This year, the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) honoured projects from the cities of Hamilton, Vancouver, Calgary, Victoria, Saskatoon and Toronto with their Awards for Planning Excellence.
Since 1983, CIP’s awards program has expanded to include thirteen categories, with a jury of planning professionals representing every region from the public and private sector evaluating submissions.
CIP’s awards celebrate submissions that have a positive impact on the profession, demonstrate innovation in planning, and stand out in quality of content and presentation.
Recipients who received an award communicated an effective plan process and will be formally recognized at the CIP National Conference Awards Luncheon.
The 2019 Award for Planning Excellence Winners:
CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING
Project Name: Putting People First: A New Land Use Plan and Zoning By-law for Downtown Hamilton
Company: Planning Division, City of Hamilton
Putting People First: A New Land Use Plan and Zoning Bylaw for Downtown Hamilton received an Award of Excellence for its efforts in integrated land use planning. The project included an Official Plan Amendment, Secondary Plan and updated zoning by-law guidelines. The guidelines represent: tall buildings; urban form; heritage; cultural preservation elements; parking; rezoning of land to better facilitate growth and development; and detailed height restrictions by parcel to preserve viewsheds of the Niagara Escarpment.
PLANNING PRACTICE
Award for Planning Excellence
Project Name: City of Calgary Ephemeral & Intermittent Streams Project
Company: Intelligent Futures, Wood Environment & Infrastructure Solutions, Tannas Conservation Services Ltd., Landwise Inc., The City of Calgary
The City of Calgary Ephemeral & Intermittent Streams Project is an initiative of The City of Calgary’s 2016 Riparian Action Program that was developed to minimize the further loss of riparian areas within Calgary. The project utilizes comprehensive technical mapping to demonstrate the importance of watercourses as drainage sources, and their critical importance to flood protection, mitigation, and environmental health. According to the CIP, the jury was impressed with the methodology deployed, and the user-friendly approach taken to communicate a complex and technical planning issue. The City of Calgary is commended for their flood resiliency efforts to improve ecosystem health within the Bow River and Red Deer River watersheds.
PLANNING PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA
Project Name: 360 Degree City Podcast
Company: Intelligent Futures
The jury was excited to see a Canadian based podcast about planning that leveraged this form of media as an effective way of communicating with the public about the planning profession and a wide variety of planning issues, according to the CIP. Episodes such as The Power of the Pylon, the Wonders of Walkability, and Cultivating Community Through Creativity draw in listeners and the variety of guests, planners, architects, community members, and designers keeps the podcasts current, and relevant.
RURAL / SMALL TOWN PLANNING
Project Name: Cowichan Bay Village Vitalization Strategy
Company: Cowichan Valley Regional District, Fraser Simpson Consulting Inc., MVH Urban Planning and Design Inc., Calum Srigley Design Consultant (Placemaker) Ltd., R. Kim Perry Inc., Romses Architects Inc., Perrier Design, Watt Consulting Group, Key Planning Strategies, Barefoot Planning Ltd., KAPMARconsult, Thurber Engineering Ltd., PBX Engineering Ltd., Vancouver Island University
Cowichan Bay Village Revitalization Strategy is a coastal project by a small community that focuses on placekeeping and the inclusion of planning to manage water-based activities. The plan identifies immediate steps that can be done with minimal time/ effort to improve the area, including estimating budgets and timeframes to complete the steps. Cowichan Bay Village Revitalization Strategy addresses complex inter-jurisdictional and cross-government issues, and the process accomplished a great deal in a compressed project schedule.
URBAN DESIGN
Project Name: Mirvish Village
Company: Westbank, Henriquez Partners Architects, Urban Strategies, ERA Architects, Janet Rosenberg & Studio, City of Toronto
Honest Ed’s Mirvish Village is a landmark location slated for increased density for transit-oriented development in downtown Toronto. The Mirvish Village Redevelopment Plan is a redevelopment project that will transform the neighbourhood into a transit-oriented rental community where the new development will thoughtfully interface the existing neighbourhoods that surround it to protect and preserve heritage values.
CLIMATE CHANGE PLANNING
Project Name: Urban Forest Climate Adaptation Initiative
Company: Metro Vancouver, Diamond Head Consulting
The Metro Vancouver project is a progressive approach based on science and ongoing collaborative research, which recognizes urban forests as a critical infrastructure component in addressing climate change adaption and mitigation.
The Initiative features three key elements:
- A Climate Adaptive Framework to reduce the vulnerabilities of urban forests by improving growing conditions and adopting best practices for tree care;
- a Tree Species Database to adapt to the future by promoting a selection of climatic appropriate and site-specific tree species; and
- a Design Guidebook to adapt to the future by providing tree planting and urban forestry street topologies designed for future climate conditions.
