2022 API Conference Program

In 2013, the City of Charlottetown implemented a new secondary plan for the 500 Lot Area (Downtown Charlottetown) that included provisions for a form based code and design review process to assist Council, staff, developers and the public with new tools to ensure compatible and harmonious development in the historic downtown. In particular ,the new plan provided additional planning review processes and criteria to ensure that proper design requirements were reviewed and addressed in order to respond to concerns with how new development proposals were impacting the existing built form and historic downtown fabric and neighbourhoods. The tour will involve a number of recent buildings that required design review of their plans and will highlight the issues that were discussed and outline some of the discussion and concerns by the City’s Design Review Committee. The Design Review Committee is similar to a Heritage Design Committee wherein their focus is on new construction and design criteria as opposed to renovating and updating older heritage building stock. The tour will highlight the successes of these recent changes and garner discussion with planners as to what they like and dislike about the projects under review.

Places are locations that have meaning for people. They reflect our unique character, diverse culture, collective heritage, and shared aspirations. There are reasons that make you want to come back to a great place, or stay longer—like thoughtful infrastructure, interesting activities, and good management. Great places are authentic and connected, livable and lovable, and they create a sense of belonging. Beyond beautification, placemaking projects achieve the greatest impact when implemented by community groups that transform underperforming public spaces or co-create new ones using a process that gives a diversity of individuals a say in how their community is shaped. Ongoing programming, activations, and community engagement allows these projects to contribute to community pride and sense of place.
In this session, presenters will share experiences and lessons learned in working with communities on placemaking projects. Participants will come away with a better understanding of what an authentic place is and the tools and processes needed to create them.

HRM has often been called a mid-size city with big-city housing problems, but recent population growth and the pandemic further exacerbating lack of access to affordable housing. In this presentation HRM policy planners will provide an overview of HRM’s experience in initiatives related to local solutions to the “housing crunch”. Over the past several years the HRMs Regional and Community Policy Teams have worked on several initiatives that relate to simplifying land use processes, removing land use barriers and modernizing planning rules. This ranges from work related to updating our Regional Plan and region wide policy changes, such as secondary and backyard suites and shared housing, to allow for more housing diversity and affordable options. This presentation will highlight the highs and lows of the planning process, importance of community partnerships and stress the importance of the municipal role in resolving the housing crisis.

The ease on travel restrictions and the return to in-person instruction at post-secondary institutions for the Fall 2021 semester meant that international students would be able to travel to Halifax, Nova Scotia for their education. However, the ongoing housing crisis in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), and federal and provincial policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic complicated their move.

The intersection of crises placed international graduate students in an especially difficult situation. The limited availability of on-campus housing for graduate students forced them to look in an already-saturated rental market. Furthermore, international graduate students face barriers in the market due to their newcomer status.

As post-secondary institutions continue to attract international students, it is important to understand their unique situations as they arrive to Atlantic Canada. This increase in recruitment is reflected in the Government of Canada’s International Education Strategy. Furthermore, housing for students cannot be understood as a silo and as the sole responsibility of post-secondary institutions. It requires a wider, coordinated approach to housing that involves different levels of government.

This presentation is based on a study prepared for a class project that explored the challenges that international graduate students at Dalhousie University’s Halifax campus faced in their search for adequate housing for the Fall 2021 semester.

375 years of Missing Middle; How the ‘Montrealness’ of Montreal has created missing middle homes, walkable communities, equitable city for all and what can we apply to the development in the Atlantic communities.

This panel will explore the historical formation of Montreal, the core principles of the “Montrealness” of Montreal and the planning approaches to these principles in modern form that continue the notion of Missing Middle in new ways.

This session will highlight best practices and lessons learned from Montreal and how they can be adapted to urban and rural contexts in the Atlantic. It aims to inspire other communities that meet challenges linked to growth while not losing its urban form and identity.

In this session participants will tour the Town of Kensignton’s Core Main Street Area using the Main Street Assessment Method. The Method gives everyone, from youth and seniors to professional planners, the tools to critically examine a Main Street and collaboratively plan for its future. The Method is meant to spark conversations across a broad range of topics including rural densification, public spaces, natural infrastructure, public participation, and accessibility. Conference participants will develop a first-hand understanding of the Main Street Assessment Method which will enable them to use the Method in their work and/or support the use of the tool by local community groups. Note: We plan to be outdoors for most of the afternoon – please bring good walking shoes and dress for the weather.

