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GOAL 5
BUILD HEALTHY
ATTRACTIVE
COMMUNITIES
Engage the public, build healthy environ-
ments, maximize existing infrastructure, and
promote attractive design.
Modern urban planning began with the mission of
creating a healthy built environment separate from
the detrimental conditions of the 19
th
Century in-
dustrial expansion. While our understanding and
planning approaches have changed, the healthy com-
munity goal has remained. Current planning best
practices and engineering technologies in land use,
transportation, servicing and other areas are essen-
tially a means to an end: community and individual
health and well-being.
The earlier policies of this Plan concerning complete
community growth strategy, agricultural/economic
development and environmental protection, define
the overall setting of healthy community develop-
ment. Under Goal 5, the Plan presents the inner
workings of Chilliwack’s “healthy” and “attractive”
community vision. In emphasizing the healthy com-
munity goal, this section outlines social and cultural
objectives and policies, and lays out guidelines for
land use designation, housing development, urban
design, transportation routes/capacity, and other in-
frastructure and amenity provision.
Healthy community is based on two premises:
1. Health embraces both physical and mental health,
and general social well-being as reflected in social
interaction, community participation and inclu-
sion.
2. The built environment affects people’s daily ac-
tivities and experiences by ways of how different
uses are positioned, conducted and connected.
Collectively, the built environments of individual
communities also determine the regional urban-
ization pattern, transportation, air quality, inter-
city commuting and lifestyle.
Therefore, healthy community planning in the OCP
context emphasizes the following:
•
Assessment and monitoring of community
health and social well-being, and identifica-
tion of actions that can lead to improvement.
•
A community design that fosters social in-
teraction and inclusion, such as an effective
layout and density and high connectivity of
transportation systems, including roads, the
transit system, and alternative transporta-
tion (cycling and walking).
•
Development sites that are safe or protected
from the flood risk of the Fraser and Chilli-
wack/Vedder River, unstable slopes, debris
flows and other natural hazards.
•
Land uses that support appropriate combi-
nation of homes, businesses, community and
cultural facilities and employment growth.
•
A multi-modal mobility system that gives due
priority to active transportation (cycling and
walking) to promote health.
•
Access to recreational facilities and green
spaces.
•
Safe, comfortable and attractive streets, pub-
lic spaces, buildings and structures.
•
Healthy and resilient natural environments
and biodiversity.
•
Child-friendly and age friendly community
nature/features.
These healthy community foci do not displace the
traditional municipal planning functions such as pro-
viding adequate utility services and road capacities;
however, they do influence how these municipal ser-
Goal 5 - Build Healthy Attractive Communities