us on social media using the icons below.
Sign up to our newsletter at the bottom of this page to stay informed on developments with growing the Greenbelt and limiting sprawl.

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Tagged Barrie capitalism Climate Change emissions growth MCR MZO Official Plan planning

Sprawl and Ontario's Greenbelt

Sprawl is one of the most wasteful forms of development, leading Ontario’s former Environmental Commissioner to call it “Ontario’s oil sands.” A strong Growth Plan, together with an expanded Greenbelt, can help ensure growth in a way that is sustainable and more cost effective.

Published:
August 20, 2021
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Sprawl is the Dominant Growth Style in Simcoe County

We’ve been dealing with losing our natural spaces and farmland to sprawl in this region for a long time. It’s been the main way we’ve grown our communities for decades, and we continue to do so, even though it’s outdated and extremely wasteful, today.

Consider:

Between 2006 and 2014, Simcoe County released more greenfield lands for development (sprawl) than any other region in southern Ontario. This, despite the fact that the amount of growth they were anticipated to receive was much less than many places;¹
The IGAP report in 2006 outlined that due to urbanization pressure of sprawl and without intervening action, “the available potable water and aquaculture of these watersheds are threatened” within Simcoe County;²
The Lake Simcoe watershed is calculated to lose 12,000 hectares of natural and semi-natural space by 2031. That’s equivalent to 1000 Vaughan Mills Malls;³
Over the past 40 years, Barrie’s footprint grew by 550% losing over 150km2 of natural and semi-natural space.⁴

What Can Be Done?

First and foremost, we have to intentionally choose different development patterns. Sprawl must be stopped and settlement boundaries must be held firm.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t make developers and those wanting to cash out very rich.

As a result, extreme lobbying efforts within our municipal councils promote sprawling patterns as a supposed answer to economic woes – which simply isn’t true.

In fact, sprawling developments have been shown time and time again to cost the municipality more than what it brings in with new tax revenue and growth.⁵

We can also address this through provincial policy, specifically, the Greenbelt.

The Greenbelt Plan was created to direct growth to existing communities to prevent sprawl from paving over farmland and our most precious, sensitive landscapes.

Ontario’s Greenbelt policies have been recognized internationally as one of the most legally effective and clear policies when compared against other greenbelt across the globe.

Although far from perfect, the Greenbelt has been shown to stop the loss of farmland to sprawl, support water systems and act as a natural solution to climate change.

The only thing that is required is political will to prioritize protection of our water, wetlands, greenspaces and farmland over outdated economic policies that are based on infrastructure such as sprawl, highways and pipelines.

We Have an Opportunity to Shift Our Decisions

The province is asking for feedback about how and where to grow the Greenbelt in Ontario.

Frankly, we think we should protect as much of our land and water as possible – our economy, food security and water security depend on it.

However, we also recognize that the political will isn’t as bold as the vision that Ontarians may have, so that’s where citizens need to push the needle.

We need to have conversations about how we create healthy, sustainable, thriving communities.

Science is showing us that our patterns and choices are problematic for our own survival.

Let’s start by doing one meaningful thing – grow the Greenbelt to the rest of the Lake Simcoe basin, to areas within Simcoe County that are important to providing clean water, air and food for residents.

Better is always possible even if it isn’t politically expedient.

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