Category: Official Plan 2021

The City of Ottawa released the first draft of its new Official Plan on November 20, 2020. After years of high level discussion papers, strategic policy directions, deferred growth management decisions, we would finally see what the City concretely intended to put in the new Official Plan. It wasn’t easy to discern however as the draft OP is a massive 264 page document, plus schedules and annexes. A deadline of

We don’t want any urban expansion, because climate change. In May 2019, we proposed a No Expansion scenario, with 63.5% of projected growth to be achieved through intensification, the balance by building out the remaining vacant greenfields already inside the urban area. The City concedes that: “This scenario represents the greatest extent to which growth management can contribute to achieving policy directions where most growth occurs through intensification, growth uses existing

On September 24, City staff briefed the FCA-GOHBA (Federation of Citizens’ Associations, of which the Greenspace Alliance is a member, and the Greater Ottawa Home Builders Association) stakeholders group  on policy directions expected in the draft Official Plan that will be released in late November 2020. In an extensive presentation, senior planning staff gave the attendees a first look at the proposed structure of the new Official Plan. New concepts

Last December 13, students in Queen’s University Urban Planning Program presented the result of a project, Canada’s Resilient Capital: Ottawa in the Next Half Century.  The project was devised and executed in cooperation with the City, under the supervision of David Gordon. (The clients are identified as John Smit and Alain Miguelez.) Their Report (181 pp.) and Executive Summary (3 pp.) are now available from here: http://www.queensu.ca/geographyandplanning/surp/project-courses. Here are the

The Greenspace Alliance was invited to sit as a member of the Sounding Board for the City planning exercise Beyond 2036. The goal of this planning project was to set the scene and context for the next review of the Official Plan. Through its participation at meetings and workshops organized by city planners over several months, the GA contributed to the production and review of the planning reports listed on

One-page infographic: Sustainability Goals (E/F) Reports 2011 Baseline Report (5.3 MB; 31 pp.) Sustainability and Resilience (8.2 MB; 120 pp.) Energy (5.3 MB; 78 pp.) Risk Prevention and Mitigation (7.8 MB; 50 pp.) Discussion Papers (June 2011): The Future of… …Land Use, Growth Management and Urban Form (0.8 MB, 21 pp.) …Natural Systems (0.8 MB; 15 pp.) …Food and Farming (1.3 MB; 23 pp.) …Buildings and Energy Supply (1.1 MB; 27 pp.) …Mobility (1.1

On May 28, 2008 at Planning Committee, purportedly as part of the “Beyond 20/20” Official Plan review, City staff tabled a White Paper on “Development in the Greenbelt.” On whose request this paper was written has remained a mystery, though the rumour was widespread that it was written at the behest of then Mayor Larry O’Brien. The paper surveyed the economic impact of the Greenbelt, what it costs to maintain it,

One of the provisions of the 2003 Ottawa Official Plan that the Greenspace Alliance appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board regarded section 3.2.4, on Rural Natural Features. Certain lands on Schedule A of the Plan are designated RNF. They roughly correspond with lands that were identified as of Medium or higher significance in the former Region’s Natural Area Evaluation published in 1997. Development is allowed in them, but an Environmental