Infill guidelines get tentative approval
After months of consultations and meetings, developers want more time to study fine print
By Matthew Pearson, OTTAWA CITIZEN March 25, 2014 7:25 PM
OTTAWA — Guidelines to curb often controversial infill developments in the city’s central neighbourhoods took another step forward Tuesday after the planning committee approved them in principle.
But it voted to give developers more time to review the bylaw’s finer details.
The city adopted an infill bylaw in 2012, but an appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board sent planning staff back to the drawing board.
After consulting for months with community associations and a working group of people from the infill development sector, city staff revised the initial bylaw to revolve around a central premise: look to what’s currently on a street for cues about what’s acceptable to build.
The goal is to give both neighbours and developers certainty while maintaining and enhancing streetscape character and ensuring flexibility for landowners and developers.
The revised bylaw now includes a formula to figure out “streetscape character” based on three design features: landscaping out front, parking and front doors. The rules will apply to all homeowners, to new houses on new and existing lots, and to buildings up to four storeys tall.
Staff wanted the committee to OK its motion as presented, which would have paved the way for council to endorse the revisions at its April 9 meeting and send them off to the OMB.
“Enough talk and a little more action is what we need now,” was how Lee Ann Snedden, the city’s manager of policy development and urban design, put it.
But Murray Chown, speaking for the group of smaller infill builders who launched the initial OMB appeal, asked the committee for more time to go through the bylaw and discuss possible revisions with staff so that, at the end of the day, council will endorse a bylaw that has support of both developers and community associations.
“We’re close, we’ve made progress, but we need a little more time to discuss with staff,” Chown said.
“Let’s not fix it on the floor of the committee room.”
A lawyer representing some larger developers agreed with the request for more time, saying her clients weren’t aware that the bylaw would affect four-storey buildings.
Her clients were of the view it didn’t apply to them, so they didn’t participate in the working group, but when they saw the revised bylaw, it “raised a lot of red flags,” said Ursula Melinz.
Capital Coun. David Chernushenko called the deferral request “disingenuous” and said asking for such a measure now, after so much consultation, was like asking for more time to get a few extra infill applications in before the rules change.
He said infill was a central issue in some wards during the 2010 election and will no doubt be an issue again when voters go to the polls this fall because many residents want some say in the development of their neighbourhoods.
He also praised planning staff for undertaking such a broad consultative process.
“I believe this was done well,” Chernushenko said.
Snedden agreed, saying the infill working group had held 30 meetings since June and reached out to more than 25 community associations from the five affected wards.
“This really is a model for consultation in terms of the process we used,” she said.
Representatives from six community associations spoke in favour of the revised bylaw, with Old Ottawa East Community Association’s Paul Goodkey seemingly speaking for many when he said, “This is the first real teeth to implement those (infill) guidelines.”
With the bylaw’s confirmation on the horizon, the community associations are turning their attention to public education and enforcement of the new infill rules.
mpearson@ottawacitizen.com
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