Planning and Policy

Plans are essential documents for any community, city, or region. Plans can be used to chart hope, define goals, clarify responsibilities, and lay out strategy. At OrgCode, we believe that a plan should describe a desired future and how to get there, not conform to decisions that have already been made. A plan should also be attainable, which is why OrgCode’s planning services are evidence-informed and inspired by facts, not anecdotes.

We believe that plans should be accessible, so ours are written in plain language.  The act of planning is empowering, and community members should be invited to have their input.  There are natural tensions in creating a plan, but the deliberative process of planning inspires creativity and reveals opportunities.  That’s why our planning services involve the input of many stakeholders, draw on many different theories and approaches, and focus on positive change.

Services

Social Planning
Community Planning
Land Use Planning
Cultural Planning
Development Planning

Social Planning

In addition to our social policy work, OrgCode does extensive work in the field of social planning.  Social planning is a process through which communities, cities, or regions create a plan to enhance their quality of life.  We help build social plans by working with a range of stakeholders to identify social needs, primarily related to community vitality, economic prosperity and their equitable distribution.  We plan for the timely, coordinated and accessible provision of human services and assist in the process of institutional reform.

Community Planning

OrgCode uses a strength-based approach to community planning, enhancing local voices and striving for community empowerment.  Our goal is to ensure that all members of a community have an understanding of the planning process; this capacity-building approach means more people can meaningfully engage in the creation of plans.

We avoid a “silo approach” to planning by bringing together multiple planning disciplines, and encourage other disciplines such as community and social work, urban geography, community psychology, economics, architecture, education, fine arts and the like.  Our community planning services pragmatically link community needs with broader planning initiatives and vice versa.

Land Use Planning

Our team of planners provides many land use planning services including drafting, researching, evaluating, and updating Official Plans and Secondary Plans.  We plan for urban, rural and remote areas, as well as analyzing population, hard and soft infrastructure, and land supply needs for all jurisdictions.  Finally, we facilitate and mediate land use conflicts.

Cultural Planning

OrgCode realizes the importance of culture in any locality, and seek to preserve and enhance cultural resources in a community by strategically integrating it into day to day life.  We achieve this by mapping cultural assets, from knowledge and ethno-racial elements, to cultural and artistic facilities.  In all of our cultural planning services we examine culture in a holistic sense.  We recommend cultural programming opportunities that are relevant to the local population while performing business analysis to ensure that artistic investment is economically sustainable.  At OrgCode, we assist communities plan for festivals, tourism, public art, cultural education, and more, all catered to the local population.

Development Planning

OrgCode works with developers by undertaking feasibility studies, integrating development with Official and Secondary Plans, and facilitating variances.  We work with clients on new development projects as well as adaptive reuse of existing buildings.  In addition, we also assist our clients in developing partnerships by exposing them to potential opportunities for collaboration.

Examples

Developer (Name removed for confidentiality)
Missisauga, Ontario

A real estate developer in Mississauga was interested in rehabilitation of an existing light industrial property through adaptive reuse to change it to a residential use.  They turned to OrgCode to assess the opportunity, feasibility, and zoning amendments necessary to take the opportunity to the next step.

Developer (Name removed for confidentiality)
Southwestern Ontario

A boutique developer was examining historical properties in Southwestern Ontario to look for restaurant and retail opportunities at grade with residential on upper floors, they asked OrgCode to help them examine retrofit and rehabilitation options.