This tool kit is intended for use by municipal planners, health unit staff and elected officials in rural communities. It will also help other interested community members advocate for healthier communities and populations.
This tool kit identifies land use and development strategies that can help to enhance the rural built environment and contribute to positive quality of life and health outcomes. The tool kit brings a rural lens to issues that are often viewed from an urban perspective. Numerous examples and innovative practices from across the province are profiled. This tool kit recognizes many characteristics associated with rural communities including a low density population, a declining population in some areas, aging citizens, youth out-migration, rural land uses and an economy that is significantly different from that of urban Ontario. The objectives of the tool kit are:
- To identify existing effective land use planning policies and models of practice for healthy rural built environments.
- To recognize the benefits of a coordinated approach to rural planning and development that uses a range of regulatory and non-regulatory tools.
- To identify innovative land use planning policies and initiatives that can contribute to healthy communities and healthy populations.
Published By: Healthy Rural Communities Locally Driven Collaborative Project; Funded by Public Health Ontario
Publication Date: 2015
