White Paper |
A. |
Feasibility of the Objective – Should the City reconsider the target of 1.3 jobs per household? |
B. |
Restrict Housing Development – Should housing development be slowed down to better balance job growth? |
C. |
Create Incentives for Job Growth – How can the City accelerate the growth of jobs in Orléans? |
Quick Facts |
Background
Generally, the policy of requiring that 1.3 jobs per household be provided for in the amount of land designated for employment and housing has been successful, with one significant exception - Orléans. The chart below shows the evolving pattern since 1976 of jobs per household in the major centres outside the Greenbelt, and, for comparison, the urban area inside the Greenbelt excluding the Central Area. Both the West (Kanata-Stittsville) and South Nepean (once the RCMP completes its move) have shown significant gains since 1991. In fact, the West is slightly above the 1.3 ratio.
The area inside the Greenbelt continues to be a major attractor of employment, since it offers a central location to the entire city and until recently its share has been increasing. Orléans, on the other hand, started to improve its job ratio in the late 1980s, spurred by the opening of Place d’Orléans, but since then it has stagnated.
Notes: IGB = Inside the Greenbelt, West = Kanata and Stittsville;
Data for Riverside South and Leitrim not reported due to lack of time series;
2006 figure for South Nepean includes impending RCMP jobs.
The jobs/housing policy is sound, but it will not work in an area that has difficulty attracting employers. Such appears to be the case with Orléans; jobs continue to languish at only 40% of the desired number, as shown in the following chart.
The main reason that Orléans has been lagging in job growth appears to be the same as has been noted in the past – Orléans is poorly located with respect to the major transportation network, being the only major urban centre outside the Greenbelt that is not on a provincial highway. It was at one time on the main road to Montreal (Highway 17), but was bypassed in mid-1970s when Highway 417 was constructed 10 kms south of the Town Centre. Access to the 417 is further restricted by the presence of the large Mer Bleue wetland to the south. Consequently, the closest route south to the 417, via Frank Kenny Road to the Vars interchange, is almost 20 kms away from the corner of Trim and Innes roads. This route was upgraded in the late 1990s with the aid of $5 million in provincial funding, with a view to improving the economic attraction of Orléans, but the benefits have yet to show. Orléans does have Transitway service, with a focus on trips to and from the core area during peak periods, reflecting the current overall directional travel demand.
A. Feasibility of the Objective
Is it realistic to expect that job growth in the east is going to accelerate significantly above the historic 0.5 jobs per household? The experience to date suggests it is not. While there was a small increase between 1986 and 1991, there has been almost no progress since then. However, the policy of balancing jobs and housing offers a no-cost way to remove thousands of trips through the Greenbelt and addresses transportation and environmental issues. The City cannot afford to abandon a policy that – at least in areas that create jobs – works well.
If the policy does not work in Orléans, maybe it should not be applied there? Orléans has historically had the highest rate of transit use of any of the urban centres outside the Greenbelt. Factors contributing are a combination of the following:
- With few local jobs, many residents must take transit due to roads congested with car commuters
- Many Orléans residents work for the federal government at locations well-served by transit
- Transit travel time/distances from Orléans to downtown are shorter than from Kanata or South Nepean, which makes transit a more viable travel alternative.
However, as development spreads south of Innes Road, away from the Transitway corridor to the north, the need to build a second southerly transit corridor becomes more pressing.
In addition, traffic congestion will continue to worsen, increasing pressures to spend millions of dollars on road improvements. This will happen even if a second transit corridor is built, since about 60% of trips will be made by automobile. This acts directly opposite to the City’s environmental and financial sustainability goals. However, if the City cannot afford to build roads and transit infrastructure fast enough to keep up with commuting demand, growth may start to slow of its own accord as congestion discourages new residents from choosing Orléans as a place to live.
Questions for Discussion
- Is the target of 1.3 jobs per household feasible for Orléans? Why?
- Should the City reconsider the target and let jobs and housing growth in Orléans continue without interference? Why?
