Centretown residents fear a recent Ontario Superior Court ruling will upset the character of the community and usher in an era of planning uncertainty.
On Jan. 25, the court upheld a decision made by the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) in April 2015 that prohibited the City of Ottawa from setting strict height limits in the Official Plan and the related Centretown Community Development Plan.
As a result, some residents say the look and feel of their neighbourhood is at stake.
“The character of the area needs to be nurtured and protected,” says Centretown resident Sheena Zain. “Giant towers, like the ones proposed for O’Connor Street, would be incoherent and jarring no matter how they are designed.”
Zain is talking about the proposed redevelopment of 267 O’Connor St. The owners of the property wanted to build two 27-storey condo towers on the site, but city planners objected, arguing the buildings would exceed the current 9-storey limit. They were later overruled by the OMB, a decision that was upheld by the Ontario Superior Court.
Coun. Catherine McKenney says the ruling has implications for the entire city.
She says developers often challenge design plans, so they need to be robust in order to build communities in a smart fashion.
“Residents work hard on these plans in order to ensure predictability in the development of our neighbourhoods,” she says.
Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation executive director Ray Sullivan agrees.
“Having that (height) provision in the community design plan was what we and many others in the neighbourhood believed would provide the planning certainty that Watson has talked about in the past,” says Sullivan. “And now we’ve lost that.”
He explains that the Centretown plan was created to provide a measure of planning certainty during a time where “it seemed like every second week there was a new application for a 35- or 45-storey building somewhere downtown.”
However, John Herbert, executive director of the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’Association, has welcomed the court’s ruling.
“It was a positive ruling in that it preserved the planning status quo,” says Herbert. “The City of Ottawa tried to unilaterally change the rules of the game and both the (Ontario) Superior Court and the board agreed that they did not have the authority to do so.”
Herbert says the city has been attempting to use both the Official Plan and the community development plans for political rather than planning purposes. The plans are intended to be guidelines for development, he says, and therefore should not be specific.
“Zoning bylaws are where matters such as height are best administered,” adds Herbert.
Now that city planners will have to write the changes into official policy, bylaws are the only tools left for the city to restrict building heights.
“Developers will still have to apply for a rezoning, which triggers a public consultation process,” says McKenney. “So residents will still have an opportunity to comment on new developments.”
She says that in the coming weeks, she will be consulting with the CCCA and city staff in order to determine the implication for Centretown.
For Zain, the real problem lies in the the ability of a provincially appointed board to veto the decisions of an elected body of councilors.
“It should be made clear that decisions about this city’s neighbourhoods and development should be left to the people and their elected officials,” she says.
Zain says the board’s decision could have a long-term effect on the viability of the community.
“The coherence and mood of neighbourhoods matters greatly. It matters for tourism, it matters for civic pride and it matters that citizens enjoy where they live.” she says.