Two good stories I saw in the Canadian media -- part two, the urban sprawl

I wish I could give you a better link than a generic one for Avenue magazine, the Calgary equivalent to D Magazine. But, all I can do is link you to their site, because the articles I enjoyed reading in the May/June issue aren't on their website.

In the paper copy of the magazine, there were a series of articles talking about growth and sprawl in the Calgary area. We know a lot about sprawl in north Texas. In fact, the new issue of D Magazine ("rating the suburbs") now counts Prosper as a Dallas suburb. Prosper is north of Frisco!

The article included a series of satellite photos of Calgary, one a year dating back to 1999. Calgary is a booming prairie city that's about the same size as Dallas, without Fort Worth and all the suburbs. The city is eating up land in every direction as it tries to make room for all the people moving in. But as the city grows, it gets more difficult to get around, and there's a loss of important rural farmland too. The use of land is very inefficient -- not good for the environment, not good for the long-term maintenance of the community.

So what to do about that? The magazine makes note of cities like Portland, Oregon, where many years ago, the city leaders set strict guidelines to limit sprawl, and encourage "building up" instead of "building out". More efficiences for utilities and transportation and other public services, less traffic, better opportunities for business.

What does this have to do with Flower Mound? Perhaps not much, but I'm thinking out loud again. We too have strict development tools in place. We certainly prize our land. But are we acting as the best stewards of the gifts of land we've been blessed with? I think we should be actively offering a good mix of upscale housing options, including mid-rise or high-rise options for upscale residents. Put in the right location (ie Lakeside), I think they would add great value to our town (financially for one, as well as giving people a very convenient place to live and work, if they can work in a Lakeside office building). Have you seen the Grand Treviso hi-rise and lo-rise residential tower in the middle of Las Colinas? It's a hugely successful project that has added great value to that community, and it fits in perfectly with the high-end business-focused nature of that district.

I wonder what the Lakeside hotel and business district will look like in a year or two when it's under construction. To the consternation of some, the project will allow some full-time residents to live in the mid-rises to be built. But to do our part of stop the sprawl, adding more upscale high-rise residential would be a good step. But let's get the businesses built there first.