The Image of the Suburbs: Planning Urbanity in the Toronto Region by Katherine Joy Perrott A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Planning Department of Geography & Planning University of Toronto © Copyright by Katherine Joy Perrott 2018 The Image of the Suburbs: Planning Urbanity in the Toronto Region Katherine Joy Perrott Doctor of Philosophy, Planning Department of Geography & Planning University of Toronto 2018 Abstract This dissertation examines the discursive production of new developments and the reinvention of suburban image in the municipalities arcing around the City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Planning policies promoting densification, alongside rising housing prices, and persistent concerns about car-dependence, set the context for aspirations of urbanity in planning and development. Discourses analyzed include transcripts of interviews with housing and community producers (planners, municipal councillors, and developers), the planning policies produced by government, and the marketing materials produced by the development industry. Studies examining the historic planning and promotion of the suburbs have shown the prominence placed on symbolic distinction from the city with references to nature, rurality and countryside, where residents are promised a healthy retreat, privacy, safety, and an ideal place to raise children. This dissertation argues that suburban planning and housing marketing discourses in the Toronto region reveal an emerging reversal in the suburban script that downplays the urban- suburban distinction and promotes a more urbane place image, representing a case study of broader contemporary efforts to urbanize the suburbs. ii In the first of three empirical papers, the research shows how stacked and back-to-back townhouses are planned and promoted by intertwining discourses of suburban “evolution” and “routes to maturity” through homeownership where smaller units offer a type of fix to market constraints, and young adults are produced as suburban-re-inventor subjects. The second paper demonstrates the importance of aesthetics and modern design in the discursive production of competitive and attractive world-class growth nodes and corridors as part of the ideological- political trajectory towards post-suburbanization. The third paper examines the gap that producers describe between the promises of compact city theory and the in-practice realities of car-dependence and separated land uses. While some marketing materials draw on the long- standing discursive production of the suburbs as the “best of both worlds,” producers describe the contemporary suburbs as increasingly compact in residential areas, but still car-dependent leading to concerns about being “squished-in” and stuck in traffic. Practitioner perspectives on the successes and challenges of current strategies signal the need for additional theories and policies, beyond residential densification, to resolve the challenges of the suburbs. iii Acknowledgments I thank my supervisory committee members Katharine Rankin, Alan Walks, and Jill Grant for their guidance and encouragement, and for strengthening my research, analysis, and writing skills throughout this process. I am grateful for the time and feedback provided by my examiners, Ute Lehrer and Kanishka Goonewardena. I also appreciate the participation of Minelle Mahtani as a committee member during the comprehensive exam stage of my degree. It has been a privilege to engage with these ideas, colleagues at the University of Toronto, and the scholars cited within these pages. It would not have been possible for me to undertake doctoral studies without the funding support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Government of Ontario’s Graduate Scholarship program, and grants from the Department of Geography & Planning. In this research I have highlighted the roles and perspectives of practitioners, and I am thankful for the generosity of time and insights provided to me by the planners, development industry representatives, and municipal councillors in the region who are quoted in the dissertation anonymously. In preparation for the interviews, Erika Ivanic and Mary Bishop were willing subjects for me to test-drive the questionnaire. Marcy Burchfield provided helpful advice early on in the project. I appreciate Jielan Xu’s assistance with creating the study area map. Thanks to André Sorensen for sharing information that he and Paul Hess collected about condominium townhouses in the region, which informed my background knowledge. Thanks to Ingrid Mundel for lending me a transcription foot pedal and for connecting me with Barbara Harrison and the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute at the University of Guelph. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in the ‘After Suburbia: Extended Urbanization and Life on the Planet’s Periphery’ conference at York University, in October 2017. Bernadette Hanlon provided helpful comments as a discussant on the paper that forms Chapter Four of this dissertation, and I benefitted from feedback offered by conference participants. I presented the paper that forms Chapter Three at the Urban Affairs Association conference in April 2018 and I appreciate comments offered by session attendees. I began the doctoral degree renting a 30th floor condo apartment in the Toronto core, then moved to a semi-detached in Truro, Nova Scotia, followed by a detached heritage house in Guelph, iv Ontario, and finished writing my dissertation from a townhouse in a new urbanist suburb of Tampa, Florida. My exploration of housing types and the dialectics of urbanism and suburbanism has been not only academic, but lived. In each place, I have experienced the encouragement of the best colleagues and friends. Special thanks to Steph Gora, Carmen Teeple Hopkins, Dylan Simone, Raili Lakanen, Kat Snukal, Amy Buitenhuis, Beth Denaburg, Lauren Kepkeiwicz, Elizabeth Lord, Jeff Biggar, David Seitz, Laura Wilson, Anita Khanna, Heather Bergen, Clare and Jesse McMullen-Crummey, Seanna Davidson, Anne Mather, Elisabeth and Dan George, Natali Ciccarone and Justin Archibee, Ann McCoy, Shirly Eitans, Lucy Terrill, Stef Hoedt, Nuria Robles Evans, Wendy Salt, Bronwen Wolochatiuk, Emily Geertsma, and my Halifax planning crew, especially Gordon Smith, Steffen Käubler, Bruce Mans, Nathan Rogers, Andrew Kent, Sam Austin, and Michelle McCann. Most of all I thank my family. I am deeply grateful for the boundless love and generosity of my parents, Karen and Joe. Thanks to my Perrott siblings, Kristen, Jer, Kim, and Jon, and their partners and children for providing outlets for fun and adventure while I was working towards this degree. I am also thankful for support from the Renkema family: Nelda and Matt, Kevin and Ashley, and specifically for Heidi’s transcription work. I am thankful every day for my brilliant daughter Roselle’s affection, joy, and insistence on taking breaks for playtime. Finally, but utmost, I thank my partner Justin for his patience, grounding, and camaraderie on this journey. v Table of Contents Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ...................................................................................................................................x List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ xi List of Appendices ....................................................................................................................... xiii Chapter 1 Dissertation Introduction .........................................................................................1 1.1 Urbanizing the suburbs? ......................................................................................................1 1.2 The “urban” and “suburban” ................................................................................................5 1.3 Research objectives, questions, and argument .....................................................................9 1.4 Theoretical Approach .........................................................................................................12 1.4.1 “Culture and economy as mutually embedded” .....................................................12 1.4.2 Discourse and governmentality ..............................................................................13 1.4.3 The “dialectics of discourse” .................................................................................15 1.4.4 Place image ............................................................................................................19 1.4.5 Producing and selling place image ........................................................................22 1.5 The “suburban myth:” narratives and counter-narratives in the literature .........................27 1.5.1 Marketing the “myth:” suburban advertising narratives ........................................29 1.5.2 Beyond the “myth:” the urbanization of the suburbs, new urbanism, and post- suburbia debates .....................................................................................................32 1.6 Toronto region study area, historical and contemporary contexts