Posts Tagged ‘mixed’
What Do Cities Owe to their Dead? Urban Cemeteries In Toronto Are Running Out of Space to Bury the Dead
There is a lack of cemetery land in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). More broadly, structures of city planning which do exist, do not adequately take account of the racial, religious, cultural, class differences and changing cultural practices of memorialization among the city’s population in urban cemeteries. Municipal city planning in Toronto has yet to address, how to equitably spatially plan for death in Toronto by designating the required zoning for cemetery land use in Official and Secondary Plans. Given the amendments in the Provincial Policy Statement (PPS), as part of the PPS review in 2014, the need to plan for cemeteries was addressed in language but not in full practice. Where, in part of the new PPS, released last year, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) added the word “cemeteries” to policy 1.1.1 b), the list of institutional uses that should be considered by planning authorities, to better recognize planning for all life stages:
“Healthy, liveable and safe communities are sustained by:
b) accommodating an appropriate range and mix of residential (including second units, affordable housing and housing for older persons), employment (including industrial and commercial), institutional (including places of worship, cemeteries and long-term care homes),recreation, park and open space, and other uses to meet long-term needs”.
However, with recent amendments to the PPS 2014, the City of Toronto has yet to implement planning for cemetery use in community planning or development applications through its Official Plan and Zoning By-Laws, given the diversity of Toronto. At the same time, Council which represent 44 Wards in Toronto do not make recommendations for cemetery land use given the religious and cultural diversity and changing cultural needs of memorialization of communities located in the 44 Wards which make up the City of Toronto. Death it seems is an equity issue which urgently needs to be addressed in planning and policy –with respect to equity, diversity and inclusiveness.
