A changing of the guard: Regional planning in Ottawa, 1945-1974

Urban History Review

Volumn 34, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 100-112

  Fullerton, Christopher ^a  

^a BROCK UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; PLANNING HISTORY; REGIONAL PLANNING; TWENTIETH CENTURY;

CANADA; NORTH AMERICA; ONTARIO; OTTAWA;

EID: 27844511945     PISSN: 07030428     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.7202/1016050ar     Document Type: Article

References (66)

1. Primarily as a result of space limitations, this paper focuses almost exclusively on the Ontario side of the Ottawa River, fully recognizing that urban development on the Quebec side of the river (the Outaouais region) has also had an impact on transportation and other planning issues in the area. For further analysis of planning and development in the Outaouais, see Chad Gaffield, History of the Outaouais (Montreal: Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 1997).
2. Gerald Hodge, Planning Canadian Communities: An Introduction to the Principles, Practices, and Participants, 4th ed. (Scarborough: Nelson, 2003), 268.
3. Pierre Filion, "Metropolitan Planning Objectives and Implementation Constraints: Planning in a Post-Fordist and Postmodern Age," Environment and Planning A 28 (1996): 1637-1660.
4. Jill Grant, "Planning Canadian Cities: Context, Continuity, and Change," in Canadian Cities in Transition: The Twenty-First Century, 2nd ed., ed. Trudi Bunting and Pierre Filion (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2000), 443-461;
5. James T. Lemon, Liberal Dreams and Nature's Limits: Great Cities of North America Since 1600 (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1996);
6. Martin V. Melosi, The Sanitary City: Urban Infrastructure in America from Colonial Times to Present (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000).
7. Paul Davidoff, "Advocacy and Pluralism in Planning," Journal of the American Institute of Planners 31, no. 4 (1965): 331-337;
8. Herbert Gans, "Planning for People, not Buildings," Environment and Planning A 1 (1969): 33-46;
9. Jane Jacobs, The Economy of Cities (New York: Vintage Books, 1969).
10. Cliff Ellis, "Professional Conflict over Urban Form: The Case of Urban Freeways, 1930 to 1970," in Planning the Twentieth-Century American City, ed. Mary Corbin Sies and Christopher Silver (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), 262-279;
11. John D. Fairfield, "Private City, Public City: Power and Vision in American Cities," Journal of Urban History 29, no. 4 (2003): 437-462;
12. Clay McShane, Down the Asphalt Path: The Automobile and the American City (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994);
13. Raymond A. Mohl, "Stop the Road: Freeway Revolts in American Cities," Journal of Urban History 30, no. 5 (2004): 676-706.
14. David Nolan and Nadine Nowlan, The Bad Trip: The Untold Story of the Spadina Expressway (Toronto: New Press, House of Anansi, 1970);
15. John Sewell, The Shape of the City Toronto Struggles with Modern Planning (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993).
16. Hans Blumenfeld, "Metropolitan Area Planning," in The Modern Metropolis, ed. Paul D. Spreiregen (Montreal: Harvest House, 1967), 79-83;
17. Gerald Hodge and Ira Robinson, Planning Canadian Regions (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2001);
18. Ira M. Robinson and Gerald Hodge, "Canadian Regional Planning at 50: Growing Pains," Plan Canada (May 1998): 10-14.
19. Warren Magnusson, The Search for Political Space: Globalization, Social Movements, and the Urban Political Experience (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996).
20. Jacques Gréber. Plan for the National Capital: General Report (Ottawa: King's Printer, 1950), 191.
21. David Gordon, "Weaving a Modern Plan for Canada's Capital: Jacques Greber and the 1950 Plan for the National Capital Region," Urban History Review 29, no. 2 (2001): 43-61.
22. At this time, the size of the National Capital Region was increased from 900 square kilometres, as it had been defined in the Plan for the National Capital, to 1800 square kilometres.
23. D. Hendricks and P. Philpott, Ottawa Transportation: From Horses to Buses (Ottawa: Historical Society of Ottawa, 1985).
24. Ibid.
25. For further detail on this important chapter in Canada's urban transportation history, see Stephen Davies, "'Reckless Walking Must Be Discouraged': The Automobile Revolution and the Shaping of Modern Urban Canada to 1930," Urban History Review 18 (1989): 123-138;
26. Donald Davis, "Competition's Moment: The Jitney-Bus and Corporate Capitalism in the Canadian City, 1914-1929," Urban History Review 18 (1989): 103-122;
27. Donald Davis, "The North American Response to the Jitney Bus," Canadian Review of American Studies 21 (1990): 333-357;
28. Donald Davis, "Technological Momentum, Motor Buses, and the Persistence of Canada's Street Railways to 1940," Material History Review 36 (1992): 6-17.
