Intensification in the city centre: Barriers to implementation in Regina, Saskatchewan.

As cities aim for more sustainable patterns of urbanization, intensification has emerged as a core planning strategy. In 2013, the City of Regina set new intensification targets: absorb 30% of annual population growth through intensification and add 10,000 residents to the city centre by 2035. In the decade since, implementation has been unsuccessful. This study explores the barriers to core area intensification in Regina by engaging with key informants through semi‐structured interviews. Our findings identify the most significant barriers as soft market demand, a city centre that is unappealing as a residential context, insufficient political will, an absence of developers who specialize in core area intensification, and unfavourable development economics. These findings illustrate the unique challenges faced by mid‐size Canadian cites in disrupting entrenched development patterns and driving development towards the downtown. Key messages: Despite having adopted ambitious goals for intensification in 2013, Regina has been largely unsuccessful with implementation, as dispersed and decentralized development patterns have prevailed.The major impediments to intensification include soft market demand, limited appeal of residing in the city centre, insufficient political will, absence of developers who specialize in core area intensification, and unfavourable development economics.The barriers identified in this research illustrate the unique challenges and circumstances in mid‐size Canadian cities relative to their larger counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]