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Email this pageInfoSheet - Planning By Design: a healthy communities handbook

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Fall 2009

From left to right: blue painted public bench on street; old brick two storey home with verandah; two year old girl on a beach picking up sand; two girls walking on a boardwalk on a lake; country road in a rural area

This InfoSheet provides information about the Planning Act and planning and designing for healthy and sustainable communities. It should not be relied upon as a substitute for specialized legal or professional advice in connection with any particular matter. It is recommended that independent legal or professional advice be obtained in matters relating to provisions found in the Planning Act.

A copy of this handbook can be accessed here and at www.ontarioplanners.on.ca.

 

Collage image that represents community, economy and environment, which collectively contribute to sustainable development

Heart disease, asthma, diabetes, obesity, stroke, cancer, stress and depression are just some of the serious health issues that are reducing community vitality and resiliency through productivity loss and increasing demands on public and private sector resources.

Built environments – buildings, transport networks, green spaces, public realms, natural systems and all the other spaces that make up a community – can perform a critical role in shaping people’s physical and psychological well being. Rural and urban planning and design strategies, including land-use patterns, transportation networks, public spaces and natural systems, are all factors that can promote increased physical activity, psychological well being and healthier outcomes for all community members.

The Planning By Design handbook is the result of a partnership between the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and the Ontario Professional Planners Institute. The purpose of this initiative is to share and generate ideas on how places can be planned and designed more sustainably for healthy, active living and to retain and attract residents, investors and visitors. 

 

A black and white sketch of a development permit system that illustrates section 70.2 and O. Reg. 608/06 of the Planning Act aboveAccording to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, health-care spending is growing faster than Canada’s economy and spending on prescription and non-prescription drugs is growing faster than spending on hospitals and physicians.

If Canadians were to become more active, it is estimated that there would be:

  • 26% fewer deaths from type II diabetes;
  • 20% fewer deaths from colon cancer; and
  • 22% fewer deaths from cardiovascular disease.

Source: Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute, www.cflri.ca

 

For more information:

The Ontario Professional Planners Institute logo with two P's with one reflected backyards, an I in the centre of the Ps and a big O over the top half of the Ps

  • Ontario Professional Planners Institute
    234 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 201
    Toronto, ON M4P 1K5
    (416) 483-1873
    1-800-668-1448
    ontarioplanners.on.ca