Within The City Plan - Edmonton’s combined Municipal Development and Transportation Master Plan - there are five Big City Moves. These moves encompass the tangible and intentional areas of transformative change needed for Edmonton to realize the vision of becoming a healthy, urban, climate resilient city.
One of these Big City Moves is to become a “Community of Communities”, which is about welcoming new residents and improving access to daily amenities and services. To help us get there, The City Plan introduced a
new planning geography
called districts. Districts are collections of diverse neighbourhoods across Edmonton and were the first step towards modernizing and changing the way Edmonton plans for the future.
The District Planning project is implementing The City Plan’s direction at the district level by creating a District Policy, and plans for all 15 of Edmonton’s districts. The City Plan and existing plans and guidelines served as the primary sources used to create the District Policy and plans so they don’t introduce any new direction.
Together the District Policy and plans illustrate how each district is intended to change and densify. The intention is to move Edmonton towards a city where everyone enjoys easy access to amenities and services within a short walk, bike, roll or transit ride from their home.
However, districts are not meant to be self-contained. For some households, easy access could mean visiting other districts.
District Planning is not about restricting movement, monitoring people or tracking an individual’s carbon emissions, and nothing will be put in place to do so. In fact, district plans will enable better access and movement throughout the city by supporting more transportation options within and between districts.