Ottawa's New Official Plan

Ward 5 - Councillor El-Chantiry New Official Plan Feedback:

Public Engagement Session 23 September 2019

 

Please note that the lists, below, have been summarized at the Tab: " Consolidation of Feedback - 13 Nov 2019 "

Executive Summary:

On September 23^th, 2019 approximately 75 residents from a variety of communities in West Carleton-March Ward gathered to receive an introductory presentation on the 5 Big Moves of the New Official Plan and to engage in discussions to provide their feedback on these concepts.

Each discussion group took the time to provide responses to the 5 Big Moves of Growth, Mobility, Urban Design, Resilience and Economy. They also shared additional ideas they felt should be considered in the New Official Plan.

The most consistently noted ideas were around respecting the unique nature of rural life, where they highlighted the need to: ensure there is rural specific zoning and for it to protect agricultural land, improve access to pedestrian and cycling infrastructure within villages, have clear rules for community design that are context specific, prioritize water management and improve ability of health services to be located in villages, and finally invest in infrastructure and have flexible land uses to encourage economic development.

The full list of ideas will be shared with the Planning team responsible for drafting the New Official Plan. You can review these responses/ideas from the discussion groups by each Big Move below.

Elizabeth Whyte

Community Consultation Specialist (A)| Specialiste des consultations communautaires (A)

Business and Technical Support Services | Services de soutien techniques et aux activités

Planning, Infrastructure and Economic Development Department 

Services de la planification, de l'infrastructure et du développement économique

 

Growth

• Must protect green lands within villages
• Must ensure no development on flood prone areas
• Challenge of NIMBY
• Growth within villages helps protects nearby agricultural land and natural areas
• Growth within villages is near established infrastructure
• Must include criteria of transportation, walkability
• Expand distance of notification area for new development applications within rural areas
• New retirement homes are a good part of growth, but apartments are expensive
• Older units near railway – geared to income
• Constance bay seniors home-limited income, issues with commuting. Possible for city managed complex?
• Nothing for people with disabilities
• Find the OP urban centric, talk of villages but what about those living outside of those?
• Multiple generations living on a farm, retirement lots should be brought back.
• Coach houses – rules for well and septic create barriers, primarily expense related
• Issue of village vs. farm dwellers, culture conflicts (smells, vehicles, etc.) despite agreement on preserving farmland
• Older people should be able to stay in the community
• Programs exist, but people don’t know about them for seniors housing
• Bring services to rural area (seniors and youth)
• Constance bay – formerly summer only homes
• Expansion of boundary is needed in Kanata north/Dunrobin south
• Cluster where business is
• Carp BIA are ready for more land approved
• Carp corridor purchasing increased amount of land just to build smaller structure
• Nitrate issue
• More complete mixed use in Kanata north/Dunrobin south to create community feel
• Expand March Road north
• Allow development in small towns, people are moving to Perth to get community feel
• Mainstreet development in surrounding towns
• Wider use of areas for greater diversity of use/doctors etc.
• Growth based on demographic analysis in rural areas close to existing urban boundary rather than more sprawl
• Try to bring more resources to more rural areas
• Lack of rural lot approvals
• Too much expansion, make costly city administration and servicing
• Freeze on estate lots changing
• Have the rural areas get a fair share of growth
• Intensification? Keep green space?
• Use marginal categories of ag. Land for development
• Must maintain the ability to refine land use, allow for small severances, must allow landowners to sell or develop
• Rural landownership must be considered
• Rural population declining? What impact?
• Must get a grocery store
• Water and sewer requirements, must be able to expand
• Ambulance/fire hall response times, must be normalized with the rest of the city
• Growth with services
• Sprawl – are we taking over agricultural land?
• Premise of growth to 2-3 million is a disaster, stop the growth
• It’s a finite planet, please listen to Greta Thunberg, time for a paradigm shift
• Create a significant buffer zone between carp village and new 200 home development proposal at Honeywell
• Downtown thinkers have no idea about country life we need more common sense and less red tape
• If rural development is being encouraged, why is there a parkland development fee for rural severances
• Loosen up zoning for un-serviced villages, need rural standards for zoning
• Small estate lots should be severable, 5-10 acre
• Want to preserve family farming
• Importance of doing traffic and infrastructure before development approval
• Need to look at affordable housing
• City needs to provide incentives and rules regarding affordable housing

 

Mobility

• Great ideas for urban areas
• Must provide parking/park’n rides for rural residents
• Utilize train lines in rural areas
• Provide opportunities to live/work/play in rural areas
• Flat rate for transportation – city program not well advertised
• Central hub in each village, ex. Library, instead of home pickup
• Don’t want busses because of levy
• Sidewalks wanted
• Need rural tailored solutions, shouldn’t be one set of rules for the City of Ottawa
• Kinburn – installed/removed sidewalks because farm vehicles couldn’t fit
• People not patient with farm vehicles, dangerous
• Government employees – LRT adding time to commute, private busses are expensive and not permitted to go all the way downtown, have to stop at LRT.
• Don’t have population base to support transit and other opportunities
• Condition of roads must be improved
• Traffic management plan must reduce total travel times
• Need city to have the expertise to develop transportation plans
• Carp road park and ride is poorly serviced/designed
• Do we need to have more transport options?
• Reduce transport times
• Deep dive strategic planning of a transportation plan
• Sustainable mobility continued
• Plan must be tied to economic development
• Must get LRT to Carp
• Walkability safe sidewalks
• More creative transport/transit
• Transit holds carp back – I bus
• Connecting bike lanes that are safe
• Official bike plan for rural areas of Ottawa
• Need more bike lanes and paved shoulders, dedicated bike paths
• Cautious about bringing mass transit into area taxes and increased development
• Need to provide bike lanes and walking paths

