This is a great post from one of my favourite urban planning blogs. 'Place-making' or dense, urban development can make cities money!? This was certainly news to me. In fact, 'urban mixed-use midrise is over 200 times as profitable in tax revenue per acre than suburbia.' Compact development can also reduce infrastructure costs related to the existence of extensive road systems. And of course, we can't forget that when there are interesting things nearby to walk to, we tend to drive less and walk more, which decreases our risk for obesity and related diseases.
The author highlights some great examples including a few from Canada: Vancouver (understood) but Calgary, the Canadian capital of sprawl? That's right, Calgary is beginning to understand the error of its ways and is investing in compact development, estimated to save Calgary taxpayers $11.2B over 60 years.
Compact, mixed-use development sounds like a win-win-win situation to me - for the environment, city governments, and residents. Read more about this at:
PlaceShakers and NewsMakers
http://placeshakers.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/lets-get-small-placemaking-as-antidote-for-shrinking-city-budgets/
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