Ontario Construction News staff writer
Ottawa has enough land for residential and industrial development for more than 15 years, according to two new reports. The city is hoping that the reports will encourage more development in the urban area and help the province achieve its goal of 151,000 new homes by 2031.
The city’s planning and housing committee approved the reports last Wednesday (Jan. 17).
The Greenfield Residential Land Survey monitors the residential land supply within that greenfield area. The report received on Wednesday indicates that Ottawa has enough supply to allow for more than 15 years of development. The new Official Plan that came into effect in 2022 also introduced additional lands to Ottawa’s urban area. With those lands, Ottawa can accommodate growth well beyond the 15-year horizon required by the province.
The vacant industrial and business park land survey report said that the existing inventory would be enough to accommodate roughly 31 years of industrial development in the urban area and 33 years in the rural area, meeting the province’s intent that the city accommodate industrial development throughout the time horizon of the official plan, or beyond 2046.
In other business, the committee approved the development of two residential towers on North Bowesville Road, off of Uplands Dr., with 392 dwellings ranging from studios to two bedroom apartments with a den. The development would be 14 storeys tall, and the committee approved the amendment that would allow for construction to be built to the current maximum permitted height, but would remove the maximum floor space index that would have restricted the development’s size.
In Orléans, zoning for a more modest two-building development was also approved, targeting the rental market. Two three-storey apartment buildings planned northwest of Tenth Line Road and des Épinettes Avenue, across from the Ray Friel Recreation Complex, would add 27 one-bedroom rental units to the area. The amendment would change the site’s parent zoning to add low-rise apartment as a permitted use and reduce required resident parking by two spaces.
The city said that the land use permissions approved on Wednesday will help put applicants in a position to build 426 new homes in Ottawa over the next several years.