Health and the built environment
Changes to Peel Region's Role in Land Use Planning
On July 1, 2024, under the Planning Act, Peel Region was designated an "upper-tier municipality without planning responsibilities." Consequently, the Cities of Brampton and Mississauga and the Town of Caledon are the land use planning authorities responsible for local and regional official plans and development applications. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing is the approval authority for certain official plan reviews and amendments.
On February 23, 2017, Regional Council adopted Regional Official Plan Amendment (ROPA) 27. ROPA 27 includes policies related to health and the built environment, age-friendly planning, and technical and administrative updates.
About Health and the built environment policies
Community health is significantly impacted by the built environment, which consists of transportation systems, land use patterns and urban design.
Traditional suburban design includes low density land uses and automobile dependence. This can lead to:
- Poor health behaviours (primarily low levels of physical activity).
- An increased risk of obesity.
- Increased chronic disease, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, asthma and respiratory disease.
In 2009, Peel Public Health conducted a research review in partnership with McMaster University and St. Michael's Hospital to establish an evidence base for creating healthy built environments in Peel.
The Healthy Development Framework (HDF) has since been created to build on the research to create a planning tool to assess the health potential of the built form. The HDF is a collection of local, context-specific tools that assess the health-promoting potential neighbourhoods in Peel.
The Region also created the Healthy Development Assessment (HDA) - a key component of the HDF - to monitor and evaluate the development of healthy communities across the Region.
Healthy communities are impacted by 6 interconnected core elements of the built environment.
The HDA considers these core elements:
- Density
- Service proximity
- Land use mix
- Street connectivity
- Streetscape characteristics
- Efficient parking
The Regional Healthy development assessment is available for review.
Peel 2041 policies:
- Require new development applicants to complete a health assessment as part of the development application process. The results must be reported to local Council.
- Require health assessments for all Regionally or municipally owned and operated public facility project applications to enhance and encourage regular use of the Healthy Development Framework.
- Improve the expansion of our built environment.