Spaces & Flows: Ninth International Conference on Urban and ExtraUrban Studies

Abstract

Public space plays a crucial role in the social, cultural, and political functioning of cities. As peripheral cities outpace the growth of central cities in Canada, it is important to ask how existing, new, and future public spaces are managed and/or developed in these intensifying peripheral areas. To answer this we can begin by looking at the ways in which “public space” is defined and envisioned at the local planning policy level. Using the City of Toronto as a benchmark for comparison, this study addresses the question of public space in the periphery through the textual analysis of local planning policies and design guidelines of the rapidly growing municipalities of Brampton, Vaughan and Innisfil, all of which are located in Toronto’s surrounding region. As these three municipalities are transformed by new development the language and directives of their local planning policies have spatial implications worth examining. Understanding where public space currently fits into existing local policy frameworks provides the opportunity for critique and future improvement.