'The devil is in the details' of updated official plan given back to Ottawa

Not everyone is a fan of the changes to Ottawa's development guidelines the province sent back late last week.

The modified official plan is meant to chart the path for development in Ottawa until 2046. The city can't appeal the changes, according to the province.

The plan will nowallow for nine-storey buildings to be built in "minor corridors" in the downtown core, up from the four-storey buildings citycouncil approved in 2021.

In inner and outer urban areas outside of the downtown core, the plan allows for six storeys, also higher than the four-storey buildings council previously agreed to.

Additional areas, such as Findlay Creek and theSouth March area, are also being designated for urban expansion.

• Province approves Ottawa's official plan with taller buildings, wider urban boundary

Stittsville Coun.Glen Gowerisn't convinced the planwill help increase the housing supply, including more affordable homes, as the province and localhome builders' association says it will.

"The devil is really in the details," he said.

"We need to see the math and the assumptions that the province is used to make these changes before we can really evaluate how effective it's going to be."

Gower said"a whole section" surrounding the protection of tenants from rent evictions wastaken out of the original plan, leaving him concerned. He added that the original planalso urged for any growth insuburbs to be tiedtoaccessible public transit, but that was lost.

"It's one thing to set a housing target, but you can't just put a number out there and say 'Build it,'" said Gower.

"There's a real concern that a lot of us have that we just don't have that workforce or the supply chain to support this amount of growth."

Gower said he's worried that without these necessary resources,"We could end up with very poor quality of housing in the coming years."

'The population of Ottawa is the loser'

The loss of rural green spacesto urban sprawl poses another larger problem, according toPaul Johanis, chair of the groupGreenspace Alliance of Canada's Capital.

"We are of the point of view is that rural Ottawa is our biggest green space asset," said Johanis."Green space has valuein and of itself as mitigation against climate change."

"We're growing the city in a way that's unsustainable in a way that goes counter to what we should be doing and trying to address the climate emergency. We're just doing it willy-nilly without any real planning."

Johanis added that the urban expansion will leave some winners, while others struggle with its cost.

"Definitely the people who speculate in buying land around your boundary are the big winners. Some of them are developers, others are just outfits that specialize basically in acquiring land and hoping for a good return The home builders' association... has already claimed that this is a big victory for them,"Johanis said.

"But really, the population of Ottawa in general is the loser."

City staff saidin a Saturday memo that they're reviewing the changes and will soon update city council about what they mean. The new city council takes office next week.