15 minutes to a better neighbourhood
Robin Mazumder and Robb Barnes argue for a simple planning principle
What's in a city's design? For many, our urban fabric is taken for granted. The bones of a city — its roads, nodes and networks — may dictate the rhythms of our daily life, but they feel like background noise. Seemingly immutable, they form the setting for life's adventures, and never rise to the fore as an issue for debate and discussion.
But scratch below the surface parking lot, and you'll encounter a world of opportunities, including some of the most timely and important for the current moment. A well-designed city can do wonders for our mental health. It can also be a powerful tool in the ongoing fight against the climate crisis.
“15-minute neighbourhoods,” the latest urban planning buzzword, might just be a kind of silver bullet that addresses both issues at once. Developed by Sorbonne Prof. Carlos Moreno and popularized by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, the concept is at once both simple and revolutionary: cities should be designed so that people can access needs and amenities within a 15-minute walk. It's simple because the idea can be captured in a single sentence. It's revolutionary because it amounts to a sea change in urban planning practices, with huge implications for how we live in cities.
The 15-minute neighbourhoods concept has found traction in Ottawa's recently released draft Official Plan, our city's major planning and policy document. Because the Official Plan will shape Ottawa's urban form for decades to come, it's essential that we get it right. An ambitious 15-minute neighbourhoods vision may be just what's needed to get there.
Ottawa has some strong elements to build on. We used to build 15-minute neighbourhoods as a matter of course. Bustling, pedestrian-centric streets were integrated along with corner stores and local businesses in many of Ottawa's older neighbourhoods, including the “streetcar suburbs” of Westboro, Hintonburg and Britannia Village. These communities, along with others such as the Glebe,
Old Ottawa South and Old Ottawa East, now make up highly sought-after communities. But they've seen wear and tear. Corner stores disappeared along with the streetcars, and parking lots still haunt some otherwise walkable corners.
It's time to marry the best of the past with forward-looking design citywide. An ambitious vision will have huge implications for climate action in our city. By enhancing urban density, reducing car-dependency and encouraging mixed-use patterns of development, Ottawa can make headway in the fight against sprawl; reduce transportation emissions; preserve precious green space; and make our transit system more viable. With the right mix of policies and investments, we can create bustling, walkable, bikeable neighbourhoods connected by world-class public transportation. In other words, we can tackle the climate crisis through building a more connected city.
This pandemic has highlighted just how important human connection is to well-being. Furthermore, the 15-minute concept is about having needs met. Key to this, however, is recognizing that not everyone has the same needs. This diversity of experience, what Robin Mazumder refers to as
“experiential equity,” needs to be accounted for in urban design decisions. This pandemic has also brought the massive disparities that exist in our cities to the forefront. Accordingly, any plan for a 15-minute neighbourhood should be made in consultation with everyone to truly ensure this strategy doesn't leave anyone out.
In the midst of a long-term climate crisis demanding ambitious near-term action, an escalating mental health epidemic and growing disparities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, our urban fabric has never mattered more. How we build matters deeply. The opportunity for an ambitious stride forward is there if we choose to seize it.
As the city asks for feedback over the coming months, let's take this opportunity to make the new Official Plan Ottawa's climate emergency plan. Let's also make it a plan that heals, that inspires and sparks excitement and joy among Ottawans for generations to come.