29. John H. Taylor, Ottawa: An Illustrated History (Toronto: J. Lorimer, 1986), 190.
30. Gordon, "Weaving a Modern Plan";
31. Greg Gyton, A Place for Canadians: The Story of the National Capital Commission (Ottawa: National Capital Commission, 1999).
32. This was also an extremely controversial solution, as many properties were expropriated as a result of landowners unwillingness to sell at the price being offered by the federal government. See Elliott, The City Beyond: A History of Nepean, Birthplace of Canada's Capital, 1792-1990 (Nepean, ON: City of Nepean, 1991).
33. Cited in Peter Spurr, Land and Urban Development (Toronto: J. Lorimer, 1976).
34. Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton Planning Department, Transcripts of Hearings and Briefs Received, vol. 1, Official Plan Public Participation Program (Ottawa: RMOC Planning Department, 1971), 132.
35. Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton, Analytical Summary of Submissions Addressed to the Regional Planning Department from April to June, 1972 (Ottawa: RMOC Planning Department, 1972).
36. Ibid.
37. Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton Planning Department, Alternative Regional Development Concepts: Formulation and Preliminary Evaluation (Ottawa: RMOC Planning Department, 1973).
38. Ibid.
39. John Wright, "The Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton: Planning Objectives, Concepts and Principal Policies," in Ottawa-Hull: Spatial Perspectives and Planning, ed. R. Wesche and M. Kugler-Gagnon (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Department of Geography and Planning, 1978), 117-126.
40. Special Joint Committee of the Senate and of the House of Commons on the National Capital Region, RMOC Submission to the Special Joint Committee of the Senate and of the House of Commons on the National Capital Region: Remarks to Committee by John M. Wright, Planning Commissioner, on March 2, 1976, Re: Official Plan Ottawa-Carleton Planning Area.
41. Wright, "The Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton."
42. Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton Planning Department, Official Plan: Initial Proposals (Ottawa: RMOC Planning Department, 1972).
43. Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton, Briefs Submitted to the Planning Committee in Response to Official Plan: Initial Proposals Report, Official Plan Public Participation Program (Ottawa: RMOC Planning Department, 1972).
44. Ottawa Citizen, February 11, 1974, 1;
45. Ottawa Citizen, February 13, 1974, 2.
46. Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton, Official Plan - Draft (Ottawa: RMOC Planning Department, 1973).
47. Ottawa Citizen, 23, 30 Jan., 2 Feb. 1974.
48. Ibid., 23 Jan., 2 Feb. 1974.
49. Ibid., 5, 8, 11, 13 Feb., 6 Mar. 1974.
50. Ibid., 8 Feb. 1974.
51. Ibid., 4 Feb. 1972, 13 Feb. 1974.
52. National Capital Commission, Tomorrow's Capital: Invitation to Dialogue (Ottawa: NCC, 1974).
53. The Ottawa Transportation Commission was created in 1948 after the city of Ottawa purchased all assets of the Ottawa Electric Railway and assumed responsibility for public transit service within city limits. See Hendricks and Philpott, Ottawa Transportation.
54. A. Bernard, J. Leveille, and G. Lord, The Political and Administrative Structure of the Metropolitan Region of Ottawa-Hull (Ottawa: Minister of State for Urban Affairs, 1974).
55. Several years later, once population densities had sufficiently increased, dial-a-bus service in these areas was replaced by conventional, fixed-route transit service.
56. Ottawa Citizen, 4 Mar. 1974.
57. Ibid., 17, 19 Jan., 4 Mar. 1974.
58. Ibid., 11 Feb. 1974.
59. See Wright, "The Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton."
60. Special Joint Committee, RMOC Submission, 10.
61. Gordon, "Weaving a Modern Plan," 55.
62. RMOC planner John Wright would later comment that, although the RMOC draft plan and the NCC's Tomorrow's Capital document clearly demonstrated their mutual desire to ensure a compact urban form and to preserve natural resources and the natural environment, it was also clear that their philosophies about urban structure differed considerably. See Wright, "The Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton."
63. Robert Cervero, "Urban Transit in Canada: Integration and Innovation at Its Best," Transportation Quarterly 40, no. 3 (1986): 293-316;
64. Robert Cervero, The Transit Metropolis: A Global Inquiry (Washington: Island Press, 1998);
65. K. Hooper, Innovative Suburb-to-Suburb Transit Practices, Transportation Research Board, Transit Cooperative Research Program, Synthesis of Transit Practice #14 (Washington DC: National Academy Press, 1995);
66. Sean Rathwell and Stephen Schijns, "Ottawa and Brisbane: Comparing a Mature Busway System with Its State of the Art Progeny," Journal of Public Transportation 5, no. 2 (2002): 163-182.