Components of the Unity Plan

Sustainability Plans are as individual as the communities who develop and adopt them but they tend to have a similar basic framework. The framework for the Unity Plan was developed and determined through the application process to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. The agreement states:

Specifically, the work plan will:

1. Synthesize community input on a sustainable community vision using interrelated dimensions of sustainability, natural, social/cultural and economic environments, and municipal governance;
2. Identify Huntsville's principles of sustainability within these dimensions;
3. Identify issue areas that need to be addressed in order to achieve the vision;
4. Identify and recommend actions to move toward the vision; and,
5. Develop a framework for implementation and monitoring.

The 6 basic phases of Integrated Community Sustainability Plan (Unity Plan) development will be used to guide the process; Structuring the Planning Process; Creating a Shared Understanding of Sustainable Community Success; Determining and Analyzing Strategy Areas for Community Success; Identify Initiatives to Move from the Current Reality toward the Descriptions of Success; Public Review and Consideration of the Draft Unity Plan; and Ongoing Monitoring and Implementation.

1. Outlines the purpose of the community collaboration and outreach that has been ongoing since the first week of January. There is a draft Community Collaboration and Outreach Report that has gone through numerous reviews from members of the community. That report will be posted online as soon as it gets final approval. As well, Information received from the community through presentations, discussions, telephone calls, emails, conversations, Council and Committee meetings, working group meetings and the public forum have been documented.

2. Draft Sustainability Principles have been prepared and you are free to comment on them. They were available at the Public Forum and I have posted them below for your review:

Town of Huntsville’s Draft Sustainability Principles

February 2010

1. 
   
   Provide a long term guide for this community that balances economic, environmental, and social needs.
2. 
   
   Provide a high quality of life for everyone in the community.
3. 
   
   Achieve a strong and resilient economy and a thriving social environment.
4. 
   
   Protect and restore biodiversity and natural ecosystems. Provide this community with the necessary tools to be good stewards of the environment.
5. 
   
   Build upon the positive characteristics of this community including its human and cultural values, history, and its natural and economic systems.
6. 
   
   Foster participation and enable a collaborative effort to work toward a common, sustainable future.
7. 
   
   Enable continual improvement of the sustainability plan through ongoing monitoring of plan performance and community needs.

The plan is just the beginning…

3. We are currently collecting reports, data, information, comments etc for section 3 - taking an inventory of what the community is already doing, what plans are already in place, identifying gaps and recording how that information relates to the comments all of you have made over the past weeks. Looking at the current reality... and then understanding how to get to where you want to be.

4. The next step in the process is to put all of the information we have gathered into a draft framework and the plan starts coming together... for your review.

5. An implementation and monitoring framework strategy will then be developed. This is a community-based plan and is not solely dependant on the municipality for all of its implementation. The strength of your community groups and partnerships will have an opportunity to shine...