By Dana Townsend
Leave it in or take it out?
Centretown residents can breathe a sigh of relief now that the city has decided to include their neighbourhood plan and 11 others in the fourth and final draft of its official plan.
The Centretown plan, formed in the 1980s to guide development in the Centretown area, addresses issues such as protecting residential areas and limiting commercial conversion, which might otherwise be ignored in an overarching city plan.
City planners and Centretown groups have been arguing for months about whether to include the former Centretown plan in the city’s plan, which is intended to guide Ottawa through the next 20 years.
The new plan addresses issues such as affordable housing, environmentally friendly transportation and economic development, but it was the controversial proposal to exclude the 12 neighbourhood plans that were developed prior to amalgamation that raised the ire of Centretown community and business associations.
Robert Smythe, chairman of planning and development for the Centretown Citizens’ Community Association, says he’s relieved the Centretown plan made it into the final draft, where it can address Centretown issues the official plan might not.
“We are pleased,” said Smythe. “We think the Centretown plan is still very valid.”
Richard Kilstrom, manager of community design and environment for the City of Ottawa, says the new city plan is “preserving whatever the Centretown plan was before.”
Kilstrom says the city had proposed to leave individual neighbourhood plans out because the new city plan and zoning bylaws would have covered everything anyway, but Centretown community and business associations did not agree.
They demanded the neighbourhood plan be reinstated, which it was.
Somerset Ward Coun. Elisabeth Arnold had expressed concern that issues such as parking regulations and recognizing distinct neighbourhoods would be difficult to translate into new zoning bylaws without a Centretown plan.
“So I’m very pleased that it’s going to be included,” says Arnold.
“One of the concerns I still have is with the definition of affordable housing and how that housing will be provided in the future.”
Arnold, who says the definition of the price of affordable housing is too broad, adds she will be proposing amendments to make the definition of affordable housing a more realistic one.
She will also recommend increasing the amount of affordable housing required from developers.
“You can’t just build high-priced condos, you have to have a wide range of housing.”
Business associations had also supported including the Centretown plan in the new draft.
Gerry LePage, executive director of the Bank Street Business Improvement Area, says he’s pleased that the city decided to include the Centretown plan, although he says revisions need to be made.
“The Centretown plan is a framework, absolutely,” says LePage. “Should it be updated? No doubt about it.”
LePage adds the new draft of the official plan lacks a detailed economic strategy to implement the city’s objectives for the next 20 years, which he says must be attached to the official plan to have authority.
The plan has gone through planning committee meetings and will be presented to the city council at the end of April.
After this it must still be approved by the province before the city can implement it and draft new zoning bylaws.
Meanwhile, Smythe says he and other Centretown residents will be keeping an eye on how the official plan will affect Centretown.
“We’ll be watching.”