Sign-off for Ottawa's new official plan delayed by housing bill

The City of Ottawa spent several years working on a new official plan to guide how it grows and what buildings can go up where, but it hasnot received final approval from the Ontario government and no longer expects to until after the June provincial election.

The document hasbeen affected by the Ford government's legislationaimed at boostinghousing supply, which suspended decisions on municipal official plans that are still waiting for Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark's final sign-off.

That legislationwas introduced on March 30, but was fast-tracked at Queen's Park and received both third reading and royal assent on Thursday.

• Ford government left key strategies out of housing legislation, critics say
• City of Ottawa doesn't want to lose local planning powers to province

Steve Willis, the City of Ottawa's general manager of planning, real estate and economic development, told planning committee Thursday he would be "very surprised" if the official plan was approved before the post-election cabinet was sworn in.

When council approved the planlast fall, aftermany marathon meetings and a lot of community input, the law said the minister had 120 days to approve the document. That would have led to a decision by late March.

Without that decision, planning decisions in Ottawa will keep following the oldofficial plan, which remains in effect.

• Ottawa's new official plan approved by city council

Planning committee co-chair Coun. Scott Moffattmaintainedthe document Ottawa approved did a "responsible" job of balancing a growing population and denser developments, even if some points don't quite line up with the government's housing affordability aims.

"I think our plan is far more progressive and realistic than what we've seen elsewhere in the province, including Hamilton," said Moffatt, referring to that city's decision to freeze its urban boundary. "But I feel that we're being unfairly lumped with those other plans, just as a bit of a catch-all."

Refunds for developer fees

At planning committee, Willis also expressed concern that the legislation would lead to cities having to refund fees if they don't decide on planning applications within a set number of days.

Site plan applications are to be decided in 60 days, rezoningsin 90, and official plan amendments in 120 days. The housing bill laid out a scale whereby a city might have to refund 50 per cent, 75 per cent, or even all of the fees, depending on how long those decisions took.

Fees areoften thousands or tens of thousands of dollars per application.

Willis looked back over the timelines his staff had hit last year, and estimated the City of Ottawa would end up refunding fees forabout 75 per centof zoning applicationsand 80 per centof site plan applications.

"If we have money in and then money back out, we're going to have to have to bring forward astrategy for how is council going to handle this," said Willis, including possiblyhigher rates or a reserve to buffer it for the unkowns.

It also would be difficult to have the right number of staff on-hand when the city has little idea how many applications might come in, he added. The problem is compounded by a number of retirements in the planning department and a "hot job market" that makes it hard to hold onto new hires, Willis added.

That concerned several city councillors, including River ward Coun. Riley Brockington who feared the city might lose development revenue over a bill that he felt was tabled entirely to appeal to voters in the upcoming June 2 election.

"One of the challenges with Bill 109 is it's more about optics than building affordable housing," he said.