The Big Picture: Ottawa's Zoning By-law Review (Part 1)
In January 2021, City Council approved the new Zoning By-Law project to bring zoning by-laws into alignment with Ottawa’s new Official Plan, approved by the Province of Ontario in 2022. The Official Plan lays out a broad framework about where growth should happen in the city until 2046 and beyond. The new Zoning By-law will implement the policies and directions of the Official Plan.
Ottawa is expected to grow from about 1-million people in 2021 to nearly 1.5-mllion people in 2046. The Official Plan seeks to allow growth, but limit sprawl, with the balance being achieved through more infill development. This policy decision is consistent with subsequent Provincial Housing Bills that made every serviced lot in Ottawa be zoned for three units as-of-right. Every part of Ottawa will see development and change. The height and density will tend to be higher the closer you are to urban areas and major transit stations and lower the closer you are to the rural areas, and in the centre of established neighbourhoods.
A Zoning By-law governs:
- how land and buildings may be used (e.g. residential, retail store, light industrial use)
- the height and massing of buildings and other structures, and their location on the lot
- the density of development and land use
- lot sizes and dimensions
- permissions, requirements and standards for on-site parking
- some aspects of the character of buildings and development
Why are we doing an update?
The current version of Ottawa’s Zoning By-law, officially known as “Zoning By-law 2008-250”, is a conglomeration of rules consolidated from older zoning by-laws, dating back more than 50 years. It’s out of sync with current priorities like housing affordability, transportation needs, and climate change. And it’s not aligned to Ottawa’s new Official Plan (2022), which means it is constantly receiving amendment requests from developers and creating uncertainty for residents. The lack of harmonization in our zoning regulations is creating additional costs, barriers to housing, and overall frustration.
Thankfully this process is well under way. City Staff released Draft 2 (https://engage.ottawa.ca/zoning) earlier this Spring and are now accepting feedback.
I’m encouraging residents to review the draft zoning provisions and share any comments or questions at [email protected]. Comments received before June 30 will be reviewed and considered by staff and may inform changes in the final Zoning By-law presented to Council.
This version of the draft includes hundreds of pages of text spanning multiple documents, along with maps and interactive features. It’s a huge amount of information! Ultimately, I hope these posts will allow College Ward residents to share feedback more effectively with staff.
In this series of I’m aiming to:
- Provide a simplified guide to help residents understand the process
- Explain how the proposed updates may affect your property and neighbourhood
- Get residents engaged to “crowdsource” a review of the new zoning map, to identify any errors or issues.
For now, I would like to share some key terms:
“Main Street Corridors” are major roads like Baseline, Robertson, Greenbank, and Clyde that will also see a mix of employment, retail, amenities, and housing, including apartments. Streets and properties adjacent to them will also see a higher level of development.
“Minor Corridors” are roads like Meadowlands, Iris, and parts of Centrepointe Drive. More height and density are allowed along these roads, but less than along Main Street Corridors.
And then there are “Evolving Neighbourhoods” which include these Hubs and Corridors, and areas immediately adjacent to them, that are anticipated to see more change and growth as a result of their proximity to transportation corridors.
“Transects and urban expansion areas” There are two other concepts in the Official Plan that are relevant to understanding how staff are creating the New Zoning By-Law: transects. The Official Plan divides the city into six areas known as “transects”, from the most urban (“The Downtown”) to the least urban (“Rural”). College Ward is in the “Outer Urban” transect.
So that’s a very quick overview. In the next few posts, we’ll dive into how these policies and concepts are being translated into a new Zoning By-law. Stay tuned!