HEALTHY COMMUNITIES PLANNING
Project Name: TOcore: Downtown Community Services & Facilities Strategy
Company: Canadian Urban Institute, City of Toronto, Swerhun Inc
The TOcore Community Services & Facilities (CS&F) Strategy enables growth that supports healthy community development. The Strategy sets out an implementation framework over 25 years to guide space and capital resources for essential community services in downtown, schools, childcare, libraries, recreation, and human services. The Strategy identifies services and facility’s needs, funding status, and costs by using future population and employment estimates.
NEW AND EMERGING PLANNING INITIATIVES
Project Name: People, Parks and Dogs
Company: Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, Space2place design inc, Kirk & Co Consulting Ltd., Public Architecture + Communication, MountainMath Software, Pet Welfare
People, Parks and Dogs’ strategic planning document responds to a growing demand to develop leash-free dog lounges in Vancouver’s parks. This plan outlines a 10-year vision for the development of dog parks in Vancouver, and ensures safety of all users that use these facilities.
The 2019 Award of Merit Winners:
NEW AND EMERGING PLANNING INITIATIVES
Project Name: University of Victoria Campus Cycling Plan
Company: University of Victoria Campus Planning and Sustainability and Urban Systems
The University of Victoria Campus Cycling Plan’s four strategic keys and ten-year action plan impressed the jury, along with their short term actions outlined to demonstrate how the cycling plan was designed to move forward. Consistent with the University of Victoria Sustainable Development Policy Action Plan and other forms of consultation, the University of Victoria Campus Cycling Plan provides campus cyclists a planning tool that lays out a balanced and safe approach to sharing circuits between different modes of travel, according to the CIP.
PLANNING PRACTICE
Project Name: City of Victoria – Old Town Design Guidelines for New Buildings and Additions to Existing Buildings (2019)
Company: City of Victoria
The City of Victoria Old Town Design Guidelines for New Buildings and Additions to Existing Buildings provides a clear vision for a west coast historic district by reinforcing the importance of existing character, human scale, and ensuring compatibility within a rich heritage context.
The CIP states that the “jury felt that the process used to develop the Guidelines brought positive attention and awareness to the planning profession through skilled facilitation of a stakeholder group of diverse professionals with competing interests.”
PLANNING PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA
Project Name: Zero to One Hundred: Planning for an Aging Population
Company: Plassurban
Plassurban’s Zero to One Hundred: Planning for an Aging Population is a discussion of an issue that affects communities in Canada. Zero to One Hundred addresses the challenges that seniors face in both urban and rural communities, and how they differ from those of the general population. The project highlights a series of toolkits related to each chapter in the book and includes material on policy, local government, housing, community design guidelines.
RECONCILIATION
Project Name: ayisīnowak: A Communications Guide
Company: City of Saskatoon on behalf of Saskatchewan Indigenous Cultural Centre, Office of the Treaty Commissioner, Saskatoon Tribal Council
The City of Saskatoon developed ayisīnowak: A Communications Guide with First Nations and Métis communities in response to the calls for action by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The project was a collaboration of the City of Saskatoon, the Saskatchewan Indigenous Cultural Centre, and the Office of the Treaty Commissioner with intentions to provide City staff a better understanding of the City’s relationship with Indigenous partners, and aid in developing positive relationships with them.
URBAN DESIGN
Project Name: Ottawa River South Shore Riverfront Park Plan
Company: National Capital Commission
The Ottawa River South Shore Riverfront Park Plan is the outcome of a collaborative planning process led by the National Capital Commission to reinvent 9km of southern shoreline along the Ottawa River. The Plan is the outcome of multidisciplinary work and consultations that embodies strategies for developing an area of the Ottawa River, in association with the Ottawa region’s new light rail transit system. The strength of the concept is to incorporate a degree of flexibility allowing it to adapt to social, environmental and technological changes.
CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING
Project Name: International Avenue Area Redevelopment Plan
Company: City of Calgary
The International Avenue Area Redevelopment Plan envisions International Avenue as a multi-modal urban boulevard, and a thriving residential neighbourhood with hubs at key intersections. The jury was impressed by the City of Calgary’s “One City, One Voice” approach in bringing together different departments to combine their projects and present as one voice to the community and Council. The plan involves a policy supported by the communities along International Avenue, business owners and their associations, and City Administration.
HEALTHY COMMUNITIES PLANNING
Project Name: High Park Apartment Neighbourhood Area Character Study, Policy & Guidelines
Company: City of Toronto
The City of Toronto’s High Park Apartment Neighbourhood Area Character Study, Policy and Guidelines combines historical data, planning, and urban design best practices to streamline a path for enabling healthy lifestyles in the area. The Policy and Guidelines provide a method that analyzes healthy design attributes such as priority for sunlight, water features, and greenness. The project was built on a collaborative cross-sector approach and a public engagement plan.