An Environmental Plan for the New City of Toronto: How to Make It ...

2.3.4 Key elements of Success
Political commitment: established community and political commitment to improving
environmental concerns that were identified in Clouds of Change report, State of
Environment report.
Corporate ownership: Agenda prepared by interdepartmental working group;
communication of Agenda to all staff.
Implementing mechanisms: Agenda influenced both the Strategic Plan and Official
Plan; requirement that environmental, social and economic impacts be addressed in
reports to council.
Review process: Agenda to be updated every three years in conjunction with update
of the SOE.
2.4 Seattle, USA: The Comprehensive Plan, Towards a Sustainable Seattle, 1994
The City of Seattle, with a population of 533,000, is a port city surrounded by
tremendous natural beauty and is the commercial and cultural centre of the US Pacific
Northwest. Although a much smaller city than Toronto, it has been proactive in
adopting a sustainability framework for its Comprehensive Plan.vc
2.4.1 Framework/Structure
This document is a plan of Council to guide development of the city for the next 20 years
(1994-2014) based on the concept of sustainability. In many ways it is similar to
Toronto’s Official Plan in that it is intended to guide decisions about proposed
ordinances, policies, and programs and to direct development of regulations which
govern land use and development. However it differs from an Official Plan in that it is
not to be used to review applications for specific development projects except when
regulations reference the Comprehensive Plan.
The plan sets out a vision and principles developed around four core community values
(community; environmental stewardship; economic opportunity and security, and social
equity) and the themes of: Toward a Sustainable Seattle, The Urban Village Strategy;
and A City for Families. The vision and principles weave through the goals and policies
under the traditional official plan themes of land use transportation, housing, capital
facilities and utilities, economic development, etc. Non–traditional themes developed
under the Seattle Framework policies include a neighbourhood planning element and a
human development element (such as community participation, diversity, vulnerable
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