Steve Clark MPP, Ministry of…

Steve Clark MPP, Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing
Kate Manson-Smith Deputy Minister

Minister Clark,
I trust that by now you have read the New Official Plan (OP) for the City of Ottawa that was approved by Council October 27, 2021. I propose that the plan be returned to the City for further review for the following three reasons:

First, there is no reason given as to why the housing density should be increased from an average of 34-36 to 40 units per hectare in residential communities (10%).

Second, there is no reason given as to why or how the majority of trips will be made by sustainable transportation (walking, cycling and public transportation). In the OP the City plans to accommodate new developers by allowing the current requirement for 1.2 parking spots to be reduced if additional bicycle parking was made available. What the authors of the OP neglected to account for is that Ottawa has 150 days a year of sub-zero temperatures which makes walking or cycling less likely.

Third, it would seem that the City neglected to confer with major employers as to how they plan to operate in the coming decades. The largest employer, the Federal Government, has gone on record that they plan to reduce their footprint in the region by 30%. https://renx.ca/greening-of-federal-govt-cre-portfolio-offers-opportuni… That would suggest that 30% of their employees would not be required to make their way to the city core to work and it would free up ~17 million square feet of office space. It would be fair to assume that the majority of all other businesses will do likewise.

During the last Federal election campaign MP Pierre Poilievre suggested these vacated offices could be converted for affordable housing. If this was done it would reduce some of the projected need for housing outside the city core.

I applaud the effort that went into creating the New Official Plan but unfortunately conclusions may have been made without a comprehensive investigation as to how businesses will operate in the coming decade and what effect those changes will have on housing and transportation demands.