As a long-time advocate for positive urban change, Val Shuttleworth, the Chief Planner of York Region, has faced the challenge of keeping up with rapid transformation. Speaking about her career in York Region, Val marvels at the evolution that has taken place. “In 10 years, seeing York Region transform from a collection of towns and villages to an emerging urban entity has been very exciting for me,” Val remarks.

After spending the formative years of her career working as planning technician, planner and senior planner for the cities of Scarborough and North York where she focused mostly on their city centres, Val moved to what was then called the “Town” of Markham. She started there as a manager, but spent 10 years as Markham’s Director of Planning. During those 10 years, she advanced development of the urban fabric for Markham in the form of the Markham City Centre and new urbanism communities. Advocating for appropriate built form and densities in Markham and now being in a position to view how those decisions helped to shape the built environment is a source of pride and inspiration for Val. “Have you seen the view from Viva YRT office on Hwy 7?” Val asks. “That view is just awesome.”

Now in her fifth year at York Region, she brings 30 years of expertise working on urban centres to her leadership of the “Centers and Corridors” planning initiative. As the Region’s first ever Chief Planner, Shuttleworth modestly says her selection to this position shows “Council has some amount of confidence in my ability to provide them with good advice.”

In creating her position, the Regional Council recognized a need to get advice from a professional planner, to coordinate the planning for nine local cities and towns, and ensure that the Region as a whole was moving in the same direction. Her portfolio is vast and includes long range planning, growth management, economic development, the day-to-day management of development applications and ensuring that the Region grows according to the goals articulated in its official plan, Vision 2051, and the policies laid out by the province under the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan, Greenbelt Plan and Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

Given her experience, one wonders how Val thinks the planning world has changed over the years. She believes that the good news about planning right now is that there is a much greater focus on the long term implications of planning and much more thought given to how the decisions we make today will affect our ability to create the kinds of communities we want to live in.

However, according to Val, getting professional planners, the development industry, politicians and the public to “march to the beat of the same drum” is one area that could have far reaching consequences for the GTA. The provincial response through the current proposed amendments to the Growth Plan is, in her view, an attempt to restart the conversation and get everyone back on the same page.

Val’s time at work is spent envisioning the future of York Region, but to say that she meticulously planned her own career would be incorrect. When she started working as a planning technician for the City of Scarborough, she genuinely believed that she would devote her career to the drafting table. “Having moved from Niagara Falls, 30 years ago sitting at a drafting table as a planning technician, I never thought I would be Chief Planner for York Region. People, ask what my five year plan is or was? I never had a plan. I loved what I was doing so I just continued doing it,” she says.

The focus of Val’s career has been on dense urban environments, but she cautions that “the right type of suburban development” is crucial. “It’s not just the centres and transit. You also need to change how you are planning new subdivisions and communities,” she says. Val gives the example of the City of Markham, which she believes was well ahead of the curve with communities such as Cornell, Angus Glen, Greensborough, Berczy and Wismer, where thoughtful planning created great new complete communities. Val’s concern is that often good planning practices do not get executed due to external pressures and more work needs to be done in the execution.

As a female leader, Val notices that there has been progress in the number of women in planning, particularly on the policy side, in both the public and private sector; however, she feels that there is still a dearth of women on the private development side of planning and in senior roles.

Val notes that lately she has become more vocal about the gender disparity and works to promote greater female participation. Val counters the stereotype that women often don’t help other women in the business world and fondly remembers how all her favorite bosses were mostly women. As a female leader herself, she feels that women bring “nurturing” competencies such as developing others and building relationships, which work especially well when leading large groups.

Val’s advice to the emerging generation of planners is to make sure that “you don’t pigeonhole yourself into one area.” There are more opportunities within planning now, compared to earlier times. The marrying of planning with so many other professions such as GIS, engineering and architecture create real opportunities in her view.

Another key piece of advice she gives is to “stay on top of the technology.” Val remembers how in her early career she was the “techno queen” of her office and could make her “PowerPoint dance.” She recalls how she kept up with all the technology for a few decades but jokes that now, she sometimes “feels like a dinosaur.”

Val’s goal as Chief Planner is to cultivate a climate of innovation in York Region by introducing new ideas and using sophisticated data analysis to improve procedures. This year, Val is particularly excited to be helping to launch “York Link,” a promotional initiative targeted to attract businesses and talent to York Region’s centres and corridors, and “York One,” an initiative to revamp the development application review and approval process, including a new tracking system.

In her personal time, Val serves on the board of the Learning Disability District Association’s Toronto Chapter. She is passionate about this cause because her youngest son successfully overcame a communication learning disability. Learning disabilities are largely invisible, but manageable if diagnosed early and properly supported. This is why she has also established the Robert David Shuttleworth Memorial Fund in her son’s name to help other children receive early assessment and support. She is passionate about raising awareness of learning disability and the association that is there with services and resources to help.

Val Shuttleworth decided to join Urban Land Institute (ULI) after Richard Joy, Executive Director of ULI Toronto, approached her to help expand ULI beyond downtown Toronto into the 905 area. She is driven to ensure the 905 is noticed and is at the table when emerging urban issues are discussed and she believes ULI can help. She was impressed by the common message she heard at the “Meet the Chiefs” gala organized by ULI Toronto and the event resonated with her. In future, she looks forward to ULI events in York Region.

Being an advocate for change, and most importantly a doer in one’s career, doesn’t happen without formidable challenges along the way, so how does Val deal with them? “If I faced any challenges, I didn’t recognize them as such. I just never said ‘no’ to an opportunity that I found interesting. I didn’t stop and think whether I could do something or not. If I found it exciting, I just went for it and for the most part it has worked out.”

Perhaps the above quote sums Val Shuttleworth the best – as a visionary who sees every challenge as an opportunity, never gives up and never quits.