Planning and Development

CHNA Planning & Development Committee

About the Committee
The Latest (including the CHNA Planning and Development Toolkit)
Committee Meetings
Planning and Development Committee Archive

About the Committee

Mandate
Planning and Development Committee works towards protecting and enhancing the liveability, sustainability, integrity and heritage of the Civic Hospital community. To accomplish this mandate, Planning and Development Committee must:

Engage the community to better understand the identity or identities of the various neighbourhoods within the CH community.
Work to foster a sense of belonging among those neighbourhoods and look for holistic, community-wide solutions to problems.
Understand and respect the values of the community and consult with the residents of the community to ensure that Civic Hospital Neighbourhood Association (CHNA) decision-making processes are meaningful and informed.
Find mutually agreeable approaches to planning and development issues when there is no unified community opinion.

Guiding Principles
Planning and Development Committee operates on the basis of the following principles:

Urban neighbourhoods such as the Civic Hospital neighbourhood are the heart of the City of Ottawa and that the essential integrity of this and other urban neighbourhoods must be enhanced, protected and preserved.
Development within CHNA boundaries is good for the community, as long as the development is sensitive to the heritage and design values of the existing neighbourhood and respectful of current residents.
Healthy neighbourhoods are, by their nature, resident-centred, therefore planning and development decisions must include bottom-up planning and meaningful consultations with current residents.
Neighbourhoods function best when they include a wide range of housing, income levels, demographics, local businesses, local services, sustainable ecosystems, safe streets, appealing public spaces and accessible meeting spaces for the community to come together.

Responsibilities
As per CHNA’s Constitution, Planning and Development Committee is tasked with:

Liaising with City of Ottawa Officials and Developers on proposed developments of concern to CHNA.
Drafting comments on proposed developments of concern to CHNA during the consultation phase of the City of Ottawa’s planning process.
Working to influence the design of proposed developments to align them with the needs of the Civic Hospital community.

In addition, Planning and Development Committee has added the following responsibilities to its mandate:

Assessing, in collaboration with CHNA Executive, the need for action on city proposals and leading on or participating in those actions
Proposing public realm enhancements to the Civic Hospital community.
Partnering with adjacent community associations to influence City of Ottawa planning and development decisions.

Challenges
The Civic Hospital neighbourhood is adjusting to enormous pressure on many fronts including intensification/development in the Bayview to Preston and Carling corridor and the move of the Civic Hospital campus to the Central Experimental Farm. CHNA is a volunteer-driven organization with few financial resources and limited volunteer time available to respond to the numerous planning and development pressures.

Long-term objectives/vision
Planning and Development Committee contributes to a Civic Hospital neighbourhood that includes:

A close-knit, united community with a distinct identity that is understood and respected by City

of Ottawa planning staff.

Engaged residents who participate in CHNA-led activities.
A mix of housing.
Safe streets for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers with adequate lighting, moderate traffic on most streets and only one thoroughfare.
Access to excellent public transit.
Local services (drug & food stores, farmers markets, coffee shops, restaurants, banks, etc.) within easy walking or cycling distance of most residents.
A modern, vibrant, well-used and well loved community centre (future/aspirational).
Interesting, safe parks that offer amenities for all residents of the community and feature community-oriented public art.
A canopy of large, mature trees.

The Latest

2022 CHNA Planning and Development Tool Kit (DRAFT - Work in Progress)

The CHNA Planning and Development Tool Kit is designed to provide an overview of the guiding principles of the CHNA Planning and Development Committee followed by examples of proposed developments and showing how we try to apply guiding principles, as well as an overview of City of Ottawa Official Plan, Zoning information and other resources and links to guide you in planning and development processes. This is a draft document that is a work in progress.

To provide feedback and suggest further resources for this document, please send an email to: info@chnaottawa.ca And, to learn more about the latest happenings keep checking this website and our social media pages.

Following is the Content Section At A Glance of CHNA Planning and Development Tool Kit (Draft – Work in Progress):

CHNA Planning and Development Committee’s Guiding Principles
Examples of Proposed Developments and Trying to Apply Guiding Principles
City of Ottawa New Official Plan
City of Ottawa Zoning By-law Review
Intensification Plans
Community Design Plans
City of Ottawa Planning and Development Slide Presentations
Interesting Planning and Development Measures
Key Links to Resources
ANNEX A (Pages 13-16): Near Future and Ongoing Focus: Three Different Developments Impacting Our Community, including chart overview of CHNA ACTIONS with Three Different Developments
ANNEX B (Page 17-18): Impact of Surrounding Developments on Preston Street and Carling Avenue

chna_planning_and_development_tool_kit__draft__-_05-16-2022.docx
File Size:	3053 kb
File Type:	docx

Download File

Date Posted: June 1, 2022

City of Ottawa New Official Plan

On Wednesday, October 26th City Council approved the New Official Plan. The policy will now go to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing for adoption and implementation. This is the first new official plan created since amalgamation and will iguide growth for the next 25 years.

The CHNA worked with local community associations and groups reviewing and commenting on the many drafts of this important document. The document looks to balance the need to maintain our green canopy with the need to provide additional and affordable housing options for a growing city. The next 3 years will be spent working on the new zoning changes that will be needed to implement the plans and targets outlined in the New Official Plan.

https://engage.ottawa.ca/the-new-official-plan

Date Posted: November 8, 2021

Read about the City of Ottawa Draft Official Plan. In this link you can submit your feedback to the City of Ottawa.

Date Posted: Jan 5, 2021

Highway 417 Bridges and Improvements

Read about the Highway 417 Bridges and Improvements.
See the answer by WSP regarding our inquiry about noise barrier height in our neighbouhood.

Date Posted: Jan 5, 2021

Creating Permanent Affordable Housing – Idea form Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America (USA)

Read about the idea of creating permanent and affordable housing.

“The basic idea [of the Affordable Housing Overlay] is to level the playing field for builders of affordable homes by relaxing zoning requirements across the entire city. In most of the city’ residential districts, buildings can only be 35 feet tall, but the overlay allows developers to raise that to 45 feet if all the units are affordable — and 50 feet if that building has a restaurant or storefront on the ground-level. Even with that height increase, these buildings can’t exceed four stories. The overlay allows comparable height and density increases in areas already zoned for taller buildings.”

Date Posted: Jan 5, 2021