County wins Planning Excellence Award

Prince Edward County and Ryerson University will be recognized by the Ontario Professional Planners Institute (OPPI) with an “Excellence in Planning Award” in the Research/New Directions category for its ‘Cultivating Rural Creativity’ project.
Celebrating ‘the best of the best’, OPPI’s Excellence in Planning Award recognizes innovation, creativity, professionalism, problem solving and communications. This year’s winners were chosen from more than 30 entries.
In 2009, the County Planning Department and the Economic Development Department worked with faculty and students of Ryerson University’s School of Urban and Regional Planning on the innovative project. The research resulted in a set of recommendations and guiding principles to harmonize the municipal Creative Rural Economy Strategy with updates to the Official Plan and Secondary Plans.
The Municipality has an on-going interest in aligning the Creative Rural Economy Strategy with land use planning to provide better clarity and customer service to new business start-ups and investors, and therefore increase Prince Edward County’s investment and job growth opportunities.
While other projects have been undertaken to define/refine the County’s Creative Rural Economy, this study is the first to address the Creative Rural Economy from a land-use planning perspective. The project mandate was to explore and analyze opportunities for and barriers to a more integrated approach to land use planning and creative rural economic development, and to present options to revitalize the Official Plan and Secondary Plans in this context. In so doing, the project has assisted in positioning the County as a leader in innovative, contemporary planning.
“While the achievement, recognized by the Ontario Professional Planners Institute, is focused on the land-use planning perspective, the integration of economic development initiatives in the County’s Official Plan bodes well for the update of the Official Plan, Secondary Plans and, generally, development in Prince Edward County,” said Chief Administrative Officer Richard Shannon.
“Congratulations to all who participated in this project. The recognition is a well deserved honour and the benefits of the exercise will serve the County for many years to come.”
The planning report entitled “Cultivating Rural Creativity” was written by Angela Bepple, Ellise Goarley, Katherine Glowacz, Gregory Kuenzig, Johnson Man Ho Kwan, Peter Moskalyk, Sana Razvi and Garrett Von Aderkas – senior undergraduate students in Ryerson University’s professional program in Urban and Regional Planning. The research was supervised by Professor Nina-Marie Lister, MCIP/RPP in collaboration with Planning and Economic Development staff of the Municipality. The University and the Municipality gratefully acknowledge the support of the Prince Edward Lennox Addington Institute for Research and Development (PELAIRD) and the Janet Rosenberg Studio Award in Landscape and Urbanism which funded the field research for the project. The full report is available at: http://www.pecounty.on.ca/government/planning_services/pdf/RyersonReport-2009_001.pdf
The awards ceremony will take place Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 and is being held as part of this year’s annual OPPI Symposium that is taking place in Guelph, Ontario. Further information on the Symposium can be found at www.ontarioplanners.on.ca