[Note: I submitted these pictures as part of my feedback on the new official plan.  Nothing below is a far-fetched wish-list.  These are all implemented examples from a municipality I spent five years in.  Also, I should mention that Redmond isn’t sprawled, it’s fairly densely populated despite having a restriction of 3 stories on building height]

I lived in Seattle for a few years.  Seattle reduced the total volume of storm water leaving streets by 99% simply by reducing paved surfaces and planting trees. It not only resulted in lower future operating cost (because there were less areas to maintain), but it also ended up cleaning air and beautifying neighbourhoods.  End result is roads like these :-

Notice the centre heavily landscaped centre median?  In Redmond, WA almost all 4-lane roads are decorated with a landscaped median.  Another benefit is that it creates a perception of narrowness and acts as traffic calming.  Bike lanes are off road, for cyclists’ safety. 

Here’s a view of another road that not only shows the landscaping that goes on the median, but also the heavy landscaping they do to screen parking lots from main roads.  This is a highly commercial area.  Compare this to our commercial areas, like Steeles Ave.

This is how buildings are screened from main roads. That way even highly urban areas get a very ‘foresty’ feel.

I worked in one of these buildings for five years.  Notice the setback and landscaping around buildings. 

Another road showing landscaped median, trees screening the building and landscaping and trees screening the parking lot. 

The above view shows something else as well.  Parking lots in that area are designed such that each row of parking is divided by a landscaped median.  With time parking lots get a forest canopy and start to feel like parks, instead of concrete slabs. 

Another parking lot, another road with median and another building screened by trees. Notice how pleasant the sidewalk becomes in this case. You get trees on both sides providing you with shade. 

Yet another parking lot illustrating my point.  There seem to be just as many trees as cars (if you include trees along the parameter). 

As already mentioned, all these pictures are from a densely populated highly urban area.  However, they all show that all urbanization do not have to look same.

Milton should adopt some of these ideas to set itself apart from all other municipalities in the GTA.

Here is the scenario: some of our roads are wide (some have 4-6 lanes … like Steeles, Derry, Thompson etc) while others are just wide (like Scott Blvd, even though South of Derry it is not a through street and ends pretty soon). I personally would like to see a median down the middle with trees.

I worked in Washington, DC for two years and they (and MD touching it) does that where almost every road has a median with multiple rows of trees (in Gaithersburg, MD near my friend’s house they have three rows of trees in the middle median!) I blogged about it here: http://www.zhamid.ca/opinion/update-from-dc-holy-trees/.

The advantages are greater than just fresh air and a more pleasing look or higher property values that result from a nicer area. Trees in wider roads also create a perception of narrowness without actually creating narrow roads. This has been known to cut down on speeding.

I spoke with a few town councillors and staff and they told me that the town does not want to increase its standards because it is worried about the operating cost (understandable, although I would say Milton should look like an Escarpment Community that it is).

Here is a solution: let businesses or residents sponsor trees that are above and beyond the town standard.

So lets say the town puts up a median on Scott Blvd and Mattamy sponsors 10 trees on it. It gets to put a sign saying "sponsored by Mattamy" or something like that. Residents in areas may be able to do the same. I can totally see local churches or non-profits sponsoring chunk of trees, at least around their neighbourhoods.

This cannot happen unless the town provides a mean to enable this. The town will have to designate areas where extra trees can go. Places where it’s “nice to have trees but Town Standard does not require one”.

Would you support this?

Update I learned that Oakville has a similar program for flower beds and stuff: http://www.oakville.ca/oakvilleblooms.htm. Can Milton not do something similar for trees? From Oakville Bloom site:

Oakville Blooms – Median and Boulevard Sponsorship Program

The Oakville Blooms Median and Boulevard Sponsorship program offers civic minded businesses, groups, individuals and organizations an opportunity to help Oakville attain its vision of becoming the most livable town in Canada. The program transforms medians and boulevards into vibrant and impressive floral displays.
From May to September each year, medians and boulevards throughout Oakville are planted with annual flowers grown in the Oakville Greenhouse. Plant materials are selected for their brilliant colours and variety in texture, and their tolerance to adverse roadway conditions. All of the boulevards are designed, planted and maintained by Town horticulture specialists.

To offset the costs of planting and maintaining these floral displays, Oakville is launching this innovative program whereby private citizens, businesses and organizations can contribute funds by sponsoring specific locations throughout the Town.

