The Greater Ottawa Home…

The Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association is requesting changes to Ottawa's draft Official Plan in order to remove barriers to building homes, maximize development potential, help the City achieve its housing goals and assist the Province in achieving its goals and interests in relation to municipal Official Plans.

These changes fall under two large items:

1) Revise the Official Plan to include 3,250ha of new urban land

GOHBA, in its submission through MGP (attached file labeled "2022 02 02 GOHBA - Letter Re Ottawa MCR"), calls for the amount of expansion land to be increased from the approved 1,200 ha to 3,250 ha.

MGP and Altus argue that the OP as it currently stands 1) Proposes an unachievable intensification rate that is not based on historical patterns; and, 2) Is not consistent with the PPS as it proposes a mix of housing units that does not reflect market-based demand, ie, 613 Flats (a comparison is detailed in the attached file labled "613 Flats vs Singles Semis Towns") .

92,000 dwelling units have to be accommodated within the built-up area in order for the “Balanced scenario” GMS to be achieved - 49,400 ground-oriented and 42,700 apartment dwellings. Of those 49,000 ground-oriented lots, the City is counting on 37,000 ‘large’ dwelling units (with three or more bedrooms) to come from converting approximately 15 per cent of the existing lots adjacent and within walking distance to Hubs and Corridors to be redeveloped into 613 Flats. The Balanced Scenario allocates 38 per cent of total ground-oriented dwellings “through a mix of traditional built-forms and suitable alternatives such as 613 Flats or other innovative redevelopments (page 41)”. In the past 10 years, 11 per cent of ground-oriented units occurred within the built-up area.

The City has also shown its lack of commitment to its current aggressive intensification target by failing to provide modeling that proves it can be achieved, and by Council’s decision to limit minor corridors to 4 storeys without any consideration of how to make up those lost units.

MGP and Altus Group recommend that the OP be changed to the so-called “status quo” growth scenario, which would bring the land expansion to 2,450ha. They then recommend that the growth projections be updated from the numbers approved in 2019 to the Ministry of Finance’s current growth projections for Ottawa, which translate to a need for 3,250ha of new urban land.

2) Proposed changes, deletions or additions to the language in Ottawa’s draft Official Plan

A compendium of our full comments and proposed changes on the entirety of the Official Plan is included in Appendix “A” of the attached file labled "2022 02 02 Submission on OP Policies".

The file also provides a short list of changes, with a priority to Restore Height Permissions for Minor Corridors to 9 storeys in the Downtown Core Transect, and 6 Storeys in the Inner Urban Transect.

Minor Corridors were summarily reduced to 4 storeys by Council motion during consideration of the Official Plan, without any concern of where or how those lost units would be made up.