In May the City of Sherbrooke distributed to its citizens the “Resume” of the draft of the new city plan. For anyone interested in the city planning or the environment, this document is very disappointing. It goes against up to date practices of city growth management. It promises to perpetuate and even accentuate problems visible since the '60 in North America, namely:

• designing the city for automobiles
• encouraging urban sprawl by adding beltways
• developing peripheral big box shopping plazas (plateau St-Joseph)
• abandoning neighbourhood shops
• breaking up the urban fabrick with non sustainable mega projects

The strange thing is that the city plan contradicts certain principles well established in the Sherbrooke Vision statement 2005-2015. The city plan was supposed to be based on this document. What happened in the last couple of monthe separating these two documents..The propositions in the Vision statement that were the most ecological and sustainable over the long run have disappeared from the city plan.