Urban Boundary Expansion - Update
What’s happening now?
The Official Plan http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/planning/op/opa_en.html was approved by Ottawa Councillors and by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. A significant issue in Ottawa’s recent Official Plan process was whether or not to expand the urban boundary in order to permit more residential development in areas that are currently rural.
Thirty appeals to the Plan were filed by developers who own land within Ottawa which was not rezoned Urban. Each of these appeals will be reviewed by the Ontario Municipal Board.
The Taggart Group of Companies, which is the parent company of Tamarack Homes, has appealed the entire Plan. They own land in Cumberland east of Cardinal Creek to Frank Kenny between Regional Road 174 and Wilhaven. Taggart has plans for an Orleans-style development with an estimated 4,220 housing units.
Mattamy Homes, which owns land south of Renaud between Mer Bleue and Tenth Line, has also filed an appeal. The Greater Ottawa Home Builders Association has appealed many parts of the Plan on behalf of its members.
The CVCA is taking an active role in this process. Find out more
June 14 preliminary hearing
The first preliminary hearing with the Ontario Municipal Board took place at city hall on Monday, June 14. Several CVCA representatives attended the hearing, which is open to the public.
Cumberland resident Tamara Belle-Isle was granted participant status on behalf of concerned citizens on the city-wide matter of the Urban Boundary expansion. This entitles her to state her case before all parties, including the judge from the OMB, lawyers representing the city and the 25 lawyers representing the developers.
Two other members of the Cumberland community were also granted participant status on the issue of the moratorium on country lot estates. There is no predicting the ruling of the OMB, which is final.
What’s next?
July 19 -20, 2010– The OMB will determine who is granted party status.
The Federation of Citizen's Associations (a group of community associations across Ottawa, of which CVCA is a member) has requested party status on the Urban Boundary expansion and Country Lot Subdivisions. All lawyers representing the developers contested the FCA’s party status at the June 14 meeting. The FCA will present a motion at the July meeting which may or may not be accepted. At the very least, FCA will be granted participant status.
August 26 & 27, 2010- the procedural order will be determined. Appeals relating to the same issues will be grouped together in order to streamline the process.
February-March 2011 - The actual hearings will likely take place over five weeks. The first phase will decide whether or not to expand the Urban Boundary, and if so, by how much land.
Should the OMB decide to expand the urban boundary, the hearing will move on to Phase 2 in order to determine which land will be permitted for development.
How you can get involved
If the OMB agrees to expand the urban boundary, there may be an opportunity for concerned citizens to become participants. Individuals who made a submission to Council last spring should consider this opportunity to get involved in the process.
The CVCA will continue to monitor this issue and remain involved in the process. We will provide updates as the hearing moves forward. In the meantime, the CVCA welcomes your concerns, advice and suggestions.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| 1. Red Flag - Rally for Support | 39.5 KB |
| 2. CVCA Submission | 36.5 KB |
| 3. Urban Boundary - Round Two | 31.5 KB |
Comments
Urban Boundary Update - July 2011
OMB ruled that the city must increase the urban boundary by an additional 620 hectares (June 3, 2011)
City has requested submissions of information for consideration for inclusion in the remaining 620 hectares before the 12th August 2011.
Staff will review the submissions and will report to Planning Committee on September 13th, 2011.
Council will determine its position as to what further land should be added to the urban area (On September 28th, 2011)
The date for the next phase of the OMB urban boundary hearing has not yet been set.
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...excerpt from city of Ottawa email (below)
Re: Urban Expansion candidate lands and Ontario Municipal Board consideration
This notice is provided for your information and for the information of anyone you may represent who has an interest in the upcoming second phase of the urban boundary hearing for Official Plan Amendment No 76 (OPA 76).
As part of the Official Plan review, completed in June 2009, Council decided to add 230 hectares of land to the urban boundary. That decision was appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB). The Board agreed to deal with the urban expansion decision in two phases; Phase 1 dealing with how much land should be added, and Phase 2 dealing with where the land to be added should be located. On June 3, 2011 the Board’s decision on the first phase dealing with “how much land” was released and concluded that a total of 850 hectares of land should be added to the urban area.
Previously Council added 230 hectares of urban land through OPA 76, which was adopted in June 2009. Of that land 163 hectares were subsequently confirmed through Official Plan Amendment 77, which is now in effect. Consequently, the OMB decision requires the City to provide a position as to what land it believes should make up the balance of the 850 hectares.
On 13th July, 2011 City Council confirmed their commitment to the land that comprises the original 230 hectares and offers an opportunity to those individuals and corporations that own land around the urban boundary to make further submissions of information to the City for consideration for inclusion in the remaining 620 hectares. The submissions should be new information that may not have been considered by the City in June of 2009.
All submissions must be in writing and must be received by the City before the close of business on 12th August 2011.
Staff will review the submissions and will report to Planning Committee on September 13th, 2011. On September 28th, 2011 Council will determine its position as to what further land should be added to the urban area. The date for the second phase of the urban boundary hearing has not yet been set.