Planning Excellence
The Canadian Institute of Planners annual Awards for Planning Excellence honour planning projects judged on their excellence, innovation, impact on the profession, implementation potential, and overall presentation. All of these projects are deserving of recognition for their excellence in planning work, their contribution to the profession, and for showing particular strength in the category under which they won their award.
Awards for Planning Excellence Winners
For information on winners from any given year, please click below for the list of each year's award recipients.
2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 - 1990 | 1989 - 1983
Awards for Planning Excellence Guidelines
1. Objectives
The purpose of the CIP annual awards is to recognize significant achievement in the field of planning. In particular, the awards program should:
- recognize submissions that demonstrate excellence, innovation, impact on the field of expertise, implementation potential and quality of presentation.
- communicate the process and results in a professional way to the members, related professions, employers and the public.
2. Submission Criteria
The projects being submitted must have been carried out during the period January 1st, 2008 to December 31st, 2009. Submissions may come from Fellows, Full Members, provisional members, and may have been accepted by a client or community group and not necessarily been adopted by legislation or other formal mechanisms.
CIP encourages submissions from communities of all sizes as well as for projects of all sizes. Your entry may consist of a plan or a policy; a physical design concept; applied research; communication materials; or other, such as photos, video, etc.
3. Awards Jury
The Awards Committee serves as the Awards Jury each year. The Chair of the Awards Committee is a Full Member, who selects other members of the Committee in consultation with Council. The Chairman's term shall be for a period of three years, (with a maximum of two consecutive terms). The Committee should consist of 10 to 12 members (including the Chair). The Committee should include experienced members with a variety of backgrounds, representative of Canadian regions as well as both genders and languages. Committee members shall be appointed for a one-year renewable term.
4. Selection of Short List
The Jury shall hold a conference call to discuss the evaluation criteria, award categories and resolve questions as to process, and be introduced to each other by telephone. It is estimated that each juror will devote the equivalent of a half day reviewing background materials, becoming familiar with the awards program and participating in this first conference call.
Once the submissions are received and distributed to the jury, a second conference call will be arranged to develop a short list. Normally the short list shall comprise the top three submissions in each category -- however, the Awards Jury shall have the option of choosing a lesser or greater number for the short list. Ideally, each juror should develop their own short list in advance of this conference call, and provide it to the committee Chair and CIP. This call will also allow discussion of any contentious items or matters requiring clarification. It is estimated each juror will spend the equivalent of two-three days reviewing and evaluating the submissions and participating in this second conference call.
Note on conflict of interest: No juror should make an award submission. Submissions from the department or firm of the juror (which are sometimes submitted without the juror's knowledge) should not be evaluated by that juror, and the juror should be assigned another category to review or consider withdrawing from the jury if the juror has been personally or closely involved with the submission and a replacement juror can be found.
5. Selection of Overall Winners
The Awards Jury shall hold a final conference call to determine the overall winners of the Awards for the Planning Excellence. A recording secretary should participate in this meeting and assist the chair in making notes and commentary on the reasons for the selection and the positive features of the submission. This is required for the announcements, press releases, video production and PLAN CANADA article.
6. Evaluation Criteria
- Innovation & Contribution to the Profession (introduction of an original concept or refinement of an existing technique or procedure. Importance to the profession, and portability of ideas and ease with which they can be accepted)
- Methodology (how the project is conceived and developed to the point of implementation)
- Clarity of Goals and Objectives (overall focus and degree of comprehensiveness relative to pertinent subject matter and topics to be addressed)
- Implementation (how the project can be implemented and effectiveness of the implementation strategy and/or programming)
- Overall Presentation (judged on organization and clarity of the text and graphics as well as completeness of research and recommendations - consideration will be given to the ease with which the contents and style is understood by the target audience)
- Public Participation (consideration will be given to the rationale and effectiveness of specific techniques used to share information between the proponent and the public at various points in the development of a project )
- Sustainability (how the project contributes to the quality of life and healthy community relative to environmental, economic, social and cultural attributes over the long term)
7. Categories of Awards
Submissions are entered within one or more of the following categories. The Awards Jury has the discretion to judge a submission under a category other than that entered.
City Planning
Cities present significant challenges to Canada’s planners. Downtowns in many cities and towns must redefine themselves in response to changes in urban form, retail environment, housing and location of work with consideration to heritage revitalization, re-urbanization and economic development. The Committee seeks examples of innovative and effective initiatives that enhance the social, economic, and environmental well being of city. In addition, the application should identify the challenges and demonstrate a clear link between the challenges and the solutions.
