Ottawa City Councilors on Monday approved a long list of modifications to the new official plan, before approving the entire city-building record it intends to create for Ottawa for decades to come.
Just Coun. Jeff Leeper registered his dissent on the official planning document, but councilors Riley Brockington, Carol Anne Meehan and Shawn Menard disagreed on a map representing the city’s border and the future suburb of Tevin.
Councilors Scott Moffat, Eli El-Chantieri, Glenn Gower, Catherine Kitts, Laura Dudas, Tim Tierney, George Darouz, Alan Hubli and Jean Cloutier voted in favor of the entire package, which now goes to the full council on October 27.
This is a sign of the complexity and significance of the new official project in the City of Ottawa, which attracted nearly a hundred residents to speak in two days, and then led to a large number of moves by correcting councilors’ records.
The Joint Meeting of the Corrections Smorgasbord, Planning Committee and the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, touched on everything from affordable housing to employment opportunities in the South to rural businesses.
At one point Menard criticized the long list and said he felt “slammed” by all city affairs this month. He wondered whether city staff thought he could have used more time to make a significant record – some community groups have long argued that he should wait until after the 2022 municipal election.
Steve Willis, general manager of planning, economic development and infrastructure, however, explained that the city needs to roll out an official plan so that significant work, such as spreading, will intensify rather than spread out.
Willis was not distracted by Monday’s nearly 80 moves and directions.
“This is what the staff hand council does to our plan and the council [its] Plan, ”Willis said.
Urban range side effects
Moffat, who co-chaired the meeting and helped navigate the long list, said many of the changes were caused by factors proposed in public missions last Thursday and Friday. All the amendments have improved the official plan and made it more clear, Willis added.
Residents have repeatedly raised fears about the loss of a tree canopy, especially in older neighborhoods that face filling developments. A proposal by Riley Brockington called on city staff to drill its target for a 40 percent tree canopy across the city to create “sub-targets” for small areas over the next two years.
Brockington motion over a wooden canopy. # OTCT In OP, the urban wood ceiling is targeted at 40% city limits. Several representatives touched down on trees last week, fearing that some areas would not be targeted and the inner city area would lose trees. #News pic.twitter.com/FZHx9hxYQ9
–@KatePorter
Another variation has been reduced to five or six of the four-storey buildings for the streets known as the “Minor Corridor.”
Residents were worried that the six floors would be too high and could change the shape of the streets along Alber Vista’s Kilbourne Avenue, Manor Park’s Hemlock Road and Central Experimental Farm. Leeper succeeded in persuading his colleagues, removing the designation from Sherborne Avenue in Kitschipi Ward, that it would remain street houses.
The committees restored language about natural heritage areas rather than “avoiding” them, and worried about the ongoing protection.
A pair of moves deal with an affordable home. Menard’s move increased the target of new units to 20 per cent, from 10 to 15, while Gower redefined “affordable” from one.
The city does not reconsider boundary decisions
In many moves, no one spoke directly to the invention of Ontario’s Algonquins and partner Taggart, creating a new, sustainable suburb called Tevin in the rural southeast.
Asked if he was surprised, Moffat noted that if four councilors disagreed during the final vote, “we are not on the council yet.” He expects a motion on Tevin on October 27th.
Moffat himself tried, but failed to reconsider other city boundary changes last winter, when the council allowed the development of more than 100 hectares of farmland in the Riverside South area, promising to protect such land.
Moffat said some farm owners can now leave the soil to decay, hoping that one day their property will be brought to the city limits. But he did not convince tens of other councilors to support him in reversing the move.
Councilor Carol Anne Meehan of Riverside South said there was no point in leaving the farmland gap between Riverside South and the future city of Bowesville LRT.
Moffat’s move has passed, however, large-scale wind turbines are not allowed in agricultural areas.