Quote:
Originally Posted by Dado
Where is this idea that the Greenbelt is responsible or is the cause of Ottawa's sprawl coming from? It's not like that without the Greenbelt we wouldn't have had any sprawl - it just would have been in the lands of the Greenbelt instead of beyond them, and that development would probably have started sooner than it did with the Greenbelt in place.
The Greenbelt might be the cause of extra costs associated with the sprawl beyond the Greenbelt compared to what would have been sprawl within it, but it is not the cause of the sprawl itself.
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Hear hear!
I think Dado has it completely right. He also highlights in his post something that is a big problem and often neglected: the extremely poorly designed interior suburbs (those within the Greenbelt). While we on this forum, and bureaucrats at the city, tend to focus on issues relating to intensification in the core (and select desirable central neighbourhoods) and on development of new suburban communities, now essentially all located outside the Greenbelt, finding ways to encourage intensification and find solutions to the ailments of the inner suburbs (old Nepean, old Gloucester, south parts of old Ottawa) is very important.