The amended plan — intended to chart the course for growth in Ottawa until 2046 — was released Friday, a little over a year after it was initially approved by the city council.
Designates additional areas for urban expansion, such as Findlay Creek and the South March area of northern Kanata.
In January 2021, the city council voted against adding 175 hectares to the South March area, excluding it to make room for much discussed community Tewinwhich also remains in the plan.
The 30 modifications to the design are intended to address “provincial policy direction and government priorities” related to “the long-term protection of provincial highways, wetlands protection, monitoring affordable housing and increasing housing supply,” according to the province’s announcement for her decision.
The amended plan is not subject to objection, with city staff saying in a memo Saturday that they are reviewing the changes and will soon update the council on what they mean.
The Board Home Builders Association
Official sign-off on the plan by Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark was delayed for several months due to provincial housing legislation. The changes expand the urban boundary by 550 hectares, according to the Home Builders Association of Greater Ottawa, which said in a media release that it welcomes the changes. The amendments address the local housing affordability and supply crisis, the association said. Another amendment from the province would allow nine-story buildings to be built in “small corridors” in the downtown core, compared to the four-story buildings the city council approved in 2021. In inner and outer urban areas outside the downtown core, the plan now allows for six storeys, also higher than the council’s previously agreed four-storey buildings. The housebuilders’ association had criticized the council’s decision to limit the heights of these buildings.
