"[2][13] Since the 1970s, Canadian planning policy has aimed to make communities more attractive and efficient through compact form, mixed-use, higher densities and a range of housing types.
[14] One of the typical critiques of past suburban growth patterns is that they replicate trends of a homogeneous landscape consisting mainly of white, middle class, nuclear families.
[19][20] A common definition of a complete community is one where people live, work and play, and where the automobile is left at home in favour of walking and public transport.
[11] In Canada, many municipalities have focused on providing a mix of housing types as the key component of creating a complete community based on directives from provincial and regional policies.
Especially in the United States, widened and expanded metropolitan areas led to poor inner-suburb communities, which worked to destroy the connection to neighbourhoods, institutions, parks and town centres.
[21] Planners began to advocate for a community plan where a mix of housing types and uses in compact form would be centred around transportation nodes for ease of mobility of residents.