{"id":773,"date":"2026-02-01T16:00:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T21:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tbaygreenspacepreservation.ca\/?p=773"},"modified":"2026-02-01T16:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T21:04:11","slug":"nimby-no-we-just-believe-in-good-urban-planning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tbaygreenspacepreservation.ca\/?p=773","title":{"rendered":"NIMBY? No, we just believe in good urban planning."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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NIMBY. You have to love a good acronym. So easy to blurt out, to type in response to a post. It’s a quick “gotcha” used against anyone opposing development, regardless of how appropriate that development may or may not be. Immediately typing “NIMBY” as if to say “Boy, I told them”, only shows an unwilingness to learn about the issue and engage in civil debate. The latest online discourse around urban planning is a good example of the knee-jerk NIMBY usage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

McGill University’s School of Urban Planning<\/a> states: “Urban planning is the set of processes by which communities shape their environments to meet their needs and to realize their aspirations for the future.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In simple terms, it’s how a city decides where and how to grow and develop, taking into consideration things like its current and future population, demographics, existing infrastructure, available lands, roads, and public transportation including cycling and pedestrian infrastructure. Urban planning also considers access, equality, sustainability, and the natural environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When our community learned of the massive 600 (now 400) unit proposed development on the Arundel greenspace, it raised alarm bells. Why is the largest housing development in the history of Thunder Bay being proposed for the Shuniah neighbourhood? So, we started looking for answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We read through the City’s urban planning policies, strategies, studies, guidelines, and plans. We searched for recent development decisions, and waded through pages of agendas and minutes of City Council meetings. Now, some of you may read this and think “boring”! Hopefully many of you will find it as interesting and informative as we did!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All that research paid off and we learned a lot about the City’s urban planning strategy, including how the City is deviating from those plans with the recent proposed developments.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don’t profess to be experts in urban planning. We do, however, have experience in policy analysis, journalism, community volunteerism, legal research, as well as urban planning and development in one of Canada’s largest cities. We take an interest in how our city grows and develops. We care deeply about the environment and our city’s parkland, including greenspaces. Most importantly, we know the decisions we make today will impact future generations, for better or worse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are not anti-development. We are not against building homes, whether they be market-rate apartments or truly affordable housing. We are, however, against the City spending millions of taxpayer dollars commissioning and developing urban planning strategies, plans, studies, and guidelines, only to completely ignore them all and go off on an ill-conceived tangent without any explanation. Where’s the transparency in the decision making? Why aren’t we building in the strategic core areas where we’re supposed to be building high-density housing? Were all the urban planning documents just political window-dressing, an attempt to comply with provincial requirements? It looks that way to us, given the strategies, plans, studies, and guidelines were just filed away, completely ignored. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Call us NIMBYs if you want, but if you’re interested in learning more about urban planning in Thunder Bay, we’ll be posting articles over the next couple of weeks, highlighting the various documents below, and explaining why we believe the location<\/strong> and density<\/strong> of the proposed developments deviates from the City’s own plans, strategies and guidelines. In the meantime, we recommend you have a look at the documents as well as checking out some great urban planning resources<\/a> available on YouTube, Nebula, Patreon, and Instagram that we list on the Reference Material<\/a> section of our website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep your eyes open for news articles on development projects in our city, including articles on how and why City Council makes their decisions. Ask questions and demand answers from our politicians. After all, we should all want a city that’s vibrant and well planned, a city we can all be proud of to call home, now and into the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n