B. Restrict Housing Development
If jobs will not locate in an area, does it make sense to continue adding households? Logic suggests it does not. Orleans has been adding about 1,000 new households per year since 2001, creating ongoing additions to the employment deficit. In 2001, Orléans was short of the balance by 22,000 jobs; today it is short of the balance by almost 27,000 jobs. At current growth rates, in a decade the job deficit will be 35,000.
One alternative to restoring the balance between jobs and housing is to limit housing development that is not matched by increasing employment opportunities. With the imbalance of jobs and households continuing to widen, the City could, as part of new phasing policies required by the province, link the rate of new homebuilding in Orléans to the creation of new jobs.
Questions for Discussion
- Should the City place restrictions on further housing development in Orléans? Why?
- If restrictions on further housing development in Orléans were introduced, how would such a policy be implemented?
C. Create Incentives for Job Growth
The most obvious answer to this challenge is to create more jobs in Orléans, but the City has limited financial resources or other levers to promote localized job creation. The former municipalities of Cumberland and Gloucester strived for years to achieve more jobs in Orléans through marketing and promotion, creating municipally owned and serviced business and industrial parks, using commercial realtors to promote areas such as the Ottawa River Business Park, and working with other governments to improve transportation connections.
Local politicians have also worked with their federal counterparts to relocate federal jobs to the east (e.g., DND). But, aside from jobs in schools and retail, which serve the resident population and are therefore going to occur inevitably as a result of new housing development, few other jobs have been attracted to the area. Given all the previous attempts, what are the realistic chances of success in creating significant numbers of jobs in the area in future?
At one time, the expectation was that as the large industrial areas in the east end inside the Greenbelt ran out of land, those jobs would start to migrate east to the industrial land reserved in Orléans. That has not happened; instead, the older industrial areas have started to redevelop and intensify and only a handful of firms have moved east. This strategy has also been undermined in the last few years by the redesignation, usually at the behest of the landowners but approved by the City, of large areas of industrial land to residential and retail uses.
In 2006, the “Orléans Industrial Park Community Strategy” was initiated, which identified attracting a large federal government department to locate in the community as the highest priority strategy to pursue. If this is successful, it may change the whole employment dynamic of the east, but the probability of this occurring is not high. A limited number of other options are available.
- Development Incentives Favouring Employment
These could include, for example, waiving fees for planning applications, building permits and development charges for certain categories of offices and industrial buildings. Other ideas should also be explored. For example, the development of the Orléans Art Centre through a public-private partnership will add jobs near the main transitway station or an initiative to provide property tax relief to major new developments which create employment.
- Provide Incentives for Job Creation
Tying employment growth to new housing construction could improve the balance of development. In order not to limit the housing market, incentives can be put in place to encourage new employment opportunities. This would at a minimum reduce the rate of increase in the ever-widening imbalance, and if successful will start to close the gap. Incentives and related phasing policies could be put in place and their success judged in five years when the results of the 2011 Employment Survey become available.
- Improve Transportation Linkages to Orléans
The challenge of the area’s geographical position would be improved if the connection between Innes Road in Orléans and Walkley Road or Hunt Club Road were to be built, or if a new crossing of the Ottawa River were to be located in Orléans (two conceptual crossing points in Orléans have been identified as part of the inter-provincial crossings study currently underway, at Petrie Island and Tenth Line). The Innes-Walkley connection would improve links between Orléans and the industrial areas inside the Greenbelt and might encourage some of those industries to expand eastward. A new river crossing would take heavy truck traffic from Ottawa’s downtown, and, in theory, make Orléans more attractive to transportation, warehousing and distribution, and associated manufacturing industries. However, the location of any future crossing and the timing of its construction is at this point highly uncertain.
Questions for Discussion
- What incentives could be provided to create jobs in Orléans?
- Are there other transportation approaches that could be considered?
How to Provide Input
Send comments by phone, regular mail, e-mail or by visiting the City’s Web site before December 9, 2007.
Contact the author by phone, in writing or by e-mail:
Ian Cross
Community Planning and Design Division
Planning, Transit and the Environment Department
110 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, ON K1P 1J1
613-580-2424 ext. 21595
ian.cross@ottawa.ca
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