The Idea of Planning with the Concept of Neighbourhood - Essay Example

Introduction The idea of planning with the concept of neighbourhood in mind is an old concept that s back to early 20th century and is useful in the enlightening role it assumes in the residents of a particular neighbourhood offering them an opportunity to exercise some amount of responsibility for the neighbourhood they share. In its most basic sense as used in neighbourhood planning situations, the concept 'neighbourhood' has connotations relating to geographical extent meaning that the neighbourhood is defined within the limits of a physical area. It also bears the concept of collective settlement which means that a number of people are found living within a given area. The concept of familiarity rendered possible through association is also encompassed by the notion of neighbourhood. The body of persons trusted with neighbourhood planning within a given region must of necessity engage the public in all the major levels of its application so that the output from the undertaking may favour the public it is meant to serve. The public is made aware of the decision to engage in neighbourhood planning through outreach programs like door to door mobilizations, phone calls or use of the media among other ways. Perhaps of equal importance is the demarcation of the regions that can comfortably be included within a particular neighbourhood. This is so because neighbourhood may not necessarily mean, for example, a whole city but it may comfortably fit a section of a city. In times of difficulty with demarcating the areas to be included within a neighbourhood, the use of naturally occurring features like rivers and forests may come in handy. Neighbourhood planning assumes different categories of scale depending on the area it is under application for example city neighbourhood plans are initiatives found in the cities while the rural neighbourhood planning is found predominantly in the rural areas. Neighbourhood planning in the United Kingdom is initiated by the Rural Community Councils in the rural areas. The following essay is based on research into neighbourhood planning for college park in downtown Toronto. Research into Neighbourhood Planning of College Park in downtown Toronto College park is located in the heart of the downtown Toronto in Canada. It happens to be the tallest condominium in North America having 75 storeys spotting architectural excellence. In addition, it is directly connected to the underground metro system and has been credited for being the largest shopping complex at the global level. It houses a great deal of undertakings including entertainment places like theatres; hospitals; a number of major universities; restaurants; and designer shopping district among many others. In it are also found residential suites where people with the desire for the downtown kind of lifestyle prefer to live (Gold 1999p57). The College Park is located within the neighbourhood of downtown Toronto. Its neighbourhood here has great significance and influence since all streets comprising of downtown Toronto are highly inclined towards business units which provide high profile goods and services. These business units include spas, hotels and restaurants, designer boutiques, bars, galleries, clubs of various sorts, entertainment, galleries, retail shops, banks, malls and markets among many other business units. There are residential apartments and suites as well while two vital governmental headquarters are found in this neighbourhood; Toronto city hall and the Ontario legislature. This may explain the nature of the business units that are housed within the College Park as these businesses and those found within the larger neighbourhood often compliment and at times supplement each other in services offered (Zimmerman and Bainbridge 2008p111). The role of research in neighbourhood planning is very important for the collection of information that may render the operation relatively easy to implement or otherwise. Research can be done through observation of information to be put into consideration where planners through use of their eyes observe the ways of life of the residents and from their observation conclude on the needs of the neighbourhood to be put into consideration in planning. Some of the observations that the planners would make in the neighbourhood of College park for example, include the role played by the historical sites and land marks in the cultural setting, and the probable effect of the numerous entertainment joints to the students in the Universities found within this neighbourhood (Mercer 2003p9). Research can be conducted through other ways like interviewing the residents of this neighbourhood either on a one on one basis or as groups; and the use of questionnaire as well as survey methods to ensure that the geographical area is thoroughly understood before the planning can be implemented. The above mentioned ways of sourcing for information could be applied to the students of University of Toronto and George Brown College, staff of the recreation centres, residents residing at the College Park as well as people who work within the hotels for example the Fairmont Royal York Hotel for planners to get varied information and evaluate the very facts that are really characteristic of the neighbourhood. In this light therefore, undertaking a research of the neighbourhood planning can prove more understandable (Zimmerman and Bainbridge 2008p107). Use of strategy in the research meant to identify the feasibility of neighbourhood planning in college park Toronto would commence by having the planning committee engage the participation of residents found in this area from the very beginning in order for them to obtain necessary information that can prove helpful during the implementation of the plans themselves. This step might prove helpful for sustainability of the plan thereafter since the residents would assume ownership for the plans owing to their participation in all steps of making the plans. It is in this step that the committee gets to know the extent of a particular neighbourhood as well as the particular needs of the people within the neighbourhood so that a clear direction showing the path to follow in planning is somehow drawn. The committee undertaking the planning could inform residents of the College park and its neighbourhood of this move through outreach strategy e.g. by using both print and electronic media; door to door mobilizations; phone calls and use of displays among others after which the opinion of the residents are sought after in order to reflect the needs of the residents. The extent to which the neighbourhood of the College Park extends would be told by residents in order that the initiative may remain helpful for residents of this neighbourhood. Taking a small neighbourhood, this means that areas like Bloor Street, the Don River, Lake Ontario as well as Bathurst streets would most likely act as the borders of the College park neighbourhood. Information received from the residents would then be complimented by information collected in researches. Information would be used in the creation of a more comprehensible idea of the college Park neighbourhood. This information for example would help the planners to know the exact location of the College Park