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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

populations, education and employability, health, community safety, service delivery). The conceptual underpinnings appear to be based on some of the elements of Local Agenda 21, such as establishment of partnerships, community based issue analysis, and action planing. The City has not formally applied to participate in the Local Agenda 21 process. Seattle’s Comprehensive Plan makes basic policy choices and provides a flexible framework for adapting to real conditions over time. It assumes that at best the plan is a “well educated guess about how to accommodate people and conditions that cannot be known in advance, flexible enough to succeed with a range of likely conditions and be adjusted as those conditions are monitored and evaluated, while maintaining steady aim at its goals.” (City of Seattle, 1995) The plan communicates well with such evocative concepts as environmental stewardship, urban villages (diverse, pedestrian-orientated, connected, with a unique identity) and a city for families. A native American proverb reminds us that every decision must take into account its effect on the next seven generations” – City of Seattle, 1994. 2.4.2 Process: Plan Development The development of new Comprehensive plan was required by state legislature; the emphasis of developing the plan on a sustainable basis was a concept initiated by the mayor as a response to community values and general international planning trends (Hauger, pers.com.). The planning process focused on defining the future in terms of the values held most closely by Seattle’s citizens, and the plan is grounded in the four core values which emerged during the planning process. Although the community was consulted extensively throughout development of the plan, the consultation was generally “one-offs” and no community group emerged to stake out ownership of the plan or sustainability actions. In 1999 the City will embark on its mandatory 5 year review of the Comprehensive Plan. 17
2.4.3 Implementation The Comprehensive Plan guides decisions of politicians and the corporation, and reports to council generally address how proposals or projects are consistent with the Comprehensive Plan. A major implementation success of the Comprehensive Plan’s sustainability goals has been the initiation of the city-wide neighbourhood planning process (Hatcher, pers. com.). The City has ceded responsibility back to its neighbourhoods (37 in total) and has provided $4.5 million in funding and incentives to help develop neighbourhood plans. A Monitoring Our Progress report, designed to assess progress toward achieving plan goals and to assess conditions and changes in the city, is prepared every other year by the City. It is based on a set of thirty high level indicators (such as household income, air quality, how people get to work safely and how they feel in the city) and compliments the community indicators developed for the region by Sustainable Seattle (a citizens group working to improve the region’s long-term health and vitality) (Hauger, pers. com.). The report identifies progress in terms of a number of actions the city has taken - such as the Neighbourhood Planning incentive described above, and a pilot project utilizing vans to supplement bus routes (LINC project). 2.4.4 Key elements of Success Community ownership: the sustainability concept has been embraced by politicians and the community as a result of extensive community consultation; heightened awareness through neighbourhood planning initiatives; the bi-annual reports on progress; and the fat that the plan communicates well containing engaging concepts such as Urban Villages. Implementation mechanisms: regulations implement referenced sections of the Comprehensive Plan. 2.5 Lancashire, UK: Lancashire’s Green Audit 2: A Sustainability Report; 1997. Although dissimilar to Toronto in many respects, as it is a mixed urban and rural municipality comprised of numerous towns and villages with a population of 1.4 million (ICLEI, 1997), the County of Lancashire shares many of Toronto’s urban problems including homelessness, high consumption of energy, increased waste production and concern for the quality of beaches and coastal waters. This document was selected for 18
Page 1 and 2: An Environmental Plan for the New C
Page 3 and 4: Executive Summary The new Environme
Page 5 and 6: address implications for applicatio
Page 7 and 8: The United Nations defines sustaina
Page 9 and 10: the principles of the Natural Step
Page 11 and 12: to engage people in a discussion of
Page 13 and 14: commitment to “follow the princip
Page 15 and 16: Political commitment is everything
Page 17: 2.3.4 Key elements of Success Poli
Page 21 and 22: 2.5.2 Process: Plan Development The
Page 23 and 24: 2.5.4 Key elements of Success Poli
Page 25 and 26: how developing/implementing long te
Page 27 and 28: The Environmental Policy is to appl
Page 29 and 30: criteria were identification of a p
Page 31 and 32: towards sustainability. As actions
Page 33 and 34: is not legally binding, but is an i
Page 35 and 36: 4 CONCLUSIONS 34
Page 37 and 38: 17. Ravetz, Joe, City-Region 2020:
Page 39 and 40: Appendix 1 Interview Questions 1. W

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

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?