While most housing conversations focus on challenges in urban areas, rural communities face extreme challenges as well. Since 2019 SNBSC has been working with partners to provide data and support to build capacity in the region. We would like to share our experiences and what we have learned over the last 3 years since many rural communities are facing the same challenges. We are also interested in hearing attendees’ experiences dealing with these challenges as one thing is abundantly clear – more collaboration and partnerships = more desperately needed housing.

Living shorelines is a technique that uses plants and other natural elements, sometimes in combination with harder structures, to stabilize the coast. We will visit two living shoreline project sites along the Hillsborough River and estuary: Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Charlottetown, and Tea Hill Park in Stratford. Danika van Proosdij and Kelly Umlah, from TransCoastal Adaptations, Kirsten Ellis from CB Wetlands and Environmental Specialists, and Charlotte Large with the PEI Watershed Alliance will explain the projects and the benefits of living shorelines.

This session will deliver a platform for critical discussion with colleagues in the Atlantic Region about accessibility and the roles of planning, drawing on lessons learned in Nova Scotia. The panel speakers will discuss their experiences related to accessibility planning in their jurisdictions, also relating to the subtheme of Lessons from COVID.

In the Atlantic Region, Nova Scotia has mandated all municipalities to develop an accessibility plan under its Accessibility Act (2017), and Newfoundland and Labrador just enacted its Accessibility Act (December 2021). It is timely for planning professionals in Atlantic Canada to carry out, along with allied professionals, a forum to learn from the practical application of this new focus in the Region and exchange ideas for next steps forward in creating places that persons of all ages and (dis)abilities can live, work, and play.

Accessibility here means a society’s capacity to enable everyone to equitably access opportunities in life—from utilizing services, gaining employment, and accessing information, to participating in social life, contributing to the local economy, and supporting decision making important for the community. While the concept of accessibility suggests that planners have a substantial role to play, planners have not yet led the effort of creating accessible built and social environments in a significant way. We hope this panel will provide an opportunity to foster a dialogue and identify champions in the efforts that elevate our practice on accessibility in the region.

To become an effective ally, the presenter will touch on the importance of Reconciliation and the 94 Calls to Action as well as the United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Peoples. Learn as much as we can on First Nation history and culture including the impacts; after first contact, the Royal Proclamation, the Indian Act, Section 35 of the Constitutional Act 1982 and the Residential School System. He will share the City of Fredericton’s Allyship journey so far and its plans moving forward.

Main streets, whether they serve an entire city or town or a local neighbourhood, carry important economic, cultural, and social functions. Main streets are not only places of economic opportunity; they are also where people of all backgrounds come together to share common experiences and participate in civic life. The buildings and public spaces along main street often contribute to the image and identity of the place.

Shifts in how and where we live and shop have led to a decentralization of people and activity, resulting in disinvestment along main streets. More recent trends like the rise of on-line shopping have brought about new challenges, which have only been exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic.

For this session, Urban Strategies Inc. and the City of Saint John have partnered to facilitate a discussion around the future of local main streets. What trends are impacting the vitality of main streets? What strategies have municipalities applied to bring about positive change? Do we need to rethink the role of main streets? We will explore these questions and others in the context of Adelaide Street in Saint John’s North End, a street that’s planned as a traditional neighbourhood service corridor.

In the first part of this session, Tolulope Victoria Akerele will provide an overview of her doctoral research on building inclusive cities and mobility systems for immigrants in Atlantic Canada. It draws on a systematic study establishing the importance of enhancing immigrants’ direct participation in the transit governance and planning process in Atlantic Canada. It asks about immigrants’ experiences within transit spaces and how municipal transit policy frames immigrant participation in transit planning, mobility, equity, and inclusion. It takes a mixed-methods approach, combining policy document analysis, key informant interviews with an online survey and ride-along interviews while focusing on St. John’s, Newfoundland and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Although currently in the data collection stage, it will present preliminary results from the key informant interviews and an online survey. As an immigrant herself, Presenter Tolulope Victoria Akerele will share how the study can inform transit policies, improve Atlantic Canada’s attraction as an immigrant destination and improve immigrant integration.

The second part of this session will explore how various planning strategies can be applied to achieve oral health equity at the community level. This project by a team of Master of Planning students at Dalhousie University looks at Spryfield – a sprawled suburb of Halifax, Nova Scotia – as a case study in improving oral health access for immigrants. Spryfield currently faces barriers to achieving equitable oral health. Following spatial analyses, a review of literature, and qualitative research, we refined three planning strategies to be applied to Spryfield: education & outreach, land-use planning, and mobile dentistry.

The presentation will review common determinants of oral health inequity, a background study of Spryfield’s oral health barriers, and the details of each planning strategy. We hope that our presentation encourages further discussions regarding the role of planning in promoting oral health equity and access.