OTTAWA CITIZEN, By Jon Willing

The City of Ottawa is defending the local planning process in response to a report by a provincial task force recommending ways to increase the number of homes and make housing more affordable in Ontario.

The city says it disagrees “with those recommendations that completely remove local context considerations” or create “barriers to participation in the development approvals process,” according to a response to the task force’s recommendations submitted to city council on Monday by Steve Willis, Ottawa’s general manager of planning.

Willis wants council to endorse the position proposed by city staff now that they have reviewed all 55 recommendations from the task force.

The Ontario Progressive Conservative government created the housing affordability task force in December and a report with the recommendations was published in February.

The task force recommended a provincial target of building 1.5 million homes over 10 years, a goal that the City of Ottawa calls “incredibly ambitious.”

The city finished a lengthy process to create a new official plan last fall and the council-approved document is awaiting approval by the provincial government.

The city says the new official plan, which calls for more than half of all new homes to be built through intensification in existing communities, responds to issues brought up by the task force.

“The city does not support recommendations in the report that would rush development applications or create efficiencies at the expense of meaningful engagement,” according to the report submitted by Willis.

There are several recommendations from the task force that received pushback from the city as it fights to retain municipal control over land-use decisions under provincial planning law.

The task force suggests allowing residential buildings up to four storeys and four units on a single lot, but the city doesn’t like that such a decision would be imposed on municipalities.

The task force says municipal planning policies attempting to preserve neighbourhood character should be repealed. The city doesn’t agree.

“Individual municipalities are in the best position to identify which of their tools are working and which are being used as barriers to intensification. The city believes that intensification can be achieved while preserving character,” the city’s response says.

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