[roger1818]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

The entire rural area of the City of Ottawa is basically a second Greenbelt at this point. The communities just beyond the City boundary (like Embrun, Kemptville, Arnprior, Carleton Place, etc.) are growing like gangbusters while the rural villages inside the city are not.

When you compare villages right outside the city border to villages right inside the city border it's night and day. Look at Vars vs. Embrun, Metcalfe vs. Russell, Osgoode vs. Kemptville, Fitzroy Harbour vs. Arnprior...

We have five layers to this city:
1) the inner area
2) the First Greenbelt
3) the first suburban ring (Orleans/Kanata/Barrhaven/Riverside South)
4) the Second Greenbelt ("rural Ottawa")
5) the second suburban ring (Rockland/Embrun/Casselman/Kemptville/Carleton Place/Almonte/Arnprior)

All because the city of Ottawa refuses to allow growth in the villages inside city limits. All those extra carbon emissions from people who are now commuting until they're just outside the City.

In an alternate world where the Harris government had excluded the rural townships of Ottawa-Carleton from amalgamation and made them a separate Carleton County instead, places like Carleton Place and Embrun would today probably be barely any bigger than they were back in 1995.

I don't feel that having the city encourage more sprawl is the solution. I don't see how opening up development to Kinburn/Munster/Kars/Vars/Cumberland would be a significant improvement in terms of carbon emissions over developments in Rockland/Embrun/Casselman/Kemptville/Carleton Place/Almonte/Arnprior. If anything it would make living further from the city more popular and increase emissions by encouraging more people to live further from work. We need targeted development in locations close to employment districts (people don't only work downtown) with increased density. Building cheaper SFHs within city limits will scuttle those efforts.