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The Partners in Project Green Policy Toolkit has been prepared as a collection of independent tools that will provide guidance to the municipalities in their development of a more harmonized planning environment to better support and co-ordinate eco-business activity. In this regard, the Policy Toolkit will assist municipal partners in developing and/or coordinating policies, regulations and standards to support green business and employment land sustainability in the Pearson Eco-Business Zone.
The Policy Toolkit is intended to be a dynamic document that can be updated and expanded to include new information and tools as the Partners in Project Green Policy Harmonization Team is able to develop them. It is important to note that the current version of the Policy Toolkit only contains a subset of the full list of tools that are necessary to address issues of interest.
Document
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Toolkit Component
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Policy Toolkit Overview
This provides an overview of the purpose of the Partners in Project Green Policy Toolkit.
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Communications Tools - Overview of Partners in Project Green for Municipal Staff
This communications tool is designed to help municipal staff learn about Partners in Project Green, which touches on the work of almost every key municipal department. This document discusses some of the key synergies between various municipal activities and Partners in Project Green. Ultimately, all staff are ambassadors for Partners in Project Green. So it is also important that municipal staff across the Pearson Eco-Business Zone have the same understanding and can use the same language to communicate the objectives and activities of Partners in Project Green.
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Primer - Links Between Ontario Planning Policy and Partners in Project Green
This primer provides an overview of key pieces of Provincial legislation that might be used to support Partners in Project Green and eco-business zone activity. This primer is meant for high level information only and does not represent any legal opinion on the interpretation of the referenced legislation.
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Primer - Using Development Permits to Promote Eco-Business Zone Activity
This section describes how the new Development Permit System powers under the Planning Act might be adapted to support eco-business zone activity and Partners in Project Green goals. Although a Development Permit System is a significant and complex planning tool to develop, it can offer a number of potential advantages over existing development review procedures, including:
- Streamlining the development process and reducing approvals timelines;
- Flexible approach to permitted and discretionary uses;
- Allowing approval criteria and conditions that support greater environmental protection;
- Community involvement; and,
- Guidance regarding good design and compatible development.
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Primer - Eco-Business Zone Municipal Incentives
Municipal governments can use incentives to motivate Pearson Eco-Business Zone companies to support the goals of Partners in Project Green, from retrofitting green building to participating in a large waste reutilization network. Incentives can help to address any real incremental costs associated with new green practices, or they can simply motivate behavioural change when there are perceived additional costs or general aversion to risk for innovation. This primer provides an overview of incentive types that might be used to support eco-business activity.
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Primer - Fast Tracking Eco-Business Zone Applications: How to Get Started
Expediting applications for green development, rezonings, subdivisions or building permits can provide an incentive for developers to meet desired sustainability criteria, as time saved in the approvals process can reduce overall project costs. This tool can also help municipalities establish clear expectations to provide guidance to developers and also offer a tangible incentive for helping municipalities achieve their own sustainability objectives.
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Policy Templates/Template Language - Glossary of Eco-Business and Sustainability Terms
The following are commonly used terms in the context of eco-business, eco-industrial and green business activity. This is an initial list that is intended to be expanded over time as municipalities encounter new material.
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Policy Templates/Template Language - Eco-Business Zone Policy Statement
The following is a general policy statement that municipal partners can adopt and integrate at the next scheduled Official Plan update. In the interim, it can also serve as a guiding statement that can be shared with different departments (e.g. economic development, planning, engineering, and others) to coordinate activities and messaging between and within the partner municipalities.
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Policy Templates/Template Language - Potential Eco-Business Zone Official Plan Policies
This tool provides model eco-business policy language to express municipal partners’ interest in seeing employment lands developed and managed in a manner that meets eco-business objectives. Policy language below is aligned with the EBZ principles.
The model policy language is presented in two general categories: one category for Official Plans, and another category for Secondary Plans: more detailed design direction is generally identified for inclusion in Secondary Plans.
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Policy Templates/Template Language - Considerations for Eco-Business Zone Development Standards
Development Standards and Design Guidelines are effective tools used by municipalities to ensure that sustainability objectives are met by development projects. Although municipalities might have different terminology for these tools, they serve a common purpose: Development Standards (such as the Toronto Green Standard) and Design Guidelines (such as Brampton’s forthcoming Sustainable Development Guidelines) provide an integrated set of performance measures, principles and targets, to promote innovative and desirable forms of development (such as green design, high quality urban design, and Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design).
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Policy Templates/Template Language - Eco-Business Zone Development Screening Tool
The following checklist is meant to provide development approvals officers with questions to consider and put forward to developers at the pre-application stage. This tool can be used to determine how the development proposal might meet the Partners in Project Green Strategy objectives and potentially support activity undertaken by other Project Teams.
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Policy Templates/Template Language - Eco-Business Subdivision Planning and Servicing Requirement
The following are commonly used terms in the context of eco-business, eco-industrial and green business activity. This is an initial list that is intended to be expanded over time as municipalities encounter new material.
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Case Studies - Eco-Business Zone Policy Case Studies
This document presents six case studies, three from Canada and three from outside Canada, where municipalities have attempted to create eco-industrial or green industrial retrofit projects. |
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