Sure "signs" of developers at work in Waterloo Region Being a farm girl and a city girl engaged in urban&rural design and sustainable design there is no way the VELD architect could not show their support for the Region of Waterloo's decision to appeal the OMB ruling to increase the develop-able land in the Region. Sustainable Waterloo has displayed the facts very well on their blog so I won't go into them again. but here is a little summary. The Region of Waterloo has always been a strong advocate for a hard and fast countryside line that reduces urban sprawl and saves their prime farmland in the Region. In the most recent Official plan the Region is promoting deification on the existing urban structure, and downtown and limiting new development land.There are a multitude of benefits to this plan;
- saving prime farmland
- reducing infrastructure costs for roads, sewers, public transit, etc. (which also keeps taxes down)
- more density to neighborhoods for better communities
- more walkable cities
- renews downtowns and every neighborhood in the city or town.
- more sustainable growth and sustainable urban planning for generations to come.