Everybody’s Issue: Planning for Food

A Call to Action

In June 2011, The Ontario Professional Planners Institute issued a Call to Action: ‘Healthy Communities and Planning for Food - Planning for Food Systems in Ontario’.

The Call to Action explains that “A food system is generally defined as a set of food related activities including agriculture, processing, distribution, consumption, and waste management, each with its attendant social, environmental and economic dimensions.”

The document cautions that “Because food is everybody’s issue, it is in danger of becoming nobody’s issue” and encourages all levels of government, industry stakeholders, and each and every citizen (You!) to actively seek out information to become more aware of the challenges and threats facing our food system today.

Planners are called upon to take a leadership role in planning for food systems through education of ourselves, policy makers and the public and by applying sustainable food system principles to our land use planning recommendations.

Food System Efforts in Meaford

In response to this Call to Action, I recently completed a course with Seneca College called ‘Field to Fork – Introduction to Global and Local Food Systems’ which has provided me with a foundation for additional research and learning. Through my policy development role with Meaford I have been investigating a number of approaches that Council could consider in support of sustainable food systems, for example:

·    Creating Community Garden and Backyard Hen policies to support self-sufficiency for those who wish to pursue it;

·    Updating our Rural & Agricultural designations and looking at best practices to encourage opportunities for on-farm diversification for our farmers (i.e. Bed & Breakfasts, Agri-tourism, Home Industries and Occupations, Direct Sales, etc…); and,

·    Evaluating our policies relating to rural accessory apartments and both temporary and full-time farm help accommodation to allow for greater flexibility and fewer barriers.

Most recently I have been giving thought to the best ways to support the implementation of the Municipality’s recent Agri-business Strategy (available here under ‘Agri-business’ heading) through supportive policy and zoning provisions.

 

My Challenge to You

As someone who eats food (…and I’d guess that you do to) I’d like to ask you to join me on my learning adventure. Let’s not let food become “nobody’s issue”.

I challenge you to commit just 5 minutes to pursue new information on sustainable food systems. This could be as easy as doing a ‘Google’ search (try keywords: local food systems, sustainable food systems, food system planning, food security, food system challenges etc…) or perhaps review OPPI’s Call to Action or their related Resource List by following the links in this post.

Just Jargon: The "Planning Framework"

So what is ‘Planning’ anyways?

Planning is the ongoing technical, political and social process by which a community defines and acts to attain its preferred quality of life.

Planners aim to achieve the orderly disposition of land and resources and to protect the physical, economic and social health of communities.

A Registered Professional Planner (RPP) is a member of the Ontario Professional Planner’s Institute and has met educational, experiential and ethical standards in relation to their practice.

Sound exciting?...while I realize the description above is perhaps a little lacklustre, I have to admit that after six years at it, I still find planning as exciting and engaging as on day one. We planners have the unique opportunity to make strong intimate and creative ties to the community and to actively work towards protecting and improving the standard of living of local residents. We also must be constantly learning in order to keep up to date with legislation, trends, tools and evolving values and this keeps us from collecting mental cobwebs.

...and the Planning ‘Framework’?

Planners often refer to the Policy Framework/Context for decision making. This generally refers to the hierarchy of legislation, regulations, common law, policy plans, guidelines and standards that apply to community planning activities.

 I start off most of my land use application consultation meetings (with both residents and developers) with a brief lesson on the hierarchy of documents which guide us in our land use decisions in Meaford. The following list comprises the ‘nuts and bolts’ of our local system:

The Planning Act

Provincial Policy Statement

The County of Grey Official Plan

Municipality of Meaford Official Plan

Municipality of Meaford Zoning By-law

Municipality of Meaford Site Plan Control By-law

In this hierarchy, each document must be consistent with (or generally conform to) the document above. Also, all municipal decisions must comply with our Official Plan.

