2.0 Policy Overview - City of Ottawa Official Plan

2.1 Compatibility and Community Design

The City’s growth management strategy, set out in the Official Plan, includes intensification of development in the urban area over the next 20 years. However, the Official Plan also notes that introducing new development in existing neighbourhoods that have developed over a long period of time requires a sensitive approach to differences between new development and the established area. In this regard, the Official Plan sets out strategic directions to ensure the compatibility of new development in established communities.

In the Official Plan, compatible development is defined as development which, although not necessarily the same as or similar to existing nearby built form, must co-exist with it without causing undue adverse impact on surrounding properties. In the planning area, these include overlook, shadowing, existing views, increased noise, traffic and infrastructure impacts, particularly where Richmond Road and Scott Street properties abut mature and established low-rise residential neighbourhoods.

A new vision for an area established through the CDP will provide guidance for development to address compatibility and to evolve toward achievement of that vision while respecting overall community character. The Richmond Road/Westboro CDP policy, design guidelines and zoning recommendations were developed in keeping with these Official Plan policy directions.

2. 2 Official Plan Designations (see Map 2)

Richmond Road between Island Park Drive and the Ottawa River Parkway and Scott Street between Island Park Drive and Churchill are designated as Traditional Mainstreets in the Official Plan. Such streets offer significant opportunities for renewal and intensification through more compact forms of development, a lively mix of uses and a pedestrian-friendly environment. The September 2006 Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) decision confirmed the Traditional Mainstreet designation.

Traditional Mainstreets, such as Westboro Village, described in the next section, are generally developed prior to 1945, typically within a tightly knit urban fabric. Buildings are often small-scale and mixed-use, with narrow frontages and are set close to and address the street in a more pedestrian-oriented and transit-friendly environment.

Some Traditional Mainstreets, built after 1945, display a blend of these traditional characteristics and those of Arterial Mainstreets (e.g., larger lots and buildings, auto orientation). Richmond Road west of Golden Avenue and Scott Street fit this category to varying degrees. Richmond Road adjacent to the Woodroffe North community had more of the characteristics of a pre-1945 Traditional Mainstreet. Redevelopment over the years has resulted in a greater automobile orientation. The policies of the CDP, in keeping with the Official Plan and the draft Zoning By-law, promote redevelopment that is more pedestrian oriented and locates buildings closer to the street. Over time, the community anticipates that residential and compatible commercial uses will provide residents with a range of services to meet most of their needs within walking distance.

The surrounding residential neighbourhoods are designated General Urban Area, which permits a full range of housing types in combination with conveniently located local employment, service, cultural, leisure, entertainment and institutional uses. Because of the broad nature of this designation, the Zoning By-law will establish more specific

lists of permitted uses and development regulations in order to achieve compatibility. New development must relate to existing community character, and enhance and build upon desirable established patterns and built form. Residential intensification should help achieve a balance of housing types and tenures to provide a full range of housing for a variety of demographic profiles.

The open space lands along the Ottawa River and the Ottawa River Parkway are designated Major Open Space and Urban Natural Features. Major Open Spaces are large parks and open space corridors along the Ottawa and Rideau Rivers and parkway corridors, among others. Of note is Rochester Field/Maplelawn, currently designated as Major Open Space (subject of an outstanding NCC appeal to the OMB) and also subject of an Official Plan Amendment, refused by City Council on June 8, 2005, to redesignate it as General Urban Area. Further discussion of this parcel is found in Section 3.4.

Urban Natural Features are natural landscapes and may include woodlands, wetlands watercourses and ravines. The three Urban Natural Features designations are Riverside Park Woods south of the Ottawa River Parkway immediately to the west of the Jules Leger Centre, Champlain Bridge Woods on the north side of the Parkway and Des Chenes Lookout in the westerly part of the CDP area.