Sustainable Urban & Transportation Planning (UBS)

The course covers the history of pioneering community planning in Canada and around the world and contemporary and emerging planning theories sourced from related urban planning, urban design, socio-economic and philosophy literatures. Students will learn about the evolution of theories and their impact on society, current built environment, Indigenous communities, and ways of living and natural resources. This is done through a series of lectures and literature reviews and review the built-form examples of the manifestation of theories throughout history. Students will critically evaluate the theories and their historical evolution to understand better the rationale behind current and past planning policies and principles. In this course, students will recognize and learn the planning processes in Indigenous communities.

In this course, students will review the fundamentals of community and land use planning and its emerging issues, strengths, limitations, and uncertainties. The course will build an understanding of Ontarios local and provincial planning frameworks and regulatory systems. It will also cover the ideas and principles that have governed community planning in large and small settlements. Students will be able to assess land use matters from an economic, social, political and health perspective. They will be able to evaluate the economics of a development plan, including project proforma and the impacts of different design decisions, such as higher energy efficiency solutions, on the economic feasibility of a project. The course includes a series of lectures and literature reviews. It is assessed through debates between groups of students for or against competing for planning principles and public interests.

This course focuses on the knowledge and skills required for effective communications to successfully initiate, plan, organize, control, and document projects. With practical communications strategies, tools, and best practices provided, students will participate in individual writing activities and team presentations for various project purposes. The course will discuss change management, conflict resolution, effective listening, and critical thinking techniques. It will equip students with a better understanding of negotiation and facilitating engagement. Examples from the planning industry will be evaluated for their effectiveness.

This course provides students with an opportunity to explore the changing face of Infrastructure and Transportation Planning in the 21st century. Students examine different methods utilized by planning practitioners for planning and allocation of different types of infrastructure such as transportation, utility, green and social infrastructure, necessary for the growth of our cities. Students explore the methods to analyze transportation problems and propose solutions, including demand analysis framework, data collection procedures, travel demand modelling and forecasting, and cost-effectiveness evaluations for new initiatives. The course uses case studies from the Greater Toronto Area.

This course introduces students to the principles and techniques of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the environmental data management using ArcGIS software. Students will learn the methods and best practices of using GIS in managing urban infrastructure assets. They will review different spatial data analysis applications in an urban project, including analyzing density and project economics. Lab exercises will emphasize GIS data collection, entry, storage, analysis, output and reporting. The course is designed to teach students methods of fundamental geospatial analysis using ArcGIS software, which is applied to a variety of case studies related to different project-based scenarios in planning.

This studio will undertake the application of planning theories and techniques along with qualitative research and analysis methods used by planners in a real-world development project. The course will use applied planning principles to guide students through the analysis of a site and its context, including its planning policy framework, its geo-spatial characteristics and socio-economic conditions. In this capstone course, students will apply the knowledge gained from technical and theoretical courses in the semester to the first phase of a development project. This first phase includes context, legislation and policy analysis, gathering relevant studies, data and special analysis conducted through GIS, and the creation of concept plans and drawings that will help with the design and development of policy recommendations in the next phase of the project.

The course explores design solutions, policies and practices that contribute to community well-being and prioritize improvements to the quality of life for people. It will examine best practices and real-world examples of community well-being frameworks, including indicators such as environmental stewardship, democratic community engagement, equitable urbanism, employment opportunities, housing, and affordability. In this course, students will become familiar with the fundamentals of the community well-being framework. They will explore the methods of community engagement and visioning practices and will begin to develop action plans for any category of indicators.

The course covers legislation in the Ontario Planning context, including the Planning Act, Official Plans, Zoning By-Laws. It will examine the appeal procedures and mechanisms, including the rulings of the Committee of Adjustment, Ontario Land Tribunal and Toronto Local Appeal Body. The course will also cover planning ethics and its importance in the planning profession.

The course explores relevant policies, regulations and standards related to environmental sustainability and ecological principles and their application to urban and regional planning. The course will examine the effects of the development pressure on ecosystems and climate crisis and how policy, legislation, governance, and civic engagement could address the negative impacts of the built environment. In this course, students will examine the best practices of low-impact and sustainable design solutions.

Using planning and traffic engineering principles, this course will introduce students to the transportation planning process related to land development initiatives. Topics include traffic data collection for planning purposes, warrants for additional transportation infrastructure, and capacity analysis of unsignalized intersections. Preparation of a transportation impact assessment in support of land development will serve as a major term project. This course will contain a two-hour lecture and a two-hour lab each week.

This course explores urban design and landscape elements within the public realm that shape our urban spaces and encompass our daily experiences in cities. Students will analyze social, political, economic and environmental dimensions of city-building in the context of best practices and successful case studies to arrive at urban design and landscape principles and methods that will be applied to a real-world development project.

Building on the planning context analysis of the development site (in Planning Research and Methods Analysis Studio in the first semester), this course will focus on the critical evaluation of the site based on different planning theories, design principles and context plans. Students will evaluate design alternatives and develop implementation strategies for the site. Students will prepare a development plan, along with a planning justification report, policy recommendations using the legislation, and context analysis in the first studio with a focus on environmental sustainability, social equity and economic feasibility.