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Orangeville preparing Sustainable Neighbourhood Action Plan

October 12, 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Mike Pickford

SNAP your fingers and they will come – or at least that’s what the Town of Orangeville is hoping for as it seeks public input for a new community initiative it hopes to launch in the new year.

After securing funding through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Green Municipal Fund, the Town is creating a Sustainable Neighbourhood Action Plan (SNAP) to promote environmental awareness within the community.

According to the Town’s website, the plan will outline the future of Orangeville and how people and businesses, with leadership from the municipality, can take an important step towards building a greener, healthier and better place in which to live, work and play.

“Sustainability is accomplished when there is a balance between the needs of people, the environment and business without risking the needs of people in the future,” the website reads. “As a place surrounded by nature that is enjoyed by community members and visitors, the Town understands the importance of working together to create a plan to reduce its impacts on the environment and improve the quality of life for everyone.”

It continued, “The community’s ideas are required to help make this happen.”

The plan will continue to build on existing plans, local strengths and successes, while identifying future opportunities in a framework that will include a vision, goals and actions to meet those goals. Topics that will be highlighted in SNAP include energy use, transportation planning, land use, water management, economic development and arts and culture.

The plans engagement process will be broken down into three stages – defining, determining and drafting. The first step, defining, will determine where the municipality, as a whole, wants to go and will explore all ‘big picture’ opportunities. This process is expected to wrap up towards the end of November.

The second phase – determining – will kick off in December and run until February. Titled ‘how do we get there’, this step will identify actions, priorities and ideas for implementation and will continue public consultation for feedback on SNAP’s overlying vision and goals. The final drafting phase will pull everything together, providing feedback on the plan and identifying partnerships for action.

There are two ways for residents to have their say. You can complete an online survey, available at www.orangeville.ca/sustainability, by Oct. 31. Alternatively, there are seven pop-up events scheduled in the community over the next couple of weeks. The first opportunity comes on Saturday, between 9 a.m. and noon at the northeast entrance to Town Hall, where members of the Orangeville Sustainability Action Team will be hosting a community tree planting event.

Georgian College will host a three-hour engagement session on Oct. 16 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at its campus on Centennial Road, while Humber College will host a similar session on Oct. 17 between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the Alder Recreation Centre. Input can be provided at the Orangeville Harvest Celebration, taking place at Town Hall on Oct. 20 between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., with two final events scheduled at Tony Rose arena from 9 a.m. to noon on Oct. 27 and at the Orangeville Public Library on Oct. 28 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

For more information about Orangeville’s Sustainable Neighbourhood Action Plan, contact Ruth Phillips, Manager of Economic Development and Culture, at 519-941-0440 ext. 2291, or rphillips@orangeville.ca.


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