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City of Ottawa
New Official Plan
The new CIty of Ottawa Official Plan came into effect in November 2022 with 30 amendments issued by the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
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The City is now working to develop implementation strategies.
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To learn more about activities staff have been leading and other changes go to Engage Ottawa project pages:
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February 15 – Public Planning Primer – information presented by City staff with overview of legislative and policy basis used for land -use planning, amendments to policy documents, application for development – open to the public
February – date to be announced - New Comprehensive Zoning By-law Discussion Papers – resident’s first opportunity to have their say about future zoning in City of Ottawa. Report “As We Heard It” based on this input will be released later 2023
March 7 – Public Open House - a high-level update on the City’s review of the impacts of Provincial Legislation, overview of how the City is adapting as a result of these changes. Topics will include Bill 109, Bill 23, the Official Plan and the impact on planning related matters. Register here.
The 10 categories of the 30 Official Plan amendments are:
1) Urban Expansion Additions which total 654 hectares and include 106 net ha in Riverside South, recommended as category 1 lands during the growth management review
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2) Future Neighbourhoods pertaining mostly to de-linking sub-urban developments and additional transit service
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3) Minor Corridor Building Heights – increase in heights in downtown, outer urban and suburban areas. Rural areas such as Manotick are not affected and existing maximum building heights of 3 storeys remain unchanged
4) Low-rise applications
5) Urban Forest Canopy which now requires a recommendation from a Landscape Architect for the preservation and provision of space for mature, healthy trees
6) Highway right-of-way where the provision of active transportation connections at highway crossing and ramps now applies to provincial highway corridors rather than just grade separated highway interchanges
7) Rental protections eliminating conditions for converting rental housing to condo or freehold
8) Affordable Housing Monitoring requiring the City to develop a new program for monitoring affordable housing units and targets
9) Significant Wetlands adding an environment impact statement as a list of studies that can recommend a wetland evaluation and deleting the requirement for an evaluation if wetland area will be reduced by 2 hectares or more (whether recommended by a study or not)
10) Rural – changes to rural schedules to reflect the additional land of approximately 44 hectares to the southwest area of Village of Greely, permitting residential use subject to municipal responsibility agreement for communal water and sewage services.