 

Urban Design

• Obey the rules, don’t ignore Community Design Plan
• Need stringent application of plans that were developed by the community
• Involve residents earlier in the process
• End spot zoning/rezoning
• When landowners don’t follow the rules, force them to tear it down
• More lighting
• Rural countryside – fields, crops, trees, wildlife
• Villages – protect trees/Maintreet
• Intensify existing villages to protect greenspace and farmland
• Allow more density, protects boundary
• Focus on current serviced villages – other villages should have opportunities too
• There is new technology
• City is more restrictive than elsewhere, become more flexible (like currently doing for multi-unit buildings)
• Provincial guidelines old
• Each area is unique
• Context specific not one size fits all, each rural community is different, each has different problems
• Put focus on good design. Use newest techniques
• Not cookie cutter, must maintain character of area
• Refine village perimeter, clear boundaries
• Maintain agricultural focus of the community
• Bike paths/walking routes/pedestrian focus = good design
• Self contained – 15 min travel time?
• Safe sidewalks
• Affordable housing options increase? But most have transportation system to support. How do we get builders/developers to follow the great plan
• Must need a covenant or a look and feel guidelines
• Communications, cell phone/internet must be central to any design. What role will the city take in ensuring strong communications? What is the formula to ‘regulate’ the availability of internet? Design must include communications.
• Consider mini coop organizations which could purchase cell phone towers
• Consider Eastern Ontario Regional Network, pooled needs and resources received $75 million provincial grant to develop more infrastructure (communications)
• New plan must empower the city to regulate services
• Distinctive trees, wider boulevards, community space, modernize architecture, connectivity
• Modernize old buildings to preserve and maintain
• What about mini homes?
• Building to current standards but facing more serious problems with flooding and run off
• Heritage park west Carleton needs 2 people to assist West Carleton Heritage Park Association

 

Resiliency

• Access to recreational facilities
• Access to medical services, emergency clinics
• Protecting trees from clear cutting
• Heavy industrial along Carp Road corridor
• Industrial that is approved should take actions to limit disruptions for nearby residents
• Decentralize public health services, reduces travel. Ex. Old Constance Bay health hub
• Hard to attract doctors/telehealth
• Want nurse once per week
• Currently volunteer based, through community associations, want help from City of Ottawa
• Youth mental health
• Afraid people will move out of the area
• Managing water, municipal drains should be managed better to prevent flooding
• Existing homes in designated floodplain – impacts house values
• Need culverts
• Structures for protecting existing buildings, retaining walls, berms
• Need to focus on improving existing systems, not new infrastructure. Ex. Maintain ditches, plow them out tool not working, creates damn
• Farms staying wet longer
• Create emergency plans for select areas
• Solar farms, need a lot of space, add other uses, sheep
• No biofuel industry
• Waste energy – opportunity
• Lots managed by province, not City of Ottawa
• Dumps in rural areas
• Water management
• Maintaining ditches
• Increased flood risk management through building code
• Maintain ditches in communal areas
• Cleaning up communities
• Tough nitrate controls
• Flood plain mapping important
• Emergency services
• Sidewalks/biking/pathways
• Bike paths, prior went for downtown biking
• Must prioritize safe biking in the village
• Extreme water conditions, how do we manage
• Ground water management, draining considerations
• Farm drainage is paramount, flood water management
• Technology solutions to reducing run off and improve water entering the ground water system
• Waste management, garbage management
• Carp dump continued development?
• Emergency management plans, are they developed? It must be understood at the lowest level so that it can be enacted
• Community plans must be developed at the lowest level
• Community crisis planning? Should be reviewed separately then fed back into the development plan
• What do other cities and villages have in place
• Increased community involvement, like the rural summit, must be continued!
• Ice/weather sidewalks
• Water? Is there enough for new development
• Not just individual parks, but an interconnected park and wildlife corridor system for people and wildlife
• Mitigate development impact on wildlife
• Need different standards for rural areas
• Need a climate change mitigation strategy

 

Economy

• More mixed use, work and live nearby
• More examples of smaller businesses
• End large big-box mall approvals, encourage smaller retail businesses like Westboro streetscape
• Do not want more “amazon” size businesses
• Support employees needs
• Carp road corridor, need more flexibility in uses. Ex. Physio – creates more complete communities
• Permit limited amount of retail, could cap size
• Add uses to villages
• DCs – urban vs. rural – how are they different
• When land more affordable, city changes = cost of development
• Businesses leaving city to go to other municipalities
• Internet and cell service
• Want nice roads
• More people could work from home if better internet services
• Banks, grocery stores, promotes community interaction
• Streetlights in villages
• Traffic calming
• Provide fundamental infrastructure = economic development, water, sewer, raods, make more efficient
• Invest in future, before it is a problem
• Build it and they will come
• More employees in rural areas
• Disagree with policy direction to encourage employees to pay for transportation, should refer to ‘find right solution’ potential partnerships with city
• Wide use of permitted uses
• Employment areas in rural
• Job growth to rural areas
• Eco-friendly advancement
• Widen uses permitted in Carp corridor
• Supply of industrial land in the right place
• Stick to the agricultural roots of carp
• Determine value added agricultural functions/practices
• Improve transportation system to encourage employment
• Maintain the true characters of rural villages
• City hubs with other employees
• 3 seasons connectivity
• More services in the village, esp. medical
• Need more businesses and job opportunities in the region
• Need to modify regulatory framework/development charges to promote economic opportunity
• Cant have same development charges in the rural areas as urban