Due to decades of sprawl-oriented, low-density, single-use zoning policies, cities in North America have become places where services and amenities are located far away from home and each other, only conveniently accessible by car.
This development pattern has had major socio-economic and environmental consequences. It has made communities more dispersed and disconnected. Residents are compelled to drive to satisfy daily needs, pressuring municipalities to build more roads and parking lots at great expense and remove space from other productive uses. These car trips are also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.
The key to solving these problems is to reverse this development pattern, reducing the distance between where people live and the daily services and amenities they need to access. The result is what some are calling the “15-minute neighbourhood”.
15-minute neighbourhoods are communities where people can satisfy all their daily needs within 15 minutes of walking. They are places where homes, shops, medical services, grocery stores, schools, daycares, and parks are all closely located. They are compact and walkable, supporting active transportation, reducing car dependency, and enabling people to live car-light or car-free.
Contrary to some of the conspiracies about this concept, 15-minute neighbourhoods are very positive for our communities. They encourage walking, reduce pollution, enhance local economies, reduce infrastructure costs, and improve access to essential services and amenities for everyone.
15-minute neighbourhoods can be developed through policy actions that encourage residential and commercial uses to be built together or in proximity while improving the safety and enjoyability of the surrounding streets.
Policy Actions for 15-Minute Neighbourhoods
Here are some policy actions through which cities can advance 15-minute neighbourhoods:
- Conduct an amenity access and walkability study: Identify and count the number of services and amenities accessible to any residential address within 15 minutes of walking and score the safety and enjoyability of those walking routes.
- Zone all new development areas as mixed-use: Combine residential and commercial land uses.
- Support commercial development in residential areas: Allow greater diversity of home-based businesses. Legalize certain commercial buildings to sit inside residential neighbourhoods with a special permit. Allow the building of accessory commercial units. Promote residential neighbourhood co-working spaces. Allow developers to redirect parkland dedication fees into the cost of building neighbourhood stores. Create opportunities for temporary pop-up shops and markets to fill amenity gaps.
- Support residential development in commercial areas: Identify commercial properties with potential for mixed-use. Support rezoning and redevelopment by relaxing height, density, setback, and parking requirements.
- Support residential intensification everywhere: End exclusionary zoning. Give homeowners low-interest loans to build secondary suites. Permit the subdivision of large lots and relax setback and parking requirements.
- Improve walkability of neighbourhoods: Implement “complete streets” design strategies that prioritize street safety, accessibility and the enjoyability of pedestrians and cyclists.
Cities across North America are beginning to see the economic, social, and environmental impacts of car-centric development patterns. By promoting policies and planning that emphasize mixed-use, compact, connected, and walkable communities, the neighbourhood of the future is only 15 minutes away.
By Mike Hager, Researcher