Scott Taylor, RPP – Grey County

Name: Scott Taylor, RPP, MCIP

Title: Senior Planner at the County of Grey

Date: May 14, 2020

Where is your attention focused as a planner as we look towards recovery?

As a municipal planner, I’m thinking about what we can do now to ensure the economy recovers in an expeditious fashion. Although some construction projects may currently be shut down, we can be working on approvals and agreements to ensure construction is ready to go as soon as safely possible (i.e. so that they’re not waiting on planning approvals when restrictions lift).
 
Working with our partners in economic development and tourism to understand the needs of businesses and tourism operators is also crucial in planning for recovery. Understanding that, in some cases, it won’t be a simple re-start but may also involve re-tooling businesses, which could have planning impacts. The impacts on retail, and whether there will be a further shift to either online or hybrid online/store-front retail, may further change our communities. In my opinion, planners are well equipped to be facilitating some of these discussions across different sectors as we work towards recovery.

What opportunities are you seeing to do things better or that have come about as a result of COVID-19? How do we begin to get there?

One of the biggest opportunities for change coming out of COVID-19, may be with respect to online engagement. I work in a small urban / rural area, where the distance from one end of our county to the other is a one-hour drive. In addition, our area has lots of seasonal residents who live much farther away, and we get heavy winters, all of which can make public meetings difficult to get to.
 
With the current pandemic, we’ve gone to online council meetings and public meetings. Whereas our county used to stream our council meetings, there was no opportunity for off-site involvement in a meeting. If, following our return from the pandemic, we can retain the ability for people to participate either in-person or online, I think it would be a big win for reaching a broader audience in our consultations. To a small degree it could also reduce the kilometres travelled, thereby also having an impact on reducing emissions. Online consultation may not be for everyone but having that as another “tool in our toolbox,” could be useful in getting out to the people rather than expecting them to come to us.

Where are we resilient in our communities and where do you think we need to build more resiliency as a province and/or country?

We need to consider how different populations in our communities have been impacted, and what role can planners play in limiting these impacts in the future. During the pandemic, very different impacts across our communities have been experienced between:

• young and old,
• urban and rural,
• working from home versus relying on transit to get to work, or
• those living in a downtown versus those with backyards.

The ability to be outdoors, whether in public or private space, is crucial to our physical and mental health. Vulnerable populations, including those living in poverty, seeking to escape abusive living arrangements, or with physical or cognitive impairments have also been put under even greater stress by COVID-19. 
 
I think resiliency in type and location of housing and access to space and food should be considered. Housing types such as co-living arrangements, emergency shelters, long-term care facilities, or even common areas in multi-unit housing may need to function differently moving forward. Impacts on the housing market coming out of the pandemic also remain uncertain. Adjustments to sidewalks, transit systems, public spaces, and parks could be required as well. Additional opportunities to safely get outside, whether through additional trails, bike lanes, or communal spaces, remains paramount. In saying this, we also need to be cognizant of not “over-designing” as a reaction to our current conditions.
 
Food security and access to local food are also key considerations for resiliency in our communities. Planning for agricultural systems from production through to the consumer is important. Changes in how food is accessed locally whether due to changes in retail, farmers markets, or more personal small-scale production (e.g. urban agriculture or community gardens) all warrant continued consideration.
 
None of the above is meant to blame density or insinuate that density leads to higher infection rates. Rather the need for safe affordable age-friendly housing throughout our communities, with quality public spaces, and access to healthy food sources are areas planners can influence in building resiliency in our communities.