Planning Theory and Practice: Intro
This is the root cause Hulchanski identifies for the gap between planning theory and planning practice.
A. What is the Private Sector
B. What are Business and Politicians
C. What is the Public Sector
Private Sector
What effect did periods of slow growth have on Alberta's future oriented planning action?
Slow growth periods nearly stopped planning action and faded the idea away.
"During the depression planning commissions and concern over planning (...) faded away as urban development faded away" P. 53
Established in 1919, this professional body consisted of interested citizens from related fields like architecture, land surveying, and municipal engineering who positioned themselves as objective technical experts.
A. What is the Town Planning Institute of Canada?
B. What is the Canadian Institute of Planners?
C. What is the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada?
What is the Town Planning Institute of Canada?
p 48 para 1
“Interested citizens and professionals from land development related professions, such as architecture, land surveying, landscape architecture and municipal engineering, formed the active core of people promoting planning. But fairly quickly a distinct body of professional town planners developed, to such an extent that, by 1919, the Town Planning Institute of Canada was established.”
They fully believed in the potential that planning offered as a solution to societal problems. Who are they?
Mawson, Adams and Seymour
What was the reason many provinces did not adopt new planning legislation in the late 1920s?
The boom in the late 1920's was brief, meaning many provinces did not have the resources to create or push legislation before the crash in 1929.
"The boom period was simply not long enough to stimulate a sufficiently strong municipal reaction" P. 52 Para 3
What pattern can be observed in the timing of the adoption of major planning legislation in Alberta?
The adoption of major planning legislation in Alberta is directly correlated with periods of economic booms.
This is seen on page 51 in the graph showing "Total Edmonton and Calgary Building Permit Values and Significant Planning Acts: 1905-1955"
Early planners gained legitimacy from the capitalist elite because they only rejected this specific economic activity, which they viewed as irrational, inefficient, and solely beneficial to individual developers.
A. What is public housing development?
B. What is municipal zoning?
C. What is land speculation?
What is land speculation?
p 49 para 2
“Planners, like other professionals, gained their legitimacy, and thus their social status, because, in seeking reforms, they did not question or reject capitalism but only one aspect of it. They rejected the selfishness which was necessary to the moat exploitive forms of early capitalism. It was thus more appropriate to call for state intervention in the case of such things as rampant land speculation and irrational and inefficient patterns of development which only benefited the individual developer.”
Hulchanski uses this term to describe the idea that state intervention in land development should be scientific and rational rather than political. What is this term called?
cooperative individualism
What role did planners and advocacy groups play in the adoption of planning legislation during the 20th century?
Planners and advocacy groups (like the Calgary Town Planning Commission and the United Farm Women of Alberta) pushed for land use planning policy as a reaction to problems caused by rapid urban development during periods of economic booms.
This philosophical belief held by early planners and reformers argued that the physical environment—such as climate, terrain, and geography—shapes human culture, societal development, and individual behavior.
A. What is environmental determinism?
B. What is cooperative individualism?
C. What is utilitarianism?
What is environmental determinism?
p 46 para 4 (4.1 Planners and Planning Theory)
“At the root of their beliefs was a strong element of environmental determinism.”