May 26, 2020
Mayor Jim Watson, City of Ottawa
Ottawa City Councillors
Dear Mayor Watson and Councillors,
The Glebe Community Association (GCA) supports maintaining the current urban boundary in Ottawa’s new Official Plan and, on May 27, urges you to vote against expansion.
Earlier, we wrote to members of the two committees considering the staff report on Ottawa’s growth management strategy. We outlined the reasons for our position. Principal among them:
- Ottawa is in a climate emergency. Urban expansion would inevitably and substantially enlarge our carbon footprint, reduce the land available for local food production, and take down woodlands – nature’s carbon sink. Expansion is antithetical to our efforts to minimize and mitigate the impacts of climate change.
- Ottawa can achieve “density done right.” Our community and others, urban and suburban, are ready to engage in a collaborative process that will bring more people to our neighbourhoods, not in towers, but in a mix of building types that complement our existing architecture.
- The Official Plan’s Five Big Moves set out important policy directions. These include intensification conducive to complete 15-minute neighbourhoods with a diversity of dwelling options, including affordable ones, and sophistication in urban design. We have the template. We need to use it. Urban expansion would undercut these goals, with funding and effort pushed out to support infrastructure in new subdivisions.
Added to these concerns is the impact of the health crisis in which we are currently immersed. It has led to an explosion of work-from-home, with Shopify announcing that this will be its post-pandemic default option. What does this mean for housing design? For downtown office real estate? COVID-19 has also reinforced the popularity of online shopping. What does this mean for bricks and mortar retail? What about malls that may soon be closing in suburban areas? Could homes replace shops?
Despite this array of cautions and opportunities, and a majority of voices raised against, the committees voted for expansion.
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But citizens don’t want it. A new EKOS poll shows that most Ottawa residents believe that expansion would be a negative for the city. Over two-thirds said that expanding the urban boundary would increase pressure on the delivery of city services and would increase greenhouse gasses in the region. As well, 55% said it would increase traffic congestion in the urban core of the city and the same percentage said it would increase taxes for city residents.
Recently there has been some effort to differentiate expansion from sprawl. But in reality, expansion equals sprawl. Even if more of the homes being built in suburbs are stacked townhouses and multi-unit residences, they are part of a decades-old culture where sidewalks are rare, there’s no local grocery store, and the car is king. This is a far cry from the 15-minute community to which we aspire.
The GCA believes that the City of Ottawa’s targets for intensification can be met within the existing urban boundary in a sensitive, environmentally sustainable way, with respect for heritage character and in a way that is compatible with existing neighbourhoods. Ottawa has an opportunity to grow differently, without growing out. Containing the urban boundary is not an isolated issue. It is a structural decision that can accelerate progress on the City’s stated goals for climate, transit-oriented development and more livable, walkable, healthy communities.
The GCA stands ready to contribute ideas and proposals supporting sensitive intensification in our community and other communities across the City.
Please vote to maintain the current urban boundary, so we can keep working together to make Ottawa a just, healthy and sustainable City for all.
Thank you for your attention to our views and your dedication to the well-being of our City and its citizens, current and future.
Yours sincerely,
June Creelman, Vice-President, Glebe Community Association
For Sarah Viehbeck, President, Glebe Community Association