Developers stunned by recommendation to remove lands from boundary expansion to help Algonquins project
Several developers who own land in the South March area were set to have their high-scoring properties brought into the new urban boundary, only to be rejected by councillors.
Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Jan 26, 2021 • 8 minutes ago • 3 minute read
Councillors blindsided four development companies on Tuesday by recommending the removal of high-scoring development land from inside a proposed urban boundary in the Kanata area so the Algonquins of Ontario can build a major residential community on low-scoring development land in the rural east.
A joint meeting of the planning and agriculture and rural affairs committee established which additional lands should be included in a shifted urban boundary to satisfy growth projections in a new official plan.
The city’s planning department used a scoring system to decide which lands should be included inside a new urban boundary.
Several developers who own land in the South March area were set to have their high-scoring properties brought into the new urban boundary, only to be rejected by councillors.
“It is incredibly surprising that in an unprecedented move that politics has taken over a prescribed scoring process and months of work by city staff and included a parcel of land with a zero score on servicing over lands which have some of highest scores and support the growth and maturation of an existing complete community where jobs, services and houses co-exist,” Claridge, Multivesco, Uniform and EQ Homes said in a statement.
“The joint committee has taken a step backwards in their supposed step into the future with a new official plan. It has taken one of the biggest employment nodes and one of the only true 15-minute communities out of the equation that these same politicians drew up to start the process.”
Instead, councillors took the roughly 175 hectares of land and packaged it with 270 hectares that still needed to be slotted into the urban boundary, ultimately assigning the 445 hectares of land to the “Tewin” project pursued by the Algonquins of Ontario and Taggart Investments west of Carlsbad Springs.
Councillors heard that the land owned by the Algonquins of Ontario scored at the lowest end of the scale because of its far-flung location not near public transit and other municipal infrastructure.
But an important variable emerged.
The Algonquins of Ontario told the joint committee this week that the city should bring its lands inside the urban boundary, in part, in the name of Indigenous reconciliation. The group said it needed 500 hectares brought into the urban boundary.
Janet Stavinga, executive director of the Algonquins of Ontario, said the organization should still be able to proceed with its project with the 445 hectares.
There was a pronged approach to get the Algonquin lands into the urban boundary on Tuesday.
Coun. Eli El-Chantiry convinced the majority of the joint committee to remove the South March lands, which he argued are unsuitable for development, even though the lands received acceptable scores from city staff.
Then Coun. Tim Tierney shifted his colleagues’ attention with a motion to include the Algonquin lands inside the urban boundary. He said the city should seize the chance to acknowledge reconciliation.
“This is a real opportunity where we can put ourselves on the map,” Tierney said.
Other councillors grappled with weighing a critical municipal planning decision with Indigenous reconciliation.
“It’s well worth considering very, very carefully,” Coun. Jeff Leiper said.
Leiper, along with Coun. Riley Brockington, was on the losing end of the vote to establish a new community with the Algonquin lands.
Even Stephen Willis, the city’s general manager of planning, wasn’t sure how to balance the priorities.
“We’re in new territory right now on this issue,” Willis said.
City planners came to the joint committee meeting this week asking for approval on a plan identifying their recommended new development lands.
There were 1,101 hectares of land that received top grades for getting into the urban boundary, but the city still needed to find 270 hectares of lower-graded lands to add. That’s where the Algonquin land came in.
In expanding the urban boundary, the city has to consider how much more money its would cost to provide municipal services in those outer communities. The cost for including the Algonquin lands wasn’t made clear during the meeting.
It wasn’t the only controversy.
Coun. Carol Anne Meehan won support to swap out staff-recommended land in Riverside South with nearby agricultural land to allow residential development closer to the new Trillium Line extension.
Meehan struggled with her own proposal, since she previously supported protecting agricultural land during the urban boundary expansion.
Coun. Scott Moffatt said Meehan’s motion worryingly sends a message that “transit trumps agriculture, but El-Chatiry, the chair of the agriculture committee who originally won council’s support to protect agriculture land, said the land swap provides a “one-time opportunity we shouldn’t miss” for public transit.
Council will vote on the recommended new lands inside the urban boundary on Feb. 10.
jwilling@postmedia.com
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