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Ottawa's new official plan has finally been approved, with the urban boundary pushed further out by the provincial government

Under provincial law, the provincial decision on the official plan is final and can't be appealed, and it's now in effect as modified

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The City of Ottawa’s new official plan has been approved by the provincial housing minister — with some major changes imposed.

These include further expansion of Ottawa’s urban boundary in the city’s east, west, and south; higher height provisions for buildings along minor corridors; and the removal of policies intended to protect existing rental housing.

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The city’s urban boundary defines the area in which urban development — with major roads, transit and piped sewer and water service — is permitted, and its expansion is a high-stakes decision for developers and landowners.

The new official plan will guide the city’s development through 2046. It was approved by city council in a 21-2 vote more than a year ago and submitted to the province for final sign-off shortly afterwards.

A total of 30 changes were made to the plan before Housing and Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark approved it on Friday, with the decision statement noting that measures were taken “to address matters related to the protection of provincial highways, wetland protection, monitoring of affordable housing and increasing housing supply.”

A 175-hectare parcel in the Kanata North-South March area, which was swapped out of the staff-proposed urban boundary expansion by councillors back in 2021 to make room for the controversial Tewin community, has been added back in. Tewin stays, despite some speculation that it would be rejected by the province.

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The other new expansion lands are in the areas of Stittsville (31 hectares), Riverside South (106 hectares), Findlay Creek (200 hectares) and North Orleans (37 hectares).

In a statement released Friday, the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association (GOHBA) said the move to expand the urban boundary by an additional 550 hectares and the expansion of height permissions along minor corridors were “necessary and welcome moves to increase Ottawa’s housing supply.” 

A 2020 council decision to expand the urban boundary by 1,281 hectares of residential land was a contentious one, so this provincial choice to push it out even further is likely to attract considerable criticism from those concerned about the economic and environmental costs of sprawl.

There is, however, no formal route for critics to do anything about it.

Under provincial law, the minister’s decision on the official plan is final and can’t be appealed, and it’s now in effect as modified.

GOHBA president David Renfroe called the City of Ottawa’s population growth projection of 400,000 people within the 25-year timeline of the new official plan “unrealistically low.” Between closing the gap between the city and province’s population projections through 2046, and a new housing target the province announced for Ottawa (and 28 other municipalities) last week, the additional urban boundary expansion was a “natural outcome,” said Renfroe.

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As for more generous height allowances along what are called “minor corridors,” the amended official plan allows for up to nine storeys in the downtown core and six in the inner and outer urban area within the Greenbelt.

Among the other changes penned into the plan by Clark is the erasure of an entire portion devoted to setting conditions on the destruction of rental housing, including space for the city to adopt a framework requiring replacement of such housing when it is taken down, which council has been contemplating and Toronto has had in place for years.

The province is currently consulting on options to “standardize and clarify” municipal powers to regulate rental demolition and conversion, “in order to provide consistency and streamline the construction and revitalization of new housing supply.” 

It’s part of a larger package of controversial legislative and regulatory changes, unveiled by the provincial government last week, to address what Clark has described as a “housing supply crisis” in Ontario.

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