New Housing Bylaw To Be Consulted And Ignored
Here is the coalition of self-interests that have come together at Ottawa City Hall on housing.
Governments want to build more housing because there is a need and because many of their campaign donations come from builders of housing.
Green members of city council want more intense housing so that they can lower greenhouse gas levels. However if you eliminated all the greenhouse gases coming from Ottawa, it would not even show up on worldwide levels. It would have next-to-no effect on the oncoming calamity of climate change. Real progress will be achieved when such things as the world-record levels of coal and oil consumption decline. That can only be realized with the cooperation of China, India and southeast Asia which is highly unlikely. Instead, we are spending billions locally on misguided initiatives that will have no effect on their stated objectives and are usually bungled.
Like natural-gas-charged e-buses to the tune of $1 billion.
The city planning department likes this report (and will see it passed as is despite consultation results) because it generates more revenue for it and keeps their developer friends happy.
In the end, Ottawans will see their traditional neighbourhoods destroyed in, yet another, disaster at city hall of good (and bad) intentions gone wrong.
Here’s the report to be discussed Monday … at short notice:
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– The Bulldog – News Feed Enter 
“It would have next-to-no effect on the oncoming calamity of climate change”
Get a grip on reality…”calamity”…really…stop drinking the special coolaid…Obama and Mike the wife just bought ocean front…if you can’t dwell the scam…get out of the kitchen…
Rocco:
You’re ignoring scientific analysis but live in your dream world if you must.
cheers
kgray
This is the first draft and it contains no actual hard #’s on how much width/setback/height you can develop on for any particular lot. The report has been out for 9 days to date which is standard and there will be many consultations/open houses and opportunities for the pearl clutching brigade and semi circles of angry people with arms crossed upset that a triplex can be built in their area to destory the ‘character’ of the neighbourhood.
We simply can’t keep on building single family homes on 50 x 100 lots within 5-10 km of Parliament Hill and have an efficient city that uses infrastructure wisely.
On first glance there are a lot of good ideas in the document and it isn’t scheduled to be heard until Q4 2025.
If you think the Planning Department are in cahoots with developers I can’t imagine a scenario where the Planning Department are trying to make developers lives difficult.
Luke:
City hall PR first mentioned it, in my memory at least, on Saturday morning.
Friday night releasee is when you try to bury it.
Saturday morning is kill it dead.
cheers
kgray
I saw it online on the Friday morning I believe. There is no way to ‘bury’ such a big item. I think you may need a bigger tinfoil hat.
The current bylaw is outdated in many situations and you need to be a forensic bylaw reader to figure it out.
Luke:
Sat, 27 Apr, 08:28 (1 day ago) — that was copied from the press release
cheers
kgray
Luke, there are two separate issues at play here.
There are the planning/zoning issues. Nothing particularly surprising in the press release, as it is consistent with the Official Plan and the (overriding) directives from Queens Park.
The publication of the press release is a separate matter.
I don’t doubt that it was posted on the city website on Friday morning. However, that requires ‘inquiring minds’ to visit the city web site multiple times per day – looking for something that they do not know exists. An excellent strategy to hide something in plain sight.
I also don’t doubt that the Bulldog received the press release on Saturday. As Ken says, an excellent strategy to ensure that it doesn’t disrupt the weekend of members of council, senior management etc.
And that takes us back to the culture of city hall.
Everyone is hot and heavy to build houses, but nobody is trying to build a community. No money for recreation, soccer fields, parks for kids, schools. There will be 8,000 kids looking for a high school in North Kanata, but no English High Schools being planned. Looking at around 100 e-buses (not considered yet) just to handle the N. Kanata high school students, but everyone is in stovepipes and there is not one person who is leading the coordination of these 3 levels of governments. No money from the Feds or Province for any of this. The Feds are bringing in the equivalent population of the City of Toronto every 3 years, but is not taking an responsibility for creating the communities we need. The NEW 37,000 people in N. Kanata alone are enough for a new hospital, not including the huge numbers in Stittsville and Goulbourn areas. All three levels of government are all incompetent with zero leadership. We are creating massive Jane-Finch-like crime-ridden housing complexes and nobody cares. There must be a social responsibility the comes with the creation of so much housing or we will doom Ottawa to a Detroit (Or Jane-Finch) like future
Hello, Ken. Sorry to be late to the trough on this one. I was in Toronto this past weekend watching the Blue Jays play the Dodgers. Having attempted to work my way through the report above I can see why councilors don’t read all the tripe, pardon me, reports, memos, etc that cross their desks (are the authors of these pieces paid by the word?). Anyway, I think one of the root causes of the climate issue (if you won’t buy into the theory that the planet has shifted on its axis) is overpopulation. And it’s interesting that you used China and India in your commentary above. Can the earth support a population of 8 billion people and counting? Many non-fiction as well as science fiction books have been written about the impact of overpopulation of the planet. “Soylent Green” immediately comes to mind.