City of Pickering Official Plan- Edition 6

CHAPTER TWO --THE PLANNING FRAMEWORK
Three Interrelated Systems
Meeting needs, being environmentally responsible,
becoming more self-sufficient, seeking broader connections,
supporting individual rights, upholding community goals,
welcoming diversity, respecting local context, managing
change and recognizing uncertainty are all important guiding
principles. But, principles by themselves, will not suffice.
Effective community building also needs an appropriate
planning framework in which to operate.
Rural
System
Ecological System
Urban
System
The City’s planning framework reflects and builds on its
guiding principles. In addition, it provides a logical basis
for developing both long term policy, and short term
operational strategies.
Moreover, the City’s planning framework takes a holistic
view of Pickering, acknowledging that the whole is greater
than the sum of the parts. It considers Pickering and the
people that live, work, visit and play here as a
“community” with three distinct, yet interrelated systems:
an ecological system, an urban system and a rural system.
The ecological system flows between and within the other two
systems, and is part of a larger ecological system that
extends well beyond the City’s boundaries (indeed is global
in nature). The system comprises the air, landform, water,
soil, plants and animals of the City, including its people. It
is the biotic and abiotic template upon which the functions
and activities of both the urban and rural systems take
place. It is also the lifeblood of the community. Without a
healthy, properly functioning ecological system, neither the
urban system nor the rural system could remain healthy for
very long.
“Biotic” means living
organisms, while “abiotic”
means non-living materials
and substances.
PICKERING OFFICIAL PLAN EDITION 6: Chapter Two -- Planning Framework 17