Building More Affordable Communities Starts with You

Municipal policymakers and urban planners play a critical role in shaping the future of housing in Canada. As our cities and towns grow, infill housing—the “missing middle”—presents a unique opportunity to improve housing affordability and diversity. However, one of the greatest challenges municipalities face is ensuring that water, wastewater, transportation, and community infrastructure can support new development. Without clear and early insights into infrastructure capacity, infill development remains slow, costly, and inefficient.

The Power of Data & Systems Thinking

Our project is committed to transforming infill development through data-driven decision-making and systems thinking. We analyze and explore existing, new, and hidden data to uncover how housing and infrastructure intersect and how municipalities can make strategic, responsive interventions that build livable, inclusive, and sustainable communities.

Join Our Learning Series to Gain Actionable Insights

Through a systemic design approach, our groundbreaking project has uncovered key challenges and opportunities in facilitating infill development. Now, we’re developing a series of learning modules to share our findings, insights, and practical tools that can help municipalities.

By completing the course, you will:

• Understand the root barriers to infill housing implementation.

• Improve cross-sector collaboration between policymakers, developers, and infrastructure providers.

• Leverage new digital tools to streamline decision-making and project approvals.

• Apply real-world lessons from our pilot projects across five diverse municipalities in two provinces.

• Scale successful strategies to create more housing opportunities in your own community.

Subscribe Now for Early Access

Join our mailing list today to receive exclusive updates and be the first to know when the learning modules launch.

Thank You

Project Team

This project is delivered through the collaboration of several partners with a wide range of experience in the various intersecting fields involved with housing and infrastructure.

Core Design Team

Sean Shepherd Human Centred & Systemic Designer, Project Lead

Iain Cranston


 Asset Management and Training Expert, Knowledge Sharing Lead
Jennifer Cutbill
 Transformation Design Consultant, Principal 
Chris Paine
 Local Government Financial Consultant
Rob Spackman
 Principal Consultant
Karla MacPherson
GIS Consultant
David Notte 
Municipal Project Manager, Principal


Stakeholder Team

City of Kelowna
City of West Kelowna
City of Salmon Arm
City of Colwood
City of Calgary
Dasko Holdings

This project was developed through the Research and Knowledge Initiative (RKI) to support housing and infrastructure related projects across the country, which is delivered and funded by Infrastructure, Housing and Communities Canada.