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City Hall Corner
- Ward 3 Office
- 6 hours ago
- 3 min read
Updates from Councillor Hill on City Hall meetings and policy
April 18, 2025
This week was a busy council, as I spoke to in my opening comments. I was able to get unanimous support from council for two motions that ensure a consistent standard for density across the City, instead of setting a higher standard for the new suburbs of Kanata, Barrhaven, Stittsville and Orleans than the urban transects inside the greenbelt. Let’s get into the weeds a little bit. The City sets its targets for density, and development in a document called the Official Plan. The most recent Official Plan was passed by the last council and approved by the province. We are now being tasked with updating our Zoning Bylaw to implement the goals of the new Official Plan. Part of the changes in the OP this time around was simplifying how residential neighbourhoods are zoned. Low density neighbourhoods (N1 and N2 in the OP) will be more restrictive on building heights, while neighbourhoods around LRT stations, or major commerce hubs allow for greater building heights (N3 and N4). In this newest Zoning Bylaw draft, the report bifurcated N1 and N2 zones based on if they where inside or outside the Greenbank. Outside the Greenbank, in the newer suburbs, the report proposes building to three stories. Inside the Greenbelt, in areas of the city with more transit and built up infrastructure, the report only called for two stories. Similarly, the report creates an exemption for select N4 zones, restricting building heights to 3 stories where in the Official Plan they are intended to be up to four stories. Those exemptions were applied largely inside the greenbelt again.
There’s the obvious fairness problem to having a higher standard in the suburbs than in areas with more established road and transit infrastructure. But, we also have to think about how we meet our housing targets. Intensification in the downtown has to go hand in hand with expansion of new suburbs around the city’s outskirts if we want to ensure a strong enough housing supply to make Ottawa affordable to live in for our children. My motions asked staff to review and report back on options that would create a consistent intensification standard across the city. More to come, but by supporting my motion council demonstrated a willingness to consider a more ambitious approach to city building.
Also at Council Wednesday, my motion on vehicle crimes received unanimous support. My motion calls on the City to lobby the Province to do the following:
Introduce new legislation to allow regional police to use sound detection technology that can accurately and effectively target illegal exhaust modifications; and
Strengthen legislation for vehicle theft crimes, especially for individuals with multiple offenses; and
Strengthen the Highway Traffic Act for stunt racing, especially for individual with multiple offenses; and
Introduce of an Assigned Vehicle Identification Number program, modeled after the Alberta and Saskatchewan regimes, to crack down on the sale of stolen vehicles within Ontario.
A very busy council!
On Thursday, I participated in an Emergency Preparedness and Protective Services committee that was more information oriented. We heard from our Public Safety team, as well as Fire Services. This is an annual process, department heads provide councillors on major trends and developments in their teams. Always an informative process!
Looking Ahead: