News Roundup – July 2026

July 2, 2026

Dani Pacey

How are planners coming to a better understanding of the need for and implementation of “missing middle” housing in Toronto? What’s the impact of data centres on property valuation? And how are municipalities keeping track of their development portfolios and permitting workflows in a rapidly changing environment? All this and more in the July 2026 News Roundup from Esri Canada.

Feature Stories

Lock in your fall with Esri Canada small group training
Summer might be on its way, but it’ll be fall before you know it. Get your fall locked in now—and your training budget set—with small group training delivered by Esri Canada’s certified ArcGIS instructors. In this blog post, get introduced to Esri Canada’s slate of expert instructors and find the right GIS training course to kick off your autumn.

The words “Keep your GIS skills sharp in a changing world with Esri Canada’s Learning Lineup” stand out against a purple map-textured backdrop.

And if you’d like to get a monthly roundup of the latest free and paid GIS training opportunities from Esri Canada, update your communication preferences today by accessing our Communication Preference Centre and making sure “Training” is selected.

Missing middle housing in Toronto: from policy intent to real-world outcomes
Missing middle housing is meant to unlock affordability in Toronto, but the results are far from equal. Learn more in this blog post from Esri Canada Planning & Housing business development lead Zaid Attarbashi.

What is the impact of data centres on property valuations?
Data centres are expanding rapidly, raising important questions about their impact on nearby property values. Do these large facilities impact property values negatively due to proximity and perception, or positively through investment, economic growth and market stability? In this blog post, we explore how these facilities could influence local markets and how GIS-based proximity analysis helps measure real impacts using spatial evidence.

Esri News

2026 Esri User Conference to Focus on Creating a More Intelligent World with GIS
June 25, 2026

Esri’s Jack Dangermond Honoured with Award from International Fund for China’s Environment
June 10, 2026

Resources

ArcUser: Tracking plans and places in Kenton County
Located directly across the Ohio River from downtown Cincinnati, Kenton County has attracted a strong portfolio of development projects, large and small. While beneficial for the local economy, frequent development activity has complicated the task of managing development and permitting. Beginning in fall 2024, Planning and Development Services of Kenton County (PDS) staff set out to develop a tracking system centered on the location of developments across the county. The Kenton County Development Tracker, an ArcGIS Experience Builder app that that maps development plans, new subdivisions and building permit data, makes this data the most accessible to the public it has ever been.

Read the latest issue of ArcUser.

ArcNews: Customized Esri training helps utility modernize workflows
The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority reached a milestone in its GIS journey in 2024. With guidance from Esri experts, the Water Authority began its migration from a legacy ArcMap technology-based geometric network model to ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Utility Network, the modern solution that helps utilities unlock new GIS capabilities for data accuracy, infrastructure modelling and operational efficiencies. But the Water Authority’s migration went beyond technology replacement; because of its leaders’ people-centred approach, training from Esri played a pivotal role in the organization’s successful transformation.

Read the latest issue of ArcNews.

WhereNext: Where information flows like wine
Silver Oak Cellars, one of the best-known names in the wine industry, sought to create a better flow of information so employees could understand operational conditions, act quickly and reduce costs. A switch to mapping technology set them on the right path.

Read the latest articles from WhereNext.

Video: Digital twins powered by GIS
Global urban planning and geospatial design firm Houseal Lavigne uses GIS and game engines to create realistic representations of cities like Dubai, UAE and Morrisville, North Carolina. These representations, called digital twins, allow for a more immersive decision-making experience by putting the end users into a game scenario to test proposed planning and development solutions. Check out Esri's full panel on 3D and game engine simulations for urban planning at #sxsw2024.