It’s the Town of Hinton’s turn to develop a 30 year Community Sustainability Plan (CSP), which according to a statement issued by the town, will leave “a positive legacy for future generations.”

The plan will “provide an opportunity for all citizens to engage and define their vision of Hinton... to collectively advance clear priorities and continue to progressively move forward,” said Mayor of Hinton Glenn Taylor.

To kick start the plan and community engagement, Hintonites are being asked, “what do you value about Hinton and area today?” and “what is your vision for Hinton and area in 30 years?”

Also, the town is currently seeking people to form the Citizen’s Advisory Group which will actively engage Hintonites throughout the process.

“We’re advertising for an advisory group to work on sustainable principles. The cut off is August 13,” said Wendy Lesser, municipal sustainability co-ordinator for the town of Hinton. “We’ll have between 11 and 13 members and want a full representation of the five pillars of sustainability.”

The town hopes to have working groups formed by September, with the plan unveiled to the public by May 2010, Lesser said.

The CSP will address the social, economic, cultural, environmental, and governance questions which are the five pillars of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association is encouraging communities to consider when making decisions about the sustainable development of their communities.

Lesser said the town is looking to learn from other communities that are currently rewriting their development plans, such as Jasper.

“We’ve learned a lot of lessons from other municipalities, who tell us the overall challenge is engagement,” Lesser said.

The plan, which looks forward 30 years, will identify short, medium and long term actions for implementation and will be reviewed annually, according to the town.

Rather than call the project a development plan – the former title for such documents, Hinton chose to follow a sustainability plan framework in hope of achieving greater involvement from the community.

Lesser said she’s already fielded a number of calls from those looking to join the working group. To be eligible, citizens must live in Hinton.

Anyone wanting to be on the Citizen’s Advisory Group is asked to visit www.hinton.ca by August 13 and people can start taking part in the plan by visiting the same website. 

~ With files from Justin Brisbane