Zoning By-law Changes

The City is in the early stages of proposing significant updates to the City’s Zoning By-law. The main goal of these changes is to increase the pace at which our City builds housing. I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the proposed Zoning By-law changes and what they mean for residents in rural Ottawa. 

In general, the biggest change is that in the urban areas of Ottawa, restrictions on building height and the number of units permitted on a property will be loosened, particularly around major roads and transit hubs. These proposed changes would still require that proper setbacks, site servicing, and environmental hazards be a condition of upzoning in urban Ottawa. Even so, urban portions of the City will likely see increased density if the new Zoning By-law is passed. 

Additionally, the changes make several modest simplifications and improvements. For instance, the Zoning By-law will be more permissive of small businesses operating out of residential units, which should increase the amount of commercial activity in our communities without increased need for a large commercial footprint.

Though most changes are in urban Ottawa, there are some changes in rural Ottawa that I am paying close attention to. 

As proposed, the Zoning by-law changes will make it simpler for a secondary dwelling unit to be added on to rural properties. Rural properties outside of villages would be allowed to raise up to 10 hens on lots smaller than 2 acres. Facilities such as community centres would be allowed to have additional on-site uses, including a store or restaurant, without having to apply for a Zoning by-law amendment or minor variance. 

These and other modest changes appear generally positive for our communities. There are some changes though that I am concerned about and following closely.

Between now and the year 2046, 6.7% of projected new home development is expected to take place in rural Ottawa. That works out to be 13,000 new dwellings in rural communities. While the vast majority of new homes are expected to be built within the City’s urban boundary, I am concerned that development in rural Ottawa will be overly concentrated in our ward. 

Already, Richmond and Manotick are the fastest-growing villages in rural Ottawa. This is in part because of how desirable these communities are, but it is also a consequence of available development lands within the village boundaries. The proposed Zoning By-law changes are likely to accelerate the pace and intensity of development in these villages. 

To be clear I am not opposed to development. I am however opposed to irresponsible development. We owe it to current residents and our future neighbours alike to make sure that any growth that occurs in rural Ottawa is done in a way that accounts for infrastructure needs, changes in traffic patterns, commercial access, our communities’ histories and heritage, and more. We must also do all that we can to protect our farms, forests, and natural areas. 

Put simply, rural Ottawa is at its best when it is not encroached upon by urban Ottawa. We must build more homes to house our growing population, including in our rural villages, but we must do so in a responsible way. Most of the proposed changes in the draft Zoning By-law appear to be aligned with that goal. I will keep a careful eye on how these proposed changes will impact our communities to ensure that development in rural Ottawa is appropriately spread across our vast geography and not overly burdensome on a few communities. 

To me, the most concerning changes proposed by City staff pertain to parking. 

As proposed by staff, parking minimums will be removed across the entire City (including in rural Ottawa) for newly built homes.

Staff simply “expect” that parking will be provided to respond to market demands for parking in rural areas. We have already observed that this assumption is incorrect.

Many new communities, particularly in Richmond, have far too little parking provided, which has led to excessive amounts of street parking. These cars block emergency vehicles, school buses, snowplows, and more. The current parking minimum of 1 parking spot per residence in rural Ottawa is already far too low for what most families need. 

Allowing developers to build high-density, transit-oriented development in rural villages is wildly irresponsible, and I am very concerned that staff thought that such an idea would be worth proposing. Folks in rural Ottawa need cars to get around as there is no alternative.

I will be opposing this proposed change vigorously and will look to implement a 2-parking spot minimum for all future developments of residential properties in rural Ottawa. The realities of those living in Ashton or Burritt’s Rapids are different than the needs of those living in the Glebe or Westboro.

What’s worse is that while a developer under the proposed rules could provide parking irrespective of the removal of parking minimums, another change proposed by staff effectively renders this impossible. Staff have proposed that all parking spaces for new developments must be “electric vehicle ready.” Not only will this add thousands of dollars of cost for new home buyers, but it will also have significant logistical issues. 

EV charging is a significant draw on our electrical grid, and homes must have the proper amount of amperage provided by the distributors in order to facilitate that amount of draw. In my meeting with staff, I asked whether they had spoken with Hydro Ottawa or Hydro One about this proposed change. However, I was concerned to learn that City staff had not spoken with either electricity distributor.

Having spoken with the distributors in the past about ideas such as these, they warned that our grid will need serious retrofits to accommodate such a massive increase of draw on our grid. More than likely, many new developments would not be able to offer parking spots with EV capacity due to a lack of grid capacity. When combined with the removal of parking minimums, this will mean that no parking will be provided in many new developments, including commercial developments. 

I drive an electric vehicle so I believe that we should work toward expanding our grid to accommodate more of these vehicles. But this cannot be achieved by arbitrary edicts from bureaucrats who have not adequately considered the unintended consequences of their proposed policies.

It perhaps goes without saying, but I will also vigorously oppose this absurd proposal from City staff and will do all that I can to prevent it from making it into the final version of the Zoning By-law. 

Luckily for us all, we are at the early stages of the Zoning By-law process. There will be a wide range of consultation opportunities for residents, including in-person meetings and online surveys so that folks can provide feedback on the ideas proposed by staff. The final draft of the Zoning By-law is expected to be voted on in Q4 of 2025, so we have about a year and a half to make sure that improvements are made. 

I will keep a close eye on this and will continue advocating assertively for rural interests around the Council table.