Ottawa Citizen

Developers look to join growing suburbs

After agreeing to expand boundary, council has to decide what to include

- JON WILLING With files from Joanne Laucius jwilling@postmedia.com twitter.com/JonathanWi­lling

The city received nearly 50 submission­s from developers or their consultant­s making cases for including their lands inside an expanded urban boundary as municipal planners decided the best candidates for joining the growing suburbs.

Now that council has decided how much more land should be brought inside the urban boundary, it needs to figure out which lands will become part of suburban Ottawa.

The land review comes with major financial implicatio­ns for developers who have acquired sites in the hopes that those parcels will be part of an urban boundary expansion.

It's a competitio­n involving big companies, with big money on the line.

A joint meeting of council's planning committee and agricultur­e and rural affairs committee scheduled for Jan. 25 will be a chance for developers and anyone else who wants to speak on the matter to weigh in on the properties to be included in the urban boundary.

Committee members have been told to prepare for the possibilit­y of a multi-day meeting, depending on how many people want to make presentati­ons.

Included in a report for councillor­s made public Friday was a list of properties that were the subjects of lobbying by developers or their consultant­s. There were 48 entries on the city's list of unsolicite­d submission­s, and some involved the same properties and multiple contacts with the city.

The developers and consultant­s presented informatio­n on properties at every corner of the suburbs, including Kanata North, Stittsvill­e, Barrhaven, Riverside South, Orléans and Cumberland.

The city wanted all unsolicite­d submission­s by the end of last June so staff had time to review the informatio­n, but the report to councillor­s said staff still were receiving submission­s in early 2021.

“No submission­s were received asking for lands not to be considered — they were universall­y requests to add land to the urban boundary,” the staff report said.

While developers provided their own scoring or analyses, city staff said their informatio­n wasn't very helpful because of its “speculativ­e nature.”

The city is using criteria and a scoring system to determine which lands should be included in the urban boundary. In general, the properties should be close to public transit and have existing or planned municipal infrastruc­ture, such as water services, wastewater services and roads.

The city has found 1,011 hectares of land that should be brought inside the urban boundary, but the council-approved direction calls for 1,281 hectares to be added.

To make up the difference, staff say council could consider lands that didn't receiving passing scores, but are near the lands proposed to be brought into the urban boundary, or create between one and three new communitie­s.

A project called Tewin is included as an option for a new community. It's a land-developmen­t partnershi­p between the Algonquins of Ontario and Taggart Investment­s looking to transform a swath of land southwest of Highway 417 and Boundary Road.

The other two new communitie­s being floated as options are in the areas of South March in Kanata and Riverside South.

The staff also report recommends creating a “Gold Belt” similar to the Greenbelt created in the 1950s, consisting of agricultur­al land, natural areas and key mineral aggregate resource areas.

The Gold Belt would effectivel­y create “ultimate boundaries” for Barrhaven, Riverside South, Stittsvill­e and Orléans, limiting new urban expansion between the Greenbelt and the Gold Belt.

“The intent of the inner boundary of the Gold Belt in the new official plan would be to contain, until the end of the century, all future urban expansions and any new communitie­s,” the report said.

“This would also assist in preserving the unique identities of the city's villages and ensure they are not overtaken by future urban expansions. Leapfroggi­ng of the Gold Belt for new urban land would be prohibited in new official plan policy.”

On Saturday, Ecology Ottawa criticized the city's intention to limit future urban expansions, saying that, without stronger policies, it was just a “mirage.”

 ??  ?? Developers with land just outside the city are hoping their properties become part of Ottawa when the municipal map is redrawn.
Developers with land just outside the city are hoping their properties become part of Ottawa when the municipal map is redrawn.

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