building in relation to the city hall. It would also indicate the proximity of Atrium on Bay from College Park and the how far Yonge Street is from college Park. It is from the information gathered that the planners would get all the details of the commercial streets, theatres, pubs and restaurants among other areas. The research at this point would then shift towards sifting through the information received and put down in order for the planners to prioritize the matters that may need greater attention than others. For example, the College Park neighbourhood is extremely busy often flooded by the great human traffic especially during the day time working hours. This might require the creation of facilities to handle the large human traffic hence call for creation of a net work of flyovers where a given percentage of the people especially those who work high up the tall buildings might use them with great convenience. However, the human traffic issue has been partially solved through creation of the underground train tunnels which have really assisted to the get the heavy human traffic off the streets found in College Park neighbourhood. The presence of rental apartments within College Park has also assisted much in containing in settlements the high human traffic found within this neighbourhood (Jepsom et al. 2004p85). The research would then shift towards goal setting practices in neighbourhood planning. This would follow a thorough investigation into the real needs of the College Park residents so that the plans to be made would remain a real reflection of the needs of the neighbourhood. Goals of the plans to be implemented and the time frame within which those goals are expected to be implemented are some of the considerations made in this step. The goals act as the measures of achievement or the set standards of which planners will use to evaluate their performance. The goals would therefore assist planners to focus on achieving the plans within the stipulated directions identified within the body of goals. Since the neighbourhood of College Park is very much populated with places like the Old Town Toronto and Yonge areas displaying high residential tendencies evidenced by the presence of numerous towering condominiums specifically erected for the people wishing to live the downtown lifestyle, the goals that might be identified would, for example, include; efficiency in waste disposal; reduction of frequent disruptions of the essential services like water and checking on the breakdown of the overloaded systems; and reduction of vandalism among other goals. Identifying these goals and managing to implement them within the shortest time possible would ensure that the residents of the neighbourhood enjoy essential services to the fullest and health issues can be efficiently put on check. Identification of alternatives in approaching goals' attainment can be a good way for the planners to start an evaluation on how best the goals can be achieved within the shortest time possible and with the best results possible. Here, all the possible alternatives are put down then their weights measured to find out the best possible pathway through which these goals are really workable. A combination of all identified alternatives might prove the best possible way to go about the attainment of the goals yet the alternatives that lead to economisation of resources are often the most workable ones and they do so at lower costs. Assembling the plan into a workable strategy would be the next thing to do. With all the goals identified and the policies put into place, strategies for attainment of the goals would be required to make the cause worthwhile. Along with the development of the strategies, deliberate courses of action are identified, elaborated, evaluated and put to consideration after the utmost refinement is made. All the above processes would be followed as a way of coming up with a plan that can be used to execute the required development of the neighbourhood. Finding means and ways of plan implementation would be a necessary area to research on. After the plan is laid down, the planners ought to make an evaluation to rate the chances of the plan succeeding. The evaluation would mean digging into the available funding to measure its ability to sustain the plan to the very end without falling into debts or having to leave the plan halfway done as a result of the funds available running out. The possibility of creating more resources for the plan or just in case the available funding runs out at an unpremeditated time is deliberated on. It increases certainty of the completion of the plan without leaving any room for possibilities of failure. This step is also important in identifying the sources of funding to fall back to in cases of need. Neighbourhood planning in the rural areas in the United Kingdom, for example, is often led by the rural community councils who help the communities living in the rural areas design plans for parish or the villages as part of their work (Davidson 2003p55). Neighbourhood planning of the College Park neighbourhood would also entail monitoring and evaluation. The planning committee would need to come up with means of monitoring whether the work done is in line with the strategies identified for goal achievement. The path towards meeting the goals is checked for its consistency and its ability to meet the required goal weighed. If the strategies identified are found to display inadequacy in meeting the intended goals, then they are substituted for others which possess the capacity to lead towards goal achievement. Evaluation of the direction taken towards the achievement of goals is equally important as it would assist planners to understand their position in relation to the achievement of goals. Evaluation would help the planners to make decisions that regard discarding of none performing strategies, alteration of some strategies to make them perform, and continue to use others that seem workable (Zimmerman and Bainbridge 2008p109). Conclusion Neighbourhood planning bring a group of settlements together by offering a chance or platform for the neighbours to come up together in a developmental concern that affect them as a group. Neighbourhood planning is an undertaking that caters for a smaller group of settlements than a city but much larger than the household. It commences with the identification of a neighbourhood with a different system than the political system that is used to divide political borders one from another. Neighbourhoods on the other hand might use naturally occurring features or at times by man made features to demarcate neighbourhoods. Neighbourhood planning is by all means a worthy cause that leads to development of the neighbourhoods. College Park- the tallest condominium in North America References Davidson (2003) Frommer's Toronto. John Wiley and Sons P55 Gold J (1999) Neighbourhood, Arrangement and Politics. A Geography Tutorial Series. Oxford Polytechnic p57 Jepsom et al. (2004) The rough guide to Canada. Rough Guides P85 Mercer A (2003) History of Toronto and County of York, Ontario. Harvard University P9 Stoneridge C (2009) Reshaping the skyline, as retrieved from http://www.collegeparkcondos.com/ at 5.50am June 6, 2009 Zimmerman, K & Bainbridge J (2008) Canada Lonely Planet, 2008 P107, 109, 111 Read More