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You can still have your say before a city committee meets on Oct. 14.
Author of the article:
Scott Moffatt, Eli El-Chantiry
Publishing date:
Sep 28, 2021 • 2 days ago • 3 minute read • 6 Comments

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It’s been nearly two years since Ottawa Council launched the development of the city of Ottawa’s new Official Plan. Our planning department has been building this plan for even longer. This is an incredibly important document, and it was important we took the time to get it right.
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Ottawa has had virtually the same Official Plan since shortly after the city amalgamated in 2003. There have been updates but, let’s face it, it’s an old plan, and not what you’d call visionary. But now – or about a month from now – council is set to adopt a completely new Official Plan.
After years of word-smithing, consultation, research and feedback from council, our city planners have reimagined Ottawa’s most comprehensive planning document. What started out as a plan comprised of an amalgamation of old policies, brought together from the municipalities that used to make up this region, has become a plan that will set us on a path to becoming the most livable city in North America.
That’s not to say we threw everything out; there are plenty of established policies that need to be carried over. We will, though, flag a few major changes, starting with policies around growth.
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Ottawa will grow. Our population is set to increase 40 per cent in the next 25 years and reach two million by the end of the century. We’ll need places for residents to live affordably. The first steps toward that goal are new Official Plan policies that encourage growth through intensification.
Building up existing communities and expanding less onto undeveloped lands will make Ottawa more affordable because the infrastructure — the roads, parks, water pipes and sewers that result in higher taxes — already exist. There are already services in place too, like community centres and transit.
The new plan also builds on that intensification by introducing new policy tools that give the city authority to require greater housing affordability as part of development. Policies that seek to protect renters from eviction in the face of redevelopment will help with affordability, as will those that reduce limits around certain types of communal housing. Encouraging new and diverse housing types, with more units, that suit the evolving needs of our population can only improve housing affordability by making sure the supply is there for residents of all income levels.
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That’s just some of how the new Official Plan encourages smart growth. What’s really interesting is when you layer in the concept of 15-minute neighbourhoods. The new plan sets conditions to encourage that new growth to happen in and around existing neighbourhoods.
Communities will see new residential space and the commercial development that residents rely on — all centred on the city’s major transportation hubs. The city would then add, or work with partners to add, the necessary schools, parks and other needed facilities, making the places we live easier to get around without relying entirely on our cars.
The 15-minute neighbourhood concept moves Ottawa beyond policies that promote locally oriented services more generally by setting conditions for a diverse mix of housing, services, schools and green spaces in each community. The new Official Plan will deliver services and facilities that are truly local to each neighbourhood. It also has policies to help incubate new local-serving businesses and services throughout the urban area and in rural villages.
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There’s much more to be excited about — including policies that encourage sustainable transportation, promote design that’s resilient to climate change and establish a stronger relationship between land-use and economic development. It’s hard to summarize five years of work in a few short paragraphs.
If we’ve grabbed your interest, you might want to take part in the Sept. 29 Open House, or check out ottawa.ca/NewOP where you can still have your say about the plan before we consider it at planning committee on Oct. 14.
Scott Moffatt is co-chair of the city’s planning committee and councillor for Ward 21. Eli El-Chantiry is chair of the agriculture and rural affairs committee and councillor for Ward 5.
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