In anticipation of its discussion of priorities over the new term on July 8, the Greenspace Alliance wrote to the Members of Council, requesting that re-instating an allocation for environmental land acquisition be a priority: PDF version 4 June 2015 Dear Members of Council, Re: Term of Council Priorities The Greenspace Alliance requests that…
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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)…
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…
From our 2015-16 Annual Report: The 2014 version of the Provincial Policy Statement obliges municipalities to adopt the criteria set out in the Ministry’s Natural Heritage Reference Manual to determine whether a woodland is “significant” and thus part of the Natural Heritage System. Erwin [Dreessen] and Owen Clarkin attended a stakeholder consultation meeting called by…
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…
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.)…
Sunset Lakes Development Ltd. was the only OPA 150 appellant to explicitly appeal the prohibition of future country lot subdivisions (a.k.a. CLEs) to the Ontario Municipal Board. Following an April 2015 pre-hearing on the OPA 150 appeals, the Board ordered a consolidated hearing of Sunset Lakes’ appeals, including outstanding items related to pending applications for…
12 March 2016 Today the Greenspace Alliance sent a letter to Council, urging it to appeal a Decision issued by the Ontario Municipal Board on February 23, 2016. The letter argues that the Decision has dire implications for Council’s control over land use planning, instead ceding the agenda to land owners. Moreover the Decision sets…
OMB sides with Taggart/Walton — OPA 150 on hold (2 March 2016) Greenspace Alliance urges Council to appeal OMB Decision (12 March 2016) Sunset Lakes Development appeal (hearing: October 2015; decision: June 2016) Development Charges 2014 – 2017: The Untold Story LEAR review Employment Lands study (1) Employment Lands study (2) New projections for population,…
27 January 2016 (updated 28 Jan; corrections made Jan 29.) At the adoption of the comprehensive review of the Official Plan (OPA 150) in November 2013, Council requested a review of Ottawa’s strategy on the amount and location of employment lands, to be completed in partnership with the development industry. Council also asked for a…