204B: Is it time to ReThink Zoning By-laws? A Case Study from the City of London, Ontario

September 21, 2022

2:00PM - 2:30PM

While official plans set the stage for a municipality’s long-term vision for comprehensive, strategic, and coordinated growth, zoning by-laws are legal documents that provide the regulations and standards to turn vision into reality.

With increasing populations and rapid urbanization, traditional zoning (or single-use zoning) has resulted in myriad challenges. Traditional zoning approaches that emphasize separation of use has ultimately contributed to the limiting of diverse housing options and an over-dependency on vehicles. Traditional zoning, in many ways, has failed to incorporate the quality, design, and character of streets and buildings and leads to higher energy consumption in low-density areas.  
The question arises: how can zoning help address planning challenges of the 21st century city? As an implementation tool to official plans, zoning plays a critical role in shaping our natural and built environments, and modern zoning by-laws (as we know them) are evolving.

This session will explore some of the major issues and challenges of traditional zoning and highlight alternative approaches for regulating intensity, form, and use. We will discuss the City of London’s ReThink Zoning process (currently underway), which seeks to implement the place-based approach to city-building established in the London Plan. Drawing upon a panel of specialists in zoning, urban design, community engagement, and plain language, the session will explore opportunities to improve the overall useability, accessibility, and ease of interpretation of a zoning by-law.
 

Speakers