For more information:
Please see the links in the table below or call 905-845-6601, ext. 3610 for details about sponsor benefits, how the program works, rates and locations.

Sponsorship applications:
Applications are now being accepted at the Recreation and Culture Department at Town Hall, 1225 Trafalgar Road. Every effort will be made to accommodate sponsor’s first choice in floral display location, however, selection is on a first come, first served basis. Date and time of receipt of payment will determine queue order for sponsorship applications. In-person applications will take priority over electronic

It seems like they identified different medians, they maintain them and publish rates for sponsoring these medians. Interested businesses just pay money and magic happens. Seems like a wonderful approach.

I am traveling this week and have been working insane hours (9am to midnight).  For that reason I haven’t been able to take pictures yet.  I do want to write about an area that I am very passionate about: TREES!

I am in a very urban area.  However, it’s bombarded with trees.  I came to a friend’s house for dinner at Gaithersburg, MD (and right after dinner we both grabbed our laptops and started working).  His neighbourhood street is very much like Savoline Blvd in HVE.  However, it does have a median down the middle and – wait for it – with at least two rows of trees (in some places the middle median has three rows of trees).  On one side of the Savoline-lookalike-street they have one row of trees and on the other side they have two rows, on either side of the sidewalk. 

I was discussing this with him when we were driving and we noticed something else: 1) they put plazas further back from connector roads (like Derry Road), creating a very open feel and 2) even plaza parking lots have trees.  I remembered I was at the Canadian Tire in Milton last weekend and the entire parking lot was just a concrete park.  I wonder if the town should have required x number of trees for every acre of concrete parking lot.  The cost to the builder would be negligible but benefits in terms of beautification and clean air would be great. 

I e-mailed town staff about trees on HVE last week and they told me that the builder met the standard set out by the town.  Well, the standard is very adequate then. 

From my work in Washington, DC I see two rows of trees on either side (with sidewalk between them) and rows of trees in the middle of the road.  The area is old and so trees have gotten a chance to grow really tall.  As a result, I hardly see any roof or road.  Only tree-tops. If you walk off to one end you enter residential areas where the road has green roof (from tall trees to both sides) on top of them. 

That’s what we need in the Escarpment Community we call Milton. When I see the town from high altitude I only want to see tree tops (30 years from now).  Milton should officially adopt a slogan: “Milton, the Escarpment Community”.  I think that will encourage us to adopt a plan that makes it look like an escarpment community. 

Here in Gaithersburg the whole area (and we drove around looking at the area) is full of townhomes.  Some of them are close to a million dollars while others ‘only’ (for this area) cost $300K.  Most detached homes are older. However, what’s common is that despite a very high population density there is not a single building that I could see away from the freeway.  We went to get chicken wings fairly far and I did not pass a single building.  I spent the entire drive in awe of how many trees they planted here.  In fact, I could not find a single place where I could point at and say “they missed this spot”.  THAT is what we need in Milton. 

Thirty years from now if someone hikes up on one of our several parks at the Escarpment and looks down at Milton, they should not see roofs and parking lots and roads, they should see tree tops.  We need to do whatever it takes to do that.  With the type of population density the Town is aiming for in new development, that should be fairly easy to do.

Think about Scott Blvd and Savoline.  Just South of Derry Mattamy alone would have build close to 3,000 homes by the time they are done next year.  That doesn’t include development North of Derry and what other builders will do south of Mattamy’s HVE.  Think about it.  I am asking for perhaps only 100 extra trees on Scott Blvd and Savoline (if that).  These trees do not need much care beyond the initial few seasons.  I do not think the operating cost for these can possibly be so high to be even noticeable since it will be shared by thousands of homes.

Trees do not just provide us with a natural beauty to look at, they also provide fresh air (as we squeeze in more and more people in small areas, cleaner air is more and more needed).  They are known to de-stress people.  But more practically, trees create an illusion of narrower roads and have been known to cut down on speeding.  People who live close to Savoline or Scott routinely witness speeding cars. I believe a raised median with trees on these roads will create an illusion of narrower roads, which will cut down on speeding (regardless of the speed limit, people travel at speeds they feel most comfortable driving at.  Narrower roads make them drive slower.  Illusion of narrower road achieves the same affect without the actual risk narrower roads bring).

So who is with me on getting the town to raise its standards?