Students, staff, planners and special guests gathered at Clive School on Nov. 19th to celebrate World Town Planning Day.
Through a series of hands on activities, the students learned all about what it takes to be a planner - from determining where to build schools, churches or parks, to dictating land use and creating maps, the students were brimming full of ideas and designs throughout the afternoon.
Community planners from Lacombe County, the City of Lacombe and Parkland Community Planning Services were all in attendance to interact with the students.
Celebrated internationally, World Town Planning Day is a day set aside to promote a better understanding and awareness of Canadian planners and planning to communities at all levels of government. The day was first initiated in 1949 by Carlos Maria della Paolera in Argentina to create awareness within the public and professionals in planning, not only on the local level, but also abroad.
The greater purpose of the Clive event was to launch the Village’s sustainability plan process for the greater community of Clive, including both urban and rural.
The students first started off the celebration in the gym where they danced and learned about what exactly a planner does. Then, for the afternoon, each classroom was visited by a planner who led the students in a planning activity such as designing their own town, building houses or looking at land use zones within Clive or Lacombe County.
Mayor of the Village of Clive Anita Gillard visited the Grade 9 classroom to guide the students through a mock public hearing on three issues.
The classroom was transformed into a council chamber and the students, acting as citizens of Clive, voiced their opinions for or against amending the land use bylaw to allow arcades in the village, amending the land use bylaw to permit citizens to raise chickens within the municipality and amending a bylaw to ban laptops in schools.
The students prepared for the public hearings beforehand and each had statements to read out loud, just as a citizen would in a real public hearing.
To round off the afternoon, the students returned to the gym for a final celebration, where the Grade 3’s showed the school what they created - their town called Imaginetown. The Kindergarten class built the structures in the town, but the Grade 3 class gave the town a name and its own mayor.
Students at the school will continue to be involved in the Clive planning and consultation process throughout the next six months.
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