Developers urged city to consider their lands in urban boundary expansion
"No submissions were received asking for lands not to be considered — they were universally requests to add land to the urban boundary."
Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Jan 16, 2021 • 3 hours ago • 3 minute read
The city received nearly 50 submissions from developers or their consultants making cases for including their lands inside an expanded urban boundary as municipal planners decided the best candidates for joining the growing suburbs.
Now that council has decided how much more land should be brought inside the urban boundary, it needs to figure out which lands will receive the honour of becoming part of suburban Ottawa.
The land review comes with major financial implications for developers who have acquired sites with the hopes and expectations that those parcels will be part of an urban boundary expansion.
It’s a competition involving big companies with big money on the line.
A joint meeting of council’s planning committee and agriculture and rural affairs committee scheduled for Jan. 25 will provide developers, and anyone else who wants to speak on the matter, opportunities to weigh in on the city’s list of properties to be included in the urban boundary.
Committee members have been told to prepare for the possibility of a multi-day meeting, depending on how many people want to make presentations.
Included in a report for councillors made public Friday was a list of properties that were the subjects of lobbying by developers or their consultants. There were 48 entries on the city’s list of unsolicited submissions, and some involved the same properties and multiple contacts with the city.
The developers and consultants presented information on properties at every corner of the suburbs, including Kanata North, Stittsville, Barrhaven, Riverside South, Orléans and Cumberland.
The city wanted all unsolicited submissions by the end of last June so staff had time to review the information, but the report to councillors said staff were still receiving submissions in early 2021.
“No submissions were received asking for lands not to be considered — they were universally requests to add land to the urban boundary,” the staff report said.
While developers provided their own scoring or analyses, city staff said their information wasn’t very helpful because of its “speculative nature.”
The city is using criteria and scoring system to determine which lands should be included in the urban boundary. In general, the properties should be in close proximity to public transit and have existing or planned municipal infrastructure, such as water services, wastewater services and roads.
The city has found 1,011 hectares of land that should be brought inside the urban boundary, but the council-approved direction calls for 1,281 hectares to be added to the urban area.
To make up the difference, staff say council could consider lands that didn’t receiving passing scores, but are near the lands proposed to be brought into the urban boundary, or create between one and three new communities.
A project called Tewin is included as an option for a new community. It’s a land-development partnership between the Algonquins of Ontario and Taggart Investments looking to transform a swath of land southwest of Highway 417 and Boundary Road.
The other two new communities being floated as options are in the areas of South March in Kanata and Riverside South.
The staff also report recommends creating a “Gold Belt” similar to the Greenbelt created in the 1950s, consisting of agricultural land, natural areas and key mineral aggregate resource areas.
The Gold Belt would effectively create “ultimate boundaries” for Barrhaven, Riverside South, Stittsville and Orléans, limiting new urban expansion between the Greenbelt and the Gold Belt.
“The intent of the inner boundary of the Gold Belt in the new official plan would be to contain, until the end of the century, all future urban expansions and any new communities,” the report said.
“This would also assist in preserving the unique identities of the city’s villages and ensure they are not overtaken by future urban expansions. Leapfrogging of the Gold Belt for new urban land would be prohibited in new official plan policy.”
On Saturday, Ecology Ottawa expressed criticism of the city’s intention to limit future urban expansions, saying that, without stronger policies, it was just a “mirage.”
With files from Joanne Laucius
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