I am a senior environmental…

I am a senior environmental planner who has over 15 years of experience.

In my experience green standards are not applied consistently. It often depends on municipal staff expertise. Rural municipalities with few staff will likely not be able to implement. Larger municipalities like Toronto have specialized staff.

Green standards are an important part of climate change and creating complete liveable and desirable communities. They increase aesthetics and provide cooler air temperatures. However, they should be standardized to make it easy for municipalities and developers.

At minimum development subject to site plan should be required to:
- Achieve a minimum 30% tree canopy at maturity by planting along the lot lines (side, rear, and front).
- Use pollinator type gardens instead of grass. This cuts down on the need to mow, improves stormwater management and soil quality. It is better for the environment. We need to move away from manicured grass lawns expect where necessary for things like baseball and soccer fields.
- Where stormwater ponds are required they should be naturalized. Ducks unlimited has great resources on creating natural storm ponds. There should be standard engineering and landscaping protocols.

Building standards, water saving and wastewater saving should be standard in the building code and not for planners to review.