Terry Mills is a planner, urban designer, and writer with a passion for urban strategies. He graduated from Carleton University's School of Architecture, and has worked since in a diversity of urban planning and architectural roles in Canada, the UK, the Middle East and Australia.

He ran a design-build practice for two decades, Chizen and Mills, developing an intimate knowledge of the city's residential neighbourhood structures, and in the process acquiring an applied-side perspective of the nature of Toronto's urban fabric, urban planning and development.

Terry served on the boards of both the Toronto and the Canadian Home Builders Association and was a founding member of the associations' Renovation Councils, which he chaired over the years. His interest in planning saw him chair the Municipal Liaison Committee and develop the Zoning Impact Study strategy which brought on the 1986 overhaul of Toronto's residential zoning introducing greater protections surrounding the character of existing neighbourhoods.

Terry's management and analytical skills led to developing 'Best Estimate' renovation software. This in turn led to online marketing and publishing initiatives.

Terry's continuing interest in city planning drew him towards broader urban considerations, and in 2001 he became a Registered Professional Planner. In 2003 he proposed the now adopted local planning framework for the TTC Block, a complicated parcel that had defied planning for 50-years.

Through 2004-8 his family lived in Sydney Australia, where he served as Senior Urban Planner with a planning and design consultancy primarily involved in town centres and retail strategies. Returning to Toronto, Terry took up community planning again. He successfully redirected the controversial Oriole Park redevelopment project by introducing an overarching structure plan which effectively facilitated decision making.

Terry is primarily interested in strategic planning, and its influence on development decisions and direction of statutory planning policies and standards. In 2011 he developed the 'Eglinton-Midtown Plan' brief, as a tool to inform planning and development interests, and so leverage a more comprehensive beneficial outcome.

Terry recently published the 'Towers Forecast' which presents a 20-year projection of the Yonge Eglinton Growth Centre, based upon existing build-as-usual practices. The report calls for planning to implement the provincially mandated 'Complete Communities' approach to intensification planning and management. The report is available online at: Midtownplan.ca.