North Gower Community Design Plan

Residents’ Vision for North Gower 2023

“Based on its strong roots in agriculture, North Gower continues to thrive as the social heart of a vibrant farming community, where people put down deep roots and families live for generations surrounded by a legacy of unique heritage buildings. Over the years, the village has grown slowly, embracing its newcomers and welcoming them into the community, without forgetting its long history. In many ways, this growth has allowed the young people of the village to stay close to home while seeking opportunities in and beyond the family farm. Residents of the village and the surrounding farms have worked together for more than a century and a half to create a centre which responds to the needs of both residents and visitors.

There is a nurturing, welcoming attitude in the community that encourages families to settle and raise their children here, and grandparents enjoy living comfortably while they watch their children and grandchildren grow and enjoy a full, yet independent, lifestyle in the community. Young adults are able to find affordable housing and recreation within easy reach of employment, and youth are provided with opportunities for recreation and growth, which fosters the continuation of this sense of community.

The business community in the village has regained ground lost in the past, and again thrives as in the "old days". North Gower is a village of unique recent entrepreneurs as well as long-established, widely respected businesses. Shops and professional offices, in new and heritage buildings in the commercial and core districts of the village, provide goods and services required for day-to-day living and farming. The Farmer’s Market celebrates a decades-long history by welcoming new vendors and regular visitors every year. The arts and gardening communities thrive on their garden shows, studio/open houses/workshops that have become a regular part of our village life.

Village residents live relaxed, but active, lives. Recreational and community activities are the fundamental avenue where old friends meet and newcomers to the village make acquaintances and form friendships that last a lifetime. The Community Centre and surrounding grounds are the envy of other communities, forming as they do the “heart of the village” connecting residential and commercial neighbourhoods with multi-purpose pathways through parklands and green space. A youth centre provides a meeting place for the village’s young people to gather and meet friends, enjoy recreational activities, learn new skills and share music or stories in a safe environment.

Green spaces, allocated when early subdivisions were built, form the core of a system of parks and reserved lands that are now developed parklands connected by walking and cycling paths. The gem of this network is the Stevens Creek Green, with its picturesque bridges, which extends along the shores of Stevens Creek throughout its length in the village and provides an enviable natural environment where residents enjoy a variety of cultural and recreational activities.

North Gower residents are proud of their village’s position as the “rural jewel” of Ottawa. The village is linked to downtown by major and minor roads and good public transportation, giving residents rapid access to businesses, institutions and work places without compromising the rural character of their hometown. At the same time, those living in the city centre can easily take a break from the “bustle of the city” with a quick trip out to picturesque North Gower. Villagers participate actively in the affairs of the city as a whole while maintaining a strong allegiance to the distinct lifestyle found outside the City’s core.”

Prepared by North Gower Design Group, 2004

Acknowledgements

The North Gower Community Design Plan (CDP) was prepared in collaboration with the Design Group, technical staff, agencies and public input. The Design Group, founded by Councillor Glenn Brooks, consists of committed residents who initiated a grassroots effort to prepare a plan for the future of North Gower. This process has resulted in the North Gower Community Design Plan.

Design Group

Robin Craig (Chairperson), Lesley Cree, Peggy Glenndenning, Lawrence Engel, Chuck Gruchy, Sandy Hodges, Claudia Kavanaugh, Eric Perreira, Dave Williams, Colin Wright, and Josh Wright,

Part-time members of Design Group: Dave Branson, Gayle Davey, Mark Perkins, John Kennedy, George Pratt, John Seabrook, Larry Spencer, Brian Stratton, Don Stephenson, and Melissa Watchorn.

1.1 Vision

A group of residents of North Gower prepared a vision to describe the type of community