The New Official Plan

The New OP team recently held 5 public sessions to discuss the City Wide Interim As We Heard report and the themes that were heard from each of the 5 transects. Below are links for both the presentations that were provided and the transcribed Q&A session.

June 22^nd Rural Transect

• Presentation
• Q&A

June 23^rd Suburban Transect

• Presentation
• Q&A

June 23^rd Outer Urban Transect

• Presentation
• Q&A

June 24^th Downtown Transect

• Presentation
• Q&A

June 28^th Inner Urban

• Presentation
• Q&A

If you have a question that has not been answered please email newop@ottawa.ca

The New OP team held a public session in March 2021 to discuss the 15-minunte neighbourhood concept.

The full presentation can be found here.

The Q&A portion of the event can be found in the New OP FAQ document here.

The City-Wide Interim As We Heard It report provides transparency around how the feedback received is impacting the development of the draft New Official Plan. The report highlights the key city-wide themes captured through stakeholder engagement and how City Planners propose we amend policies to address this feedback.

The full report can be found here: New Official Plan City-Wide Interim As We Heard It report

Updated Transect Map
Updated Transect Map (Ward)

The City has also committed to releasing a series of 23 Ward specific Interim As We Heard It reports. These will be posted here as they are completed.

The City will host a public session on each transect. These sessions will help residents learn how feedback was responded to by City Planners. Please register using the links below:

June 22^nd 6:30 p.m. Transect – Rural Public Meeting

June 23^rd

• 5:30 p.m. Transect – Suburban Public Meeting
• 7:00 p.m. Transect – Outer Urban Public Meeting
  
  

June 24^th 6:30 p.m. Transect – Downtown Public Meeting

June 28^th 6:30 p.m. Transect – Inner Urban Public Meeting

There has been an unprecedented level of public engagement on the draft New Official Plan, with over 100,000 resident engagements so far.

Comments on the draft New Official Plan were seeking clarification and suggesting different ideas. The highest concentration of comments focused on a few specific areas.

The next step in our consultation will be to provide residents an interim As We Heard It report highlighting these areas of concentrated public interest and outlining how such input has led to changes in the proposed policies.

The interim As We Heard It report will be posted to this webpage later this spring.

In the coming months, staff will continue to receive and incorporate public input. Public consultation on the draft New Official Plan continues and will include:

• Spring - Public presentation and online engagements on the interim As We Heart It report providing the opportunity to submit questions and additional feedback.
• Summer – Online engagement on updated draft New Official Plan policies.
• Late Summer – Public Open House on the full updated draft New Official Plan.
• Fall - Statutory Public Meeting at the joint Planning and Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee. Residents can register to present to Committee on these dates.

The New OP team is currently working on making changes to the proposed policies based on a large amount of feedback.

How the proposed policies are changing will be shared with residents via an As We Heard It report later this spring.

A revised New OP will be released this summer followed by an Open House. The final report will be presented to Committee and Council this fall.

Please read this FAQ to see if it answers your questions. If you have a question that has not been answered below you can email it to newop@ottawa.ca.

We continue to answer questions submitted and we will add those responses to this page as they are developed.

Thank you for your interest in the draft New Official Plan. The draft New Official Plan is a complex document. In order to facilitate your feedback, we have created a series of one-pagers on the key topics we heard in our engagements so far.

There are twenty-one of these documents providing a brief overview of the New Official Plan proposed policies. You can select the topics of interest to you or go through them all.

A link is also provided below each one-pager, taking you to a tailored feedback form. This allows you to give feedback directly on this area of interest.

If you have any questions or would like to provide general comments, you can always do so through newop@ottawa.ca.

We understand there are many one-pagers and feedback forms. You will have until March 12, 2021 to complete these. Please feel free to take time to go through these at your own pace.

For a high level introduction to what is new in the draft New Official Plan, please start with our Introduction one-pager.

Looking to review the full draft Official Plan? Please find the sections below:

Volume 1: Draft Official Plan

• Draft Official Plan
• Schedules
  • A Series
  • B Series
  • C Series
• Annexes

Volume 2A: Urban Secondary Plans

Volume 2B: Rural Secondary Plans

Here are a couple short summaries mapping out how Secondary Plans have changed in the New Official:

Urban Secondary Plans

Rural Secondary Plans

Volume 2C: Area Specific Policies

• Area Specific Policies

Interested in more information about the 613 Flats – please review some different ideas of how they could be built. Each of the below is a different form or typology for the 613 Flats concept.

If you have feedback on these, please use the 613 Flats Feedback Form.

Typology 1

Typology 2

Typology 3

Typology 4

Typology 5

Typology 6

The new Official Plan is a document that describes how the city will grow and has a goal to be the most liveable mid-sized city in North America. To achieve this goal, Five Big Moves were adopted to frame new Official Plan, including the concept of 15-minute neighbourhoods. 

What do we mean when we say a 15-minute neighbourhood? It is a neighbourhood where you can access most of your day-to-day needs within a 15-minute walk from your home, including when using a wheelchair or other mobility aids, on sidewalks or pathways.  

A 15-minute neighbourhood is a neighbourhood where you can walk to get to the grocery store, where you can easily walk to frequent transit, and where children can safely walk to school.    

Walkable, 15-minute neighbourhoods reduce our dependency on cars, promote equity, social connections and a greater sense of community, foster physical and mental health, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  

Learn more about the connection between health and our built environment here.

We'd love to hear what makes a successful 15 minute neighbourhood for rural residents! Please take a few minutes to complete this survey, it will close on October 22nd, 2020.

Based on selection criteria outlined in the Growth Management Strategy that Council adopted in May 2020, staff have identified and ranked clusters of land recommended for inclusion within Ottawa’s urban boundary. The report recommends lands to accommodate new neighbourhoods as well as industrial lands to accommodate employment projections.

Read the full report here.

Interested in the materials that went into the selection criteria decision in May 2020. You can review those materials below:

New Official Plan Growth Management Strategy Report

Residential Growth Management Strategy for the New Official Plan

Selected Growth Management Policies, Provincial Policy Statement 2020

Vacant Urban Residential Land Survey

Village Residential Land Survey

Analysis of Residential Net to Gross Ratios in the City of Ottawa

Urban Expansion Detailed Evaluation Criteria

Stakeholder Comments and Response to Urban Expansion Criteria