The Chair of the Oxford Coalition for Social Justice says we need to address urban sprawl in our community.
OXFORD COUNTY - The Chair of the Oxford Coalition for Social Justice says urban sprawl is a plague that's destroying crops, damaging food supply and causing grocery prices to rise.
Bryan Smith says urban sprawl is when low density single family homes start popping up on the outskirts of cities and towns and cut into rural farmland. He says municipalities should try to maximize the space they already have.
"There would be much better results if we were to look at the planning within the urban centres, villages and hamlets and look at how we can maximize the use of that space."
He says one possible solution is the complete community approach.
"There are lots of people who are talking about things that they call complete communities. These are places where you can live and many of the things that you would need to live happily are within 15 to 20 minutes walking distance. So you have clusters of residential around commercial spaces rather than every time that you need to buy groceries for example, you have to get in the car and drive 15 or 20 minutes to get to the nearest place that has more than one grocery store."
Smith says building homes closer together would actually save municipalities money in the long run because they won't have to worry about building new roads or adding water and electricity services to new areas.
Smith is planning on discussing the matter with members of Oxford County Council, but he is not sure if he is going to present an official delegation to council at this time.
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