This symposium will explore the potential of ‘new towns’ to address a range of housing affordability and community planning challenges, as well as new research methods and techniques for using adaptive zoning techniques in urban planning. 

Most cities and towns in North America are zoned almost entirely as “single-family residential”. This means that when they are fully built-out every farm, field, and forest is developed. These communities will always be car-oriented, sprawling, and too low-density to support public transit. 

However, this is not the only way: abundant housing advocates are increasingly coalescing around the need for “new towns,” large master-planned communities that can happen through adaptive zoning innovation. These new towns consider the range of transportation, water/sewer, electricity, waste, safety, education, and other infrastructures while allowing for the creation of places that are mixed-use, walkable, bikeable, and dense enough to support public transit. More details here: Opinion: “New Towns” Are the Answer to Affordable Housing Challenges | Planetizen Features

This symposium will bring together creative thinkers from around the world who are advancing knowledge in these areas, helping to shape a new kind of planning and design practice, one that embraces innovative approaches to housing crises through community-based solutions.