In my opinion this system works well because there is a trickle down of key themes and priorities from the Province to local Municipal levels (i.e. efficient land use, healthy environments, healthy economies, etc...). This framework can be a bit rigid however when dealing with innovative land use proposals and so we are constantly evaluating our policies – for example, via the 5 year Official Plan Review – to ensure that they are restrictive enough to provide the direction needed to meet community goals and objectives, while being flexible enough to allow for creativity and innovation. In Meaford we are blessed with an abundance of innovative thinkers, so finding this balance really keeps us on our toes!

Do you have questions about the planning framework or is there other planning jargon you’d like explained? I welcome your suggestions!

Are you an SOV? Concepts in Sustainable Transportation

Don't worry, I'm not calling you names...SOV is "Single Occupancy Vehicle" in transportation terms.

You may have noticed that SOV's are taking a lot of flack in the media and have been somewhat villified as the cause of global warming, smog, asthma, traffic congestion and the like. I suppose I wouldn't disagree with the general theme that motor vehicles contribute considerably to these problems but I'm not one to insist that each and everyone of us sell our cars and become permenant pedestrians (though my husband and I are now going on 16 months car-free ourselves).

What I do believe is that there are many opportunities for each of us to seek out more sustainable transportation options - occasionally, part-time, or on a daily basis - to minimize our contribution to the negative impacts attributed to the SOV.

But How?

Sustainable transportation aims to balance the social, economic and environmental costs and benefits of transportation. Sustainable modes are those that lessen reliance on automobiles for personal use. For example, sustainable transportation includes: 

• Public transportation and transit
• Active transportation options such as walking, cycling, skateboarding, riding a scooter
• Carpools, vanpools, ride-sharing

There are many potential benefits to pursuing more sustainable transportion options and not only do they contribute to the health of our environment but they they have direct benefits for our personal health. The Grey Bruce Health Unit, for example, has recognized this linkage between health and sustainable transportation and in February 2010 issued a Board of Health Resolution , following up on a Backgrounder Report prepared by GBHU Health Promotion staff in December 2009.

The Resolution urged municipalities to incorporate healthy public policy into our Official Plans and land use planning approvals to support an increase in active and alterative transportation while reducing motor vehicle dependancy. It cites a number of very sobering statistics regarding transportation and health in Grey and Bruce and is an interesting read for those wishing to know a little bit more about the benefits of sustainable transportation.

Meaford's Official Plan

As part of our Official Plan review, staff have been working on healthy public policies to support active and alternative transportation. This includes tweaks and clarifications to various existing policies as well as the creation of  a new Official Plan section called "Active Transportation" to place specific focus on the provision of active transportation infrastructure (such as sidewalks, benches, trails) through the development review process.

How about You!?

Knowing a little bit more now about sustainable transportation, do you have ideas about how you can reduce your SOV use? Do you already pursue sustainable transportation options in Grey and Bruce, and if not, what barriers do you feel are standing in your way? Are there specific standards or suggestions you might make regarding how we can support sustainable transportation options in Meaford?

Embrace the Now...A Blog for Meaford Planning

Last fall, I had the opportunity to attend a conference held by the Ontario Professional Planner's Institute, of which I am a newly minted member. One of the workshops at the conference was presented by Community Planner Mark Bryan and Robert Voight, Manager of Planning and Infrastructure Projects, both with the Town of Collingwood. The session focused on how Collingwood has embraced technology to help them communicate more effectively with the community on planning and land use matters. For example, Robert hosts a blog for each project on-the-go in the Town of Collingwood to allow a forum for informal discussion and information sharing.

We loved this idea!

And with the ongoing review and update of the Municipality of Meaford Official Plan, we couldn't think of a better opportunity to get going on starting a blog of our own.

As project manager and blogger, it is my goal to use this forum to share information on key concepts and ideas relating to the Official Plan review and to generate discussion on draft policies as we move forward through the policy development process. We will also post information regarding consultations and public meetings as well as status updates regarding how things are progressing with the review.

Being new to blogging, I plan to ease into it with the goal of 2 or so weekly posts (hopefully inciting  spirited discussions to follow).

I encourage you to spread the word about the blog - the more the merrier - and should you have specific topics, questions or concerns that you'd like to discuss, feel free to contact me either through comment feeds or by telephone/email.