Ottawa's New Official Plan

AN OUTLINE OF THE PROCESS:

Get Involved…Ottawa’s New Official Plan

The City has launched into the first Public Consultation phase in its work to produce the new Official Plan. Achieving good “Public Consultation” is always a challenge and the city has been working to improve this to engage residents in the production of its new Official Plan. You are encouraged to participate in this future-shaping activity. Visit the special site: https://engage.ottawa.ca/the-new-official-plan . 

For many participants, it will be helpful to have a better understanding of some of the pertinent background and this information follows 

The preliminary work for this new official plan was undertaken as part of Ottawa Next: Beyond 2036: Identifying the challenges of Unknown Futures .  This staff work has been underway for almost two years and some timelines are found at the panel on the right The first big step identified five fundamental areas where it is intended to focus. These are referred to as “The 5 Big Moves.”  The report is at: https://engage.ottawa.ca/8204/documents/18759 .

These 5 Big Moves are:

• GROWTH MANAGEMENT: “..Achieve, by the end of its planning period, more growth by intensification than by greenfield development. This growth will provide a variety of affordable housing options for residents…”
• SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY: “..By 2046, the majority of trips in the City of Ottawa will be made by sustainable transportation…”
• COMMUNITY AND URBAN DESIGN: “..Improve our sophistication in urban and community design, and put this knowledge to the service of good urbanism at all scales, from the largest to the very small…”
• RESILIENCY: “..Embed public health, environmental, climate and energy resiliency into the framework of our planning policies…”
• ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: “..Embed economic development into the framework of our planning policies…”

There are a series of discussion papers that support discussion in the different focus areas. For the full set see: HERE.  The “Rural Ottawa Discussion Paper” is of  particular interest to rural residents. See:  https://documents.ottawa.ca/sites/documents/files/op_discuss_paper_rural_en.pdf   that deals with such topics as:

• Challenges Facing Rural Ottawa
• Demographic Shift
• Rural Housing
• Rural Economy
• Agriculture and Agri-Tourism
• Rural Jobs and Places to Work
• Village Mainstreets
• Climate Change
• Emerging Technology and Rural Connectivity
• Economic Growth
• Food Security
• Rural Character

A browse through this Discussion Paper should arouse your interest to contribute toward how we could be doing things better. In addition to any formal invitations to participate in polls, you are encouraged to submit any comment at any time - particularly of rural perspective - to: newop@ottawa.ca .  You can also submit comments to Councillor El-Chantiry.

We are now at the stage where a set of Preliminary Policy Directions has been approved by Council and Staff is now working on the Draft Official Plan. See TAB.   

Ken Holmes

Official Plan Community Ambassadors Working Group

Ken.Get.Involved@gmail.com

                 Some Major Milestones