Planning Canadian Communities is the nation’s standard survey textbook on community planning. It provides a comprehensive view of the needs, origins, contemporary practices, and future challenges in planning Canadian cities, towns, and regions. The text describes the history of community planning in Canada, how it works today and who participates in it.

This edition, as with its predecessors, remains a personal view of how community planning started, how it works today, and who participates in it. A primary aim of this book is to examine community planning in diverse settings across this country and to reveal its Canadian-ness. In pursuit of this goal, the authors make the often-bewildering array of activities and institutions that occur under the rubric of community planning more understandable to students of planning, practising professionals, and, not least, citizens. 

Winner of the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) Award for Planning Excellence for a Planning Publication, “Planning Canadian Communities…is the most recognizable and relevant textbook in planning schools across Canada.”  Plan Canada lauds the book as: “…a classic in the literature dealing with Canadian community planning practice. …it is essentially without peer—as an academic text, a comprehensive lay-person’s primer, and as a basis for charting the emergence of a profession for some, a discipline for others, and a cause for all….”

For additional online resources please visit: planningcanadiancommunities.ca

Chapter 1 - The Need for Community Planning

Chapter 2 - The Role of Planners

Chapter 3 - The Beginning of Today’s Cities

Chapter 4 - 19th Century Foundation of Canadian Communities

Chapter 5 - Pioneering Community Planning in Canada,

Chapter 6 - The Growth of Canadian Community Planning, 1945-2016

Chapter 7 - The Community Plan-Making Process

Chapter 8 - Regional and Metropolitan Planning

Chapter 9 - The Urban Community Plan

Chapter 10 - Planning for Small Towns in Rural and Northern Regions

Chapter 11 - Planning for Special Places: Neighbourhood and District Plans

Chapter 12 - Planning Infrastructure Systems to Connect Communities

Chapter 13 - Planning for Diverse and Healthy Communities

Chapter 14 - Deciding Upon the Community’s Plan

Chapter 15 - The Texture of Participation in Community Planning

Chapter 16 - Land Use Regulation Tools for Plan Implementation

Chapter 17 - Policy Tools for Plan Implementation

Chapter 18 - Epilogue: Community Planning in Canada and the Future

Gerald Hodge, FCIP (1931-2017) was one of Canada’s foremost community and regional planners. Dr. Hodge was involved in planning, education, and research for more than 60 years. From 1973 to 1986, he was Director of the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Queen’s University, and he also taught planning at the Universities of Toronto, Calgary, and Hawaii; the Western Australian Institute of Technology; and UBC.

Among his many publications are The Geography of Aging, and Towns and Villages in Canada (with M.A. Qadeer). Gerald retired to Hornby Island, BC, where he continued to write on planning matters, especially those concerned with Canada’s aging population, regional planning, and rural areas, resulting in his 2017 book, Planning Canadian Regions (with Ira Robinson and Heather Hall). In 2008, Gerald received the CIP President’s Award for his contributions, and he was inducted into the CIP’s College of Fellows in 2017. He received a PhD from MIT, an MCP from the University of California at Berkeley, and a BA from UBC.

David Gordon is Professor and Director of the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Queen's University. Prior to returning to Queen's, he practised in the public and private sectors for 15 years, twice sharing the Canadian Institute of Planners' National Award of Distinction. His publications on planning history and urban redevelopment include Planning Twentieth Century Capital Cities and Battery Park City: Politics and Planning on the New York Waterfront. David has also taught urban design and development at Harvard, Pennsylvania, Ryerson, and University of Toronto. He holds a D.Des. from Harvard and an M.Pl. and B.Sc. from Queen's. 

Pamela Shaw, FCIP, is the Director of the Master of Community Planning Program at Vancouver Island University. Pam has been a planner for over 30 years, with career experience in local and provincial government and private industry. Her recent experiences focus on working with First Nations communities on Vancouver Island on comprehensive community planning and land development. She has won numerous awards for teaching and applied learning and was appointed as a 3M Teaching Fellow in 2018. She is also a fellow with the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and was recently appointed to the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. Pam holds a PhD from the University of Victoria, and a BA and MA from the University of Alberta.