Complete Community

Problem, research strategy, and findingsDespite the ubiquity of the concept of the complete community or neighborhood in Canadian planning practice and the recent spread of the idea in the United States, few scholars have examined the idea’s development and implications. Based on a content and thematic analysis of 102 plans and policies representing all Canadian provinces and territories, along with 205 planner interviews, I argue that the complete community represents an integrative, scalable, and flexible planning theory originating from practice. Borrowing principles from other theories (such as smart growth and sustainable development), practitioners built the complete community idea bottom-up, as a persuasive rhetorical vehicle for describing planning intentions and justifying higher densities in positive ways.Takeaway for practiceContemporary planning values increasing urban densities, mix, and walkability. Here I illustrate how planners adapted to community resistance to ideas generated by external experts—and to efforts to increase growth and densities—by articulating a socially and politically positive option for urban transformation. The complete community concept places a halo over density, promising vibrancy and livability.