Ottawa city council has signed off on a new zoning bylaw, marking the city’s first major overhaul of its planning rules since 2008. The bylaw is intended to boost housing supply, reduce the city’s dependence on cars, limit urban sprawl and promote intensification.
The new zoning rules will direct more growth into existing neighbourhoods and areas already served by transit and amenities
Somerset Coun. Ariel Troster said the vote marked a turning point for all residents worried about continued sprawl.
“I think this is our city growing up and growing up in a very good way,” she said, calling the bylaw “a perfect example” of how rural and urban interests align.
“Both want more development within existing communities,” she said.
The new rules will permit four different units on residential lots connected to city services and raise the limit on structures to three storeys. New buildings close to busy streets and near major transit stations can be much taller.
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe linked the zoning change to a larger goal.
Ottawa is to become “the most housing-friendly city in Canada,” he said.
The city has increased its affordable housing investment by more than 130 per cent and has launched a housing innovation task force to support new projects.
Sutcliffe also highlighted a deal he said he recently signed with Prime Minister Mark Carney to make Ottawa the first city to partner with Build Canada Homes, a new federal initiative to accelerate the construction of affordable housing.
“Together we’ll be investing $400 million to build 3,000 affordable units in Ottawa in the coming years,” he said.
“We are saying yes to housing, and to affordable housing,” Sutcliffe said.
Still some councillors are uneasy with certain elements of the new bylaw.
West Carleton-March Coun. Clarke Kelly doesn’t like the changes that end minimum parking rules, which require developers to make parking spaces available in new developments. Instead, developers will be able to build parking where it’s needed and not elsewhere.
This ignores “the many, many people who require a vehicle,” said Kelly, such as families with children, personal support workers and “the people in the trades who build these units, who have to get their tools to the job site.”
“[I] shudder to think what things will look like when these developments are built without any minimum parking standards,” he added.
Kelly announced his dissent, even though it was acknowledged that the lack of minimums was not directly before council on Wednesday and therefore had no direct impact on the vote itself.
Orléans East–Cumberland Coun. Matthew Luloff is also uncertain about removing minimum parking requirements.
“In much of Orléans we are not there yet, until we have transit that residents can depend on,” he said.
College Coun. Laine Johnson backed the bylaw but said it must be accompanied by significant infrastructure investments.
She says the direction to grow up and not to grow out is the right choice, but she said residents are concerned that important local services won’t keep pace with intensification.
Orléans South-Navan Coun. Catherine Kitts said her hope is that the new rules will “meaningfully” redirect housing growth to areas close to transit and amenities. But she acknowledged council has to make these changes, given the priorities of the provincial and federal governments to build more housing, among other things.
“My expectation is that council will continue to monitor outcomes closely and be prepared to make adjustments if the results do not align with the intent,” she said.
The zoning changes passed by a unanimous vote.
The city has published an updated zoning map through its geoOttawa portal that includes a “New Zoning By-law – FINAL DRAFT” layer, and advises that the existing Zoning By-law 2008-250 will remain in effect until early fall.
