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An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including local and regional planning capacity, the constraints that blocked an affective integration of cultural planning within urban planning and civil society and private sector planning.

The Province of Ontario has been successful in passing legislation for a regional growth management plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe in southern Ontario by bundling together two seemingly contradictory notions: growth management and environmental conservation. Over a period of about thirty years, the environment has moved from the background to the foreground in regional planning. Yet the green and region-wide growth planning legislation contains provisions for infrastructure expansion and resource extraction that fuel growth, compromise the protection of ecosystems and agricultural lands, and institutionalize a competitive regional economic agenda. This illustrates the ways in which different, and often contradictory) traditions and value positions can be harnessed in legislation and policy implementation. In this case study, we show how nature can provide a cornerstone, lubricant or new state space for centralized integrative regional planning, and how this complex may operate in contradictory and self-defeating ways to cause continued harm to the non-human environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a survey of the readings that have most influenced the professional development of Canadian planning practitioners. Results indicate that influential writings originate from a wide diversity of sources, both inside and outside the discipline. We also detect a relationship between the age of respondents and that of the works mentioned, pointing to the determining effect of influences encountered during formative years. Works published in the 1960s, which are critical of previous approaches, are widely cited in the survey. A large selection of subsequent works proposing alternatives to mainstream planning suggests a lasting adherence to critical perspectives launched in the 1960s. Consequently, few foundational texts, and more generally works predating the 1960s, figure in the survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rural-urban fringe poses numerous legal, political and procedural challenges regarding its proper governance and planning. This paper focuses upon the rate, form and location of fringe developments in British Columbia's unincorporated areas. It is argued that the chaotic nature of development results from a messy and uncoordinated governance structure where unincorporated territories are concerned. The paper concludes that a superior coordinated approach could be achieved by incorporating into provincial thought a sound planning vision regarding the development of the unincorporated areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines urban design practice in Canada and takes stock of its nature and scope. This is accomplished through a survey of urban design regulations in municipalities across the country with populations greater than 25,000. Urban design regulations are municipal tools for shaping the physical and visual quality of urban spaces and the built environment. Municipal urban designers responding to the survey had to indicate how urban design is regulated, state factors that determined the substance of regulations, and select design principles that underlie the regulations. In addition, they identified design features that are regulated and individuals involved in design review. The results show that the majority of Canadian municipalities have urban design regulations in place, although mostly for their downtown and historic areas. Municipalities tend to emphasize historic architectural characteristics and do not attend to certain basic challenges such as providing safeguards against cold climate, caring for sensitive environmental conditions and respecting cultural diversity. The study also reveals that the provincial planning statutes, although influential, provide no clear guidance as to what urban design regulations should entail and how they should be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the article of Qadeer and Agrawal on treatment of planning theorists and the association between practice and theory. She says that the authors argue that there is no connection between practice and theory, in which practice outspaces theory that is occupied with advocating sensitivity to cultural differences. She made two arguments, one methodological and substantive.