Environmental Planning
This category concerns the natural environment, interpreted here as the biotic environment and ecosystem generally. The Committee is interested in submissions that demonstrate a clear and strong link between land use planning and environmental planning. Examples could include environmental plans, planning-related research reports such as environmental impact analysis.
International Development
International development refers to the planning, development and implementation of capacity building initiatives in developing countries. Emphasis is given to the improvement of living conditions, in particular to projects that build local capacity through training of local populations, reinforcement of traditional values, establishment of healthy living conditions and improvement of essential infrastructure.
Neighbourhood Planning
Many planners believe that neighbourhoods are the foundation of community life. This is the level at which planning processes, policies and tools are experienced most directly. The Committee is interested in examples of neighbourhood-level land use plans, and specific neighbourhood-based planning processes that address issues of affordable housing, economic development, brown field redevelopment and heritage planning.
Planning for and Development of Aboriginal Communities
This category acknowledges the increasing attention that the planning and development of Aboriginal communities are receiving. Particular attention is given to the comprehensiveness of the planning processes – the degree of responsibility that Aboriginal people are taking in the development, implementation and monitoring of plans for their communities, the effectiveness of the processes in respecting and incorporating cultures, histories and traditions, developing capacity within the communities and the preparation of land use plans that realize environmental, economic and social sustainability.
Planning Publications
This category has been developed to recognize the contribution to the planning profession by research and policy publications. We invite submissions of articles, reports or books that educate or implement innovative planning policies or practice.
Recreation Planning
This category includes municipal recreation planning, such as urban parks planning, recreation systems planning, and planning for open space and natural features. The Committee also seeks examples of regional-scale park and conservation area planning.
Rural / Small Town Planning
CIP has created this category in an effort to bring planning efforts that occur in small urban and rural settings to the forefront. This category is based more on geography than on specific planning themes, thus encouraging professionals working in rural and small urban areas less than 50,000 population to submit projects from a wide range of topic areas. Examples of topic areas include: planning agricultural and natural settings, urban-rural interface, big city issues in small urban settings, social consequences of economic change within rural and small urban areas, and maintaining community identity in times of rapid change and scarce resources.
Social Planning
Planners work to improve quality of life and opportunity for a community’s residents. Demography, arts and culture, multi-culturalism, gender, and income issues, among many other factors, have a direct and significant impact on a community’s and its residents’ quality of life, health and sustainability. Provision of safe places, a plan for crime prevention and housing should be considered. Planning interventions could include examples of relevant, applied research, strategies or policies prepared by planners.
Transportation and Infrastructure
These topics are relevant in policy-making at all levels of government in Canada. Examples of infrastructure could include “hard” services such as waste management, water and waste water management systems, utility planning, and communications network planning. Transportation includes ground, air and/or water-borne transportation systems. Of interest would be submissions that address fiscal challenges in the implementation of transportation and infrastructure; and plans or strategies that demonstrate the integration of land use and transportation planning, and/or land use and infrastructure planning.
Urban Design
Planning and design that addresses public outdoor spaces, and the interface between public and private spaces and structures. This includes major urban public spaces, ceremonial spaces, plazas, urban waterfront developments, streetscapes, campuses and other major groupings of buildings with associated planned public outdoor spaces.
Submissions should demonstrate how urban design principles and land use policy have been applied to improving the quality of the life in the urban environment, considering: physical character, readability, physical and social integration with the existing urban fabric, adaptability of spaces, pedestrianism and alternative transportation modes.
These categories are reviewed each year during the first teleconference call meeting by the Awards committee to ensure that they are still relevant. On an annual basis, the committee may recommend new categories for Council's endorsement.
8. Presentation of Awards
Awards are presented during the annual conference. Normally the presentation occurs at an evening Gala dinner in conjunction with a multi-media presentation of award winners. CIP staff provide support to the Awards Committee in terms of planning the presentation, preparing the video show, administrative and technical support and media relations.
9. After the Awards Presentation
A special feature on the awards is published in the post-Conference issue of PLAN CANADA. This feature is also printed in a stand-alone document and is widely circulated.
10. Archive of Award Submissions
All winning CIP Award for Planning Excellence submissions are kept at the National office and added to the library.
Application Form
Guidelines and application forms for the 2010 Awards for Planning Excellence are now available.
Your submission must be received in the CIP office by: Monday March 15, 2010 at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Submissions will not be accepted after the deadline.You will not be notified of receipt of your submission, so please use a method of shipping that will allow you to track your parcel. Fax or e-mail submissions will not be accepted.
Guidelines and Application Form for the 2010 Awards for Planning Excellence
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