Infill development a smart growth strategy
Chris Guerette says building a healthy municipal ecosystem is important.
We want to be that city. That city that people flock to for opportunities, great schools, a vibrant downtown, jobs and housing options for people of all backgrounds. That city that is growing, inclusive, neighbourly — and that has just a little bit of collective swagger to make each polar vortex a little bit better.
But we should be honest with ourselves. In recent years — and you might be upset to read this — we as a city have not been all that kind or welcoming to growth.
Saskatoon is planning to grow to half a million in population in the next 25 to 30 years.
Along with new residents come new students for our schools, new demand for infrastructure and businesses and thus new potential for efficiencies and growth.
A pillar of any successful city is a varied offering of housing, which also attracts business investment. Employment and population growth lead to an increased tax base. All that development makes up a sort of ecosystem, and an ecosystem's health is much larger than what we find in our individual backyards.
Like many other municipalities, the trick for city council is to find the right balance for that ecosystem's growth between two areas: greenfield growth (think about those beautiful new neighbourhoods) and infill growth (think about renewal largely in our city core so that more people can enjoy it).
Greenfield growth tends to happen away from most of our backyards, meaning we don't think about it much. Infill growth happens in established neighbourhoods and is far messier — think about doing a major renovation to your home when you still live in it. Focusing on the result gets you through it, and it's usually well worth it: beautiful and functions more efficiently.
Eventually though, all new neighbourhoods become established and have the opportunity for redevelopment and infill presented within it. All neighbourhoods will eventually have growth “in their backyard,” contributing to a healthier municipal ecosystem.
And most importantly, we all at one point were the new people moving into a neighbourhood and wondered how we would be welcomed.
In recent years, our city has experienced significant pushback for several outstanding infill growth opportunities.
Looking at a few of these projects that were eventually approved despite the fight, we should be proud.
The Thode rezoning project welcomed energy-efficient innovation. Willlowview Heights is the first and only net-zero-ready, multi-unit residential project in Saskatchewan. Rezoning to allow a First Nation childcare centre in Montgomery is welcoming babies and young children to a neighbourhood. Camponi Housing Corporation in Blairmore will welcome affordable homes to young families. Escala in Nutana will be the first townhouse/apartment style condo mix in the city. The multi-unit projects found along our future BRT routes and downtown core offer beautiful additions of choice to our housing continuum while unlocking efficiency in our infrastructures.
These projects have significantly enhanced our ecosystem as a city. Yet, when tied together, these projects start to tell a narrative we may not be proud of calling our own. One that says we're not that welcoming city after all.
We need a strengthened consultation process which will focus on more than our backyards.
A growing tax base should become a key performance indicator of municipalities looking to compete in the modern POST-COVID economy. Municipalities often struggle to offer all the services that residents want and need, which can lead to continual tax increases. Ensuring our ecosystem is healthy is a far better way of building our resilience.
Now more than ever, we need to make sure we are doing everything we can, both as policy-makers and as residents, to welcome renewal and development. We need to be saying yes to Saskatoon a lot more than we are, and set our sights much farther than our backyards.