Urban Land Use

1. Urban Land Use Chapter 21

2. 6 Major Land Uses • 1. Residential (40%) • 2. Transportation (33%) • 3. Commercial (5%) • 4. Industrial (6%) • 5. Institutional and Public Buildings (10%) (e.g. schools, hospitals, churches, gov’t offices) • 6. Open Land/ Parks (7%) (e.g. vacant land; woodlots; cemeteries; parks; playing fields)

3. “ Land- use patterns in towns and cities do not develop by chance. They result from decisions made by people about such matters as where to work, what type of home to live in, what kind of local government to have, and how to spend money. Your decisions will affect the way your community looks in the future.” - Making Connections, page 264

4. 1. Low, medium and high density residential use • Represents the average number of housing units, per hectare. • Low density residential use means less than 30 units per hectare • Medium density consists of 30-100 units • High density is more than 100 units/hectare • Types of housing: single family homes to townhouses, to apartment buildings

5. 1b.Two factors influence residential density: • i. cost of land: Lower land cost, like in the suburbs, means that there is lower residential density. More expensive land = higher density; like downtown in major cities. You need more people to live in a smaller area to pay for the price of the land.

6. ii. Age of the neighbourhood In older parts of a city, places that were settled before most people used cars, lots were smaller and residential density was higher because people had to walk or take the bus to get to work, school, stores.

7. 2. Different types of Roads • Expressways: minimum-access, high speed roads designed to carry a lot of traffic over long distances • (e.g.401 series) • Arterial roads: main roads that carry traffic through a city. They are lined with commercial and industrial land uses

8. Collector Roads: move (collect) traffic from local roads to arterial roads • Local Roads: are smaller and narrower. They take people from their homes to the arterial roads. They have lower speed limits and volumes of traffic.

9. 3. Commercial Centres • Local Service Centres: Street corner shops that provide mainly low-order goods for people in the close, surrounding area e.g. convenience store, doughnut shop: Tim Hortons!

10. Neighbourhood Plazas and Ribbons • Small plazas in a neighbourhood or ribbons of stores located along major arterial roads • They supply low-order goods for local residents or people driving by • e.g. grocery store, bank, pharmacy, salon • Sometimes the ribbons specialize in high-order goods, like cars

11. Community Shopping Centres • Located at major street intersections in large cities or on the outskirts of towns • Designed around anchor stores, like department stores or supermarkets, that are placed on either end of the mall to create traffic flow to stores in between • Offer high, middle and low order goods

12. Regional Shopping Centres (malls) • Large shopping malls located in the suburbs of major cities • Large parking lots accommodate lots of customers • People drive from the city and surrounding area to buy the full range of goods • Could include large department stores, banks, clothing stores, jewelry stores, cinemas…

13. CBD: Central Business District • Located in the downtown section of major cities • It has the greatest concentration of tall buildings in the city, is accessible by major roads and public transit • A large city may have distinct retail, financial, entertainment and hotel districts

14. 4. Industrial Land Use • CBD: older, multi-story factories • Built near waterfronts and railways • Many are obsolete today • Ribbon industries: found on large pieces of land in suburbs • Cheaper land with good transportation routes

15. Suburban industrial parks: one-storey factory buildings suited to assembly-line manufacturing • Cheap land and good transportation • Employees drive to work • Suburban Business Parks: modern spacious buildings with large parking facilities • Access to expressway • Large and small businesses

16. 4b. Industry location before and after 1940’s • Before the 1940’s, most industries were located around CBD, along the waterfront or along the railway line • Increasing use of cars and trucks after World War 2 caused industries to locate in suburbs near their markets, labour force and transportation routes

17. 5. How do land values affect land use? • The land that is worth the most money, must generate the highest income • So, businesses that require a large area of land but produce relatively little income must locate at the edge of the city where land prices are lower

18. Positives and Negatives of Urban Expansion • Positives: creation of jobs; larger markets for businesses; better stores to shop at; more services available • Negatives: more traffic congestion; more air pollution from traffic; loss of green space; loss of farmland

19. How to limit urban sprawl? • Urban Sprawl is low-density development surrounding a city • How to stop it? • Build higher density developments for housing and business to prevent sprawl • Higher density development also encourages people to take public transit and not drive everywhere • Land speculation (buying farmland to sell for development) should be limited because it causes sprawl and loss of good land