Official Plan approved by province with modifications
Posted Nov 5, 2022 05:40:00 PM.
Ottawa's new Official Plan has been approved by the provincial government, with some modifications.
The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing announced the Official Plan's approval on Friday, Nov. 4, which outlines a comprehensive framework of new and revised policies to guide growth and development to 2046 in Canada's capital.
Changes include an additional 500 hectares and expanding the urban boundary in parts of Ottawa's south end, east end, and the west.
Ottawa city council previously approved a four-storey height cap for new buildings, and buildings can be up to six storeys in urban parts of the city and seven storeys and suburban parts of Ottawa, another change the approved plan provides.
The Tewin development remains in the plan.
“The 30 modifications to the official plan have been made to address matters related the protection of provincial highways, wetland protection, monitoring of affordable housing and increasing housing supply,” Ontario's website stated.
The Official Plan focuses on growth, mobility, urban design, resiliency and economy. Council approved the plan in October of 2021.
Jason Burggraaf, the president of the Greater Ottawa Home Builder’s Association (GOHBA), said on Wake Up With Rob Snow on Nov. 7 welcomed the provincial government's approval of Ottawa’s Official Plan, along with prescribed changes to help address the local housing affordability and supply crisis.
“Reversing council’s decision to limit minor corridors across the city to four storeys and expanding the urban boundary by an additional 550 hectares are necessary and welcome moves to increase Ottawa’s housing supply,” said Burggraaf.
Increasing Ottawa’s planned urban boundary expansion by 550 hectares is a natural outcome of increasing its population and housing forecast, said GOHBA officials.
“The Official Plan population projections not only give us a snapshot into the future, but they also cause the future, in terms of supply and demand for housing,” said David Renfroe, GOHBA’s president. “By giving Ottawa a housing target of 151,000 new homes over the next decade, the provincial government has made it clear that the city’s modelling provided unrealistically low projections of future population and household growth. That low population projection ensured that planning policies and growth boundaries were also unsustainably low.”
More information can be found here.
Listen to the full interview with Jason Burggraaf below:
