Urban Planning requires a digital wake-up call
When it comes to solving Canada’s housing crisis, we can’t afford to have our urban planning systems stuck in the past. Yet here we are in 2025, and if you want zoning data or development applications in many Canadian cities, you’re still emailing a city worker and waiting for a PDF. Or going to the physical office to get a binder and a CD-ROM.
The year was 2019. We needed former Toronto zoning by-laws. We sent the intern on the subway to the Scarborough, North York, and Etobicoke offices to buy the by-laws. This is what she came back with:
Former zoning by-law binders
When it comes to solving Canada’s housing crisis, we can’t afford to have our urban planning systems stuck in the past. Yet here we are in 2025, and if you want zoning data or development applications in many Canadian cities, you’re still emailing a city worker and waiting for a PDF. Or going to the physical office to get a binder and a CD-ROM.
In an age where we can collaborate on real-time documents with colleagues across the world, track a package from Skugog to Saskatoon, and hail a ride with a tap, it’s painfully antiquated that our city planning systems still rely so heavily on analog processes. Urban planning is overdue for an upgrade.
Paper maps & email chains: A tale of outdated infrastructure
Across Canada, access to planning data often looks like this: you find a reference on a municipal website, reach out via email, and wait. Sometimes days. Sometimes weeks. You might get a PDF, a shapefile, or be told to come down to city hall to view something in person. It’s not only inefficient, but it also actively slows down developers, architects, and planners who are trying to build more housing.
And it’s not just the developers and urban planners who are slowed down by this outdated system, it’s the overworked and understaffed municipal planning departments who are also bogged down by these analog processes.
We hosted a webinar in March 2025 and asked participants how they currently collaborate with their project teams. Here are the results:
How we’re currently collaborating on planning projects
Don’t get me wrong – emails and meetings have their place, but there are more efficient ways of collaborating, which leave less room for errors and miscommunications.
The tech already exists. We just aren’t using it
The tools to fix this already exist.
Cities could be using GIS platforms, open APIs, and digital collaboration tools to make urban planning data accessible in real-time. The tools exist for municipal planning departments to coordinate with developers, urban planning firms, and other municipal departments so that everyone is looking at the same data with the same context at the same time.When all parties have access to the same information and can collaborate in real time, we reduce miscommunications and email correspondence.
And no, the solution is not for everyone to be in the same room looking at the same paper map.
Check out Ottawa’s Digital Twin. A wonderful use of GIS to bring multiple sources of data into one comprehensive plan.
Ottawa’s digital twin
How about the District of Saanich’s use of ArcGIS Urban to visually show residents what the future of their city will be?
ArcGIS Urban allowed the District of Saanich to look at future growth scenarios and assess the impacts of these scenarios on the community.
Or take a look at Ratio.City’s Teams feature, which allows users to share a project with a colleague and collaborate in real time.
It’s not just open data (although yes that’s extremely important). It’s having a way for all parties to work together in an efficient way to build more housing.
What needs to happen next?
This isn’t about tech for the sake of tech. It’s about using the tools that will help us build the communities we need.
Housing isn’t just a supply problem. It’s a systems problem. And until we bring those systems into the 21st century, we’ll be fighting a digital-age crisis with fuzzy PDFs and email attachments.