The ideal neighbourhood? : understanding the growth of new urbanist communities in Toronto: a Markham case study

Previous studies in planning have explored many aspects of New Urbanism. However, there is little research on why people would choose to live in a new urbanist community over a traditional neighbourhood development. Classical literature on this topic has focused on the size and scale of neighbourhoods as an influential factor to residents' housing choice (Brower, 1996). Recently, theorists have also considered neighbourhood land-use preferences as a determinant to housing choices (Ewing, 1997). The purpose of this project is to understand what informs the housing choices of residents in the new urbanist community of Cornell, Markham. This study evaluates neighbourhood choice by surveying residents of Cornell and a traditional neighbourhood called Boxgrove to determine why residents chose to live in the new urbanist community of Cornell rather than a traditional neighbourhood in the area.