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Should Ottawa stick with single-family residential zoning? Mayoral candidates set out varying visions
What the R1 zoning map should look like in the future — and whether it should continue to exist at all — is a debate that council hopefuls might want to start preparing for
Taylor Blewett, Ottawa Citizen
Sep 16, 2022 • 4 hours ago • 5 minute read
Walk down an Ottawa street where every lot hosts a single home and there’s a good chance you’re looking at the results of R1 zoning.
The land-use rule often referred to of late as “exclusionary zoning” restricts residential construction to single-detached homes where it is in effect. It is a significant and contentious part of the conversation about how Ottawa, and cities like it, should treat residential development in the years to come.
On Wednesday, mayoral candidate Catherine McKenney (who uses they/them pronouns) shared that if elected, they would champion an end to R1 zoning — which applies to nearly half of the lots in existing neighbourhoods in Ottawa — in favour of other land-use designations, determined locally, that would allow for more density on a property than just a single house.
It was in response to questions from reporters at a press conference, following their release of a housing affordability and homelessness platform, that McKenney confirmed their support for doing away with R1.
“Right now, when we intensify, we either go up 30 storeys or we build single-family homes,” said McKenney. “We have to have housing (that) suits everyone’s needs in every community in our city.”
But that doesn’t mean “anything goes anywhere,” McKenney stressed in a follow-up interview with this newspaper. They explained that in some neighbourhoods, the change from R1 might mean allowing a three-storey building on a corner lot, and in others, a semi-detached building where only a single is currently allowed
“It means that we have to consider our approach to density in this city so that we don’t continue to sprawl. We just simply can’t afford it. We can’t afford it from an environmental perspective and we cannot afford it from a financial perspective.”
McKenney said they believe the province will move in some way to eliminate R1 zoning in the future, having received such a recommendation from its own housing affordability task force. The city needs to get ahead of that, McKenney said.
But even if action at the provincial level never comes to pass, McKenney said they are committed to “working through a made-in-Ottawa approach to our zoning and how we transition away from R1 zoning,” as the city works to develop a new comprehensive zoning bylaw in council’s next term, with final approval slated for 2025.
However, McKenney said that replacing R1 zoning is not something they would use new strong-mayor powers awarded by the province to accomplish, so it would have to be backed by the majority of council.
That could be a tough sell — in many municipal wards, putting exclusive single-family zoning on the chopping block would likely generate intense pushback from existing homeowners over its potential to change the neighbourhoods they bought into.
R1 zoning doesn’t blanket the city equally. According to a 2021 municipal report, which looked at all parcels of land in all residential zones across Ottawa, just two per cent of downtown parcels were zoned R1, increasing to 31 per cent in the inner urban area, 63 per cent in the outer urban area (located inside the greenbelt), and 44 per cent in the suburbs.
But regardless of which candidate is elected mayor next month, what the R1 zoning map should look like in the future — and whether it should continue to exist at all — is a debate that council hopefuls might want to start preparing for.
While mayoral candidates Mark Sutcliffe and Bob Chiarelli both expressed opposition in comments to this newspaper on the notion of eliminating R1 zoning across Ottawa, it’s something city staff have already been thinking about.
In a June report to council on the new, city-wide zoning bylaw that will be crafted in coming years, staff reported that to meet the housing targets set out for the 25-year horizon of Ottawa’s new official plan, lands currently zoned R1 “must be rezoned to permit at least two and in some cases up to four units per lot,” with relatively few exceptions where lots would remain zoned for detached-only.
Staff stressed that while it’s “not unreasonable to expect that where land use permissions are increased, development will follow” — with R1 areas just one of the places where permission for more density is being eyed – “it is NOT reasonable to expect” that this would lead to development activity across the city at a rate higher than that already seen in high-demand areas such as Westboro, where roughly one residential lot out of 100 is redeveloped in a year.
Many speculate it’s anticipated political backlash that’s kept the provincial Progressive Conservative government from moving to wipe out single-family-only zoning after their housing affordability task force championed the policy move in a report published last February. The task force, comprised largely of housing industry voices, recommended provincial action to require that municipalities allow up to four units and four storeys on a single residential lot, as-of-right (in other words, without the need for municipal approval).
While a move to eliminate R1 zoning might generate anger in some quarters, it would also likely find many supporters. The real estate and development industry, environmental groups, and advocates for housing affordability and accessibility for younger people have all found common ground in opposition to “exclusionary zoning” and calls for more density as-of-right.
Asked why they didn’t spell out the approach they would take to R1 zoning in the housing affordability plan they announced this week, McKenney said they weren’t convinced that removing a single-family zoning restriction would result, on its own, in new housing that would be more affordable to rent or buy.
What it can do, they argued, is tackle the affordability challenge presented by urban sprawl for the city as a whole and make neighbourhoods more vibrant.
As for where McKenney’s opponents stand — both Sutcliffe and Chiarelli are scheduled to release housing plans in the coming days — Sutcliffe said via statement Thursday that the bulk of the city’s intensification “must be along our LRT, transit routes and main transportation corridors and in keeping with community design plans,” and that “a blanket removal of R1 is an overly simplistic answer to the other changes and policies that can and should happen to boost housing in Ottawa.”
In an interview, Chiarelli said significant intensification is important and “long-overdue” in Ottawa, but that R1 neighbourhoods should remain.
“If a developer wants to build multi-family in a single-detached zone, there should be an application for rezoning, a review of planning criteria, discussion with the community and a democratic vote at council,” he said.
The revamping of Ottawa’s zoning map next council term will implement the policies and directions of the new official plan the current council adopted last October, and offer a public avenue for the fate of R1 to be debated.
The multi-year process of crafting the new bylaw is already underway — though work has been delayed, as the province still hasn’t approved Ottawa’s official plan — and will involve public consultation, multiple draft versions and a final council vote scheduled for 2025.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...arying-visions
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