Big zoning changes clear another hurdle at city hall

A transformational shift in city zoning rules has taken another step forward, but some councillors worry people won't pay attention until it starts upending the look of their neighbourhoods.

The second draft of a massive rewrite of Ottawa's comprehensive zoning bylaw went through council's planning and housing committee on Monday, with only minor changes from the first.

It still axes rules that force developers to build a minimum number of parking spaces in new buildings, and only slightly walks back major increases to building heights and housing density in much of the city.

"We've scaled back some things, but we started off very ambitious and it's still very ambitious," said Carol Ruddy, acting program manager of zoning.

But River ward Coun. Riley Brockington worried that few residents seem aware of what's at stake. 

"When I raise the zoning bylaw review in my community … there's a glazed look in people's eyes," he said.

But then they talk about the potential changes it could bring to their neighbourhood, and that glazed look is sometimes replaced by fear.

"There is a fear in their eyes, because they don't understand this long process we've been on. They don't understand how their neighbourhoods will be impacted," Brockington said. "They're afraid that there'll be drastic changes in their neighbourhoods."

He called for a robust communications plan to explain the bylaw, in layman's terms, and why the city is making the changes, many of which are required by its official plan, provincial policy or agreements with the federal government.

Ruddy said her team is making serious efforts to reach everyone it can, including through social media advertisements, outreach through community associations and open houses that attracted hundreds of people.

She was hopeful that the next step — as her team draws up a third and final draft — will get more people interested.

"People start to pay attention when it gets toward the end," she said. "This has been a long process. We're really going to do our best to reach out over the summer and into the fall."

The new zoning bylaw would allow at least four units on every residential lot, and in many cases much more. It allows higher building heights on corridors like Carling Avenue, Baseline Road and Montreal Road, and around major transit stations.

It makes it easier to open a business in a residential neighbourhood and includes more protections for trees. But the elimination of parking minimums have attracted the most attention. That change is supposed to make housing more affordable by allowing developers to dispense with on-site parking spaces the city previously required them to build.

The zoning changes are meant to supercharge housing growth as the city plans for hundreds of thousands more residents over the next two decades.

Brockington asked whether Ruddy could run information sessions in every ward across the city, to explain in detail what they would mean for every neighbourhood. But she told him there's no way she could do that and still finish her work on time. The final draft is due to come back to council by the end of this year for a vote.

Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper, who chairs the planning and housing committee, said that residents are less likely to pay attention to high-level planning documents than actual development projects around the corner. But those high-level documents — like the official plan and the zoning bylaw — are what determines whether those developments get built, where they get built and how high they can go.

"There are certainly going to be a lot of people who, the first time something is proposed for their neighbourhood, are going to be surprised it's allowed," Leiper said. 

"It's difficult to reach them. I don't envy staff's job trying to get people fired up about the comprehensive zoning bylaw."

He said most of the changes that came in the second draft of the zoning bylaw were mere tweaks from the first. The new draft reduces the maximum density in one kind of residential zone by a bit more than 10 per cent and pares back maximum heights in one other. It provides several options for how building heights can transition from high-rise to low-rise neighbourhoods.

The committee voted to receive the new draft and send it forward to council. But some councillors had serious concerns about what's inside.

Orleans East-Cumberland Coun. Matt Luloff warned of an "anti-vehicle push" and said the bylaw risks pushing people out of the city into satellite communities like Carleton Place.

He said Ruddy's team needs to do more to be clear with people about how controversial some of the elements of the new bylaw might be.

"We're going to lead people to believe that this is an innocuous policy," he said. "It is not. It is transformative."