In preparation for the next revision of the Official Plan, the City has launched the Beyond 20136 Sounding Board. Around 50 representatives from a wide spectrum of organization and interests, public, private and from civil society have been invited by the City to advise it on how to frame and position the next revision of the Official Plan. What approach should it take? What kind of public engagement? Clean slate or amendments to the existing Official Plan?

Paul Johanis, the current chair of the Greenspace Alliance, was one of those invited to be a member of this sounding board. A first meeting of this group was held on October 26 at City Hall. It was a general introduction to the group, the process and the expectations, although fairly loosely framed as the City would like to keep all options open at this time.

Stephen Willis, the General Manager of Planning, Infrastructure and Economic Development, welcomed all the participants and laid out the general outline of what was expected in a brief presentation.

This was followed by presentations by planning consultations, including a very stimulating talk by Joe Berridge, of Urban Strategies.

The next meeting of the Sounding Board is scheduled for January 10, 2018.

New updated content: 2018-02-26 18:01:19

(February 12)

Paul attended, reporting that attendees were asked to come up with ideas of what kind of city they can realistically see Ottawa becoming four decades out, based on specific criteria such as economic development, built form and greenspace. These ideas will be combined by city staff into scenarios, which will form the context for the next round of the Official Plan. There will be two more meetings before the results of the study are compiled and brought forward to Planning Committee near the end June.

Action: Paul will circulate the scenario that was developed at his table as an example.