Slides from MARK SEASONS's presentation on Feb. 23rd, 2006

PUBLIC FORUMS
Urban Nodes: Centers for Live/Work/Play
THURSDAY, FEB. 23rd, 2006
7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
SFU Surrey Centre Campus

SPEAKER:
Dr. MARK SEASONS,
University of Waterloo, Associate Professor

BIO / TALK SUMMARY:
Mark Seasons is an Assistant Professor with the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo. He joined the school and moved to Waterloo five years ago, after twenty years of professional planning practice in Canada’s urban centers, including Toronto, Calgary, Ottawa, and work abroad in Auckland New Zealand. He is a past President of the Canadian Institute of Planners and has served on the National Capital Commission. His particular expertise includes downtown revitalization, business improvement areas, and urban renewal. His recent interests include planning, indicators development, evaluation and monitoring the development of core areas in Canada’s cities, management for vibrant core areas and effective regional plans.

Dr Seasons recognizes that nodes are accepted long-range planning strategy, pivotal to the Liveable Region Strategic Plan’s vision for growth management and sustainability at the regional level. There are tensions of interests, i.e. of short-term land use and economic development vs. long-term vision, of regional objectives vs. local community aspirations. He questions whether the node strategy reflects current and foreseeable reality regarding the complex work/accessibility dynamics, the appropriate composition of successful nodes, and what might be the consequence of abandoning a nodes strategy.