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 The City could now announce that the last appellant (Bridgeport) had withdrawn its appeal and that settlement had been reached
At Environment Committee, May 19, 2015 The Greenspace Alliance’s submission (May 19, 2015) The City’s new proposals and decision (October 2016; updated February 2019) ECO calls on the Province to lead stormwater funding reform (November 2016) Province proposes runoff volume control targets (July 2017) What Waterloo, Victoria and Halifax are doing About rain gardens and road run-off
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
New updated content: 2019-02-25 08:51:32 The City has followed through with the settlement measure that was discussed at our September 18 2018 meeting with them. They have agreed to show the greenspace linkages, established in OPA 76 as a result of an earlier settlement of a GA appeal, in a new non-binding Annex 16 to the Official Plan. This satisfies our settlement proposal and we now await formal documentation and
After a summer of reworking its Spring proposals, on October 3, 2016 the City tabled its revised recommendations. The slides used by staff at the October 18 Environment Committee meeting are here. Earlier, the City issued a What We Heard report about the Spring consultations. Find it here (1 MB). Following the Environment Committee meeting, the Clerk’s Office made a 74-page file available containing submissions from 50 citizens, redacted for
Background on Development Charges (DCs) To find out what happened in 2014, please go here. To find out what happened in 2014-2018, please go here (the untold story!) In brief: + Development Charges pay for a lot, but not all of the infrastructure cost of growth. A reasonable guess is that DCs cover 60-70% of the true cost of growth. Any gap is funded by all property tax payers. + Despite
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
Mayoral debate – 26 Sep 2018 Results of the Greenspace Alliance 2018 Municipal Election Survey
The Greenspace Alliance has conducted a survey of the candidates for City Council on their awareness of and commitment to address greenspace issues. The questionnaire deals with specific policies and issues that are on the City agenda and which the elected councillors will need to consider in the next term of Council. There are 102 candidates vying for 23 councillor positions. Six had no email address, one withdrew from the
