Policies & Threats Related to Greenspaces
Once again, hearings which were scheduled to take two weeks, were disposed of in a 20-minute teleconference call on June 11, 2019. Settlement with all appellants had been presented to Council on March 6 (Item 23) and April 10 (Item 1). On the appeals of OPA 179 (Significant Woodlands), the settlement involved a change from 40 to 60 years as the minimum age of an urban woodlot to be designated
The pre-hearing conference of May 22 was over within the hour. The main business was the City’s motion to settle all appeals related to “Building Heights and Design.” This was presented to Planning Committee on April 11, 2019 (item 8) and endorsed by City Council on April 24 (item 20). The City could now announce that the last appellant (Bridgeport) had withdrawn its appeal and that settlement had been reached
In a session that lasted less than two hours, the City presented two settlements that had been reached with various appellants: One party’s appeal of OPA 180 and a large number of OPA 150 appeals by the Greater Ottawa Homebuilders Association (GOHBA) and the Building Owners and Management Association (BOMA). The settlements had previously been presented to Planning Committee and approved by Council on October 10. (Also recall the related
The Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT, formerly OMB) held another pre-hearing conference last Friday morning. Its main outcome is that the dates are set for hearings of the various appeals of OPA 150/140/179/180, the cluster of Comprehensive Official Plan review amendments: Appeals on Mineral Aggregates matters, which are expected to take only two days, will be heard on October 23 and 24, 2018. Other hearings will take place starting on
January 3 was booked as the first of three days for an Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) Pre-Hearing Conference to consider a raft of appeals on a long list of matters, but it was all over by 1 p.m. So while everything hummed along smoothly, the last hour produced a nasty surprise. At issue were the appeals of – OPA 150, approved by Council in December 2013 but derailed by the
Pre-hearing conference of January 3, 2018 Pre-hearing conference of May 4, 2018 The consolidated text of the Official Plan, as of October 2018 (PDF – 15 MB), annotated Pre-hearing conference of October 22, 2018 Pre-hearing conference of May 22, 2019 (includes Building Heights and Design settlement) Hearings (and links to the respective Procedural Order) + Mineral Aggregates – October 23-24, 2018 + Agricultural matters: March 4, 2019 (10 days) (PO) UPDATE:
Adapted from our 2015-16 Annual Report: …by the end of 2013, the City proceeded with the revision of the Development Charges By-law, to be completed by June 2014 as prescribed by the Development Charges Act. The public was excluded from this process, despite a joint effort by the Alliance, the Federation of Citizens’ Associations (FCA) and the Healthy Transportation Coalition (media release of 31 March 2014). At the last minute
On November 12, 2016, staff made its report available regarding what it then called “OPA 2016” but which soon officially became OPA 180. The report has 12 supporting documents, including the draft amendment in a somewhat easier-to-read format, the growth projections and an addendum, an employment lands review update, Volumes 1 and 2 of the LEAR report and a LEAR Implementation report, a letter from the Ministry of Agriculture, a
On September 29, 2016, the City revealed its updated projections for Ottawa’s population, housing and jobs. The projections are extended to 2036. Several methodological improvements were made compared to the exercise in 2007. Here are the Highlights. And here are the slides used by staff at the meeting (corrected for an error). Finally, here is the Growth Projections Report and its Addendum, as presented to Committees and Council. Comment: The
A draft report (8.3 MB) became available on May 3, 2016. The final report (9.2 MB) became available on September 7 and was the subject of a staff presentation (43 slides, 3.1 MB) at Planning Committee on September 13. It does not appear to vary much from the draft report. (The staff report is here.) The key finding remains that Ottawa has enough Employment Lands (read: Business Parks) to meet
