Create High
Quality
Evidence
• A recent Locally Driven Collaborative Project focused on healthy built environments in rural
communities. In collaboration with the University of Guelph, they created the Healthy Rural Communities Toolkit: A Guide for Rural Municipalities, based on a literature reviews, surveys,
focus groups and key informant interviews.
• As part of their Healthy Communities Series, Peel Public Health released Active Parks Design Guide, with a focus on maximizing the potential of parks and greenspace to promote physical
activity in the community. The guide synthesized findings from grey literature, literature
reviews and observational studies.
• Ottawa Public Health conducted research on the impact of implementing the walking, cycling
and transit targets in Ottawa’s 2013 Transportation Master Plan. The research estimated
that as many as 1,620 cases of diabetes could be prevented over 10 years, through less
sedentary travel. The research was published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health.
It was cited, along with many other Ottawa Public Health reports, by the City’s Planning,
Infrastructure and Economic Development division in a discussion paper titled The Building Blocks for a Healthy Ottawa, released in preparation for Ottawa’s new official plan process.
• Toronto Public Health released a series called Healthy Toronto By Design, which includes
reports on topics such as apartment neighbourhoods, active transportation and transit use,
principles for an active city, and a health impact assessment tool.
Provide expert review
• Toronto Public Health worked with City planning staff to amend the zoning by-laws for
apartment towers. Previously, the zoning for these neighbourhoods allowed very little
commercial space, leaving residents with little access to services and retail, including
grocery stores, and creating ‘food deserts’. The revised zoning increases the commercial
allowances, and there are now 400 towers eligible for new or additional retail space. As part
of this process, Toronto Public Health released a report titled, Toward Healthier ApartmentNeighbourhoods.
• Peel Public Health is working with the Region’s Transportation division to integrate multimodal
level of service (MMLOS) analysis into transportation planning, through avenues such as
environmental assessments, Transportation Impact Studies, and policy documents (Official
Plan and the Region’s Road Characterization Study). For environmental assessments, Peel
Public Health has developed a matrix to guide when MMLOS analysis should be undertaken,
as an addition to the Transportation division’s manual for environmental assessments.
Integrating MMLOS into Transportation Impact Studies will likewise require changes to the
guidelines that govern these assessments. Read more in the Region of Peel’s Sustainable Transportation Strategy.
• Middlesex-London Health Unit has created an Active Community Toolkit for Reviewing Development Plans that includes a series of checklists and specific targets for land use,
density, service, employment and educational proximity, housing diversity, street design,
pedestrian and cycling orientation, public transit, streetscape design, parking, parks and open
space, safety, and social connection. The Windsor Essex District Health Unit uses an adapted
version of this toolkit to review development applications.
• Peel Public Health has created the Healthy Development Assessment (HDA) as a tool to guide
practitioners working in the planning, design and approval of development. The assessment
covers six core elements of healthy community design: density, service proximity, land use
mix, street connectivity, streetscape characteristics and efficient parking. The HDA is part
of a larger Healthy Development Framework, which includes a suite of tools adapted to the
specific contexts found in each local municipality.
• The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit collaborated with planning staff to create a
resource of health-related suggestions for Official Plan policies and implementation activities.
The document, Healthy Community Design: Policy Statements for Official Plans, provides
municipalities with policy language and concepts that are in line with provincial policies and
that they can adapt to suit their own context.
Mobilize communities and stakeholders
• Ottawa Public Health collaborated with the City’s Planning Division to release two videos
to raise awareness of the link between health and the built environment, and highlight how
residents can get involved to make changes in their communities.
• Peel Public Health runs the Healthy Living Supports Program, which promotes health supportive environments by providing small grants to community organizations to make
infrastructure change that will encourage physical activity and healthy eating among residents.
• One public health unit reported collaborating with the municipal planning division on joint
education initiatives, where they conduct public outreach at community events on the topic of
the built environment and how planning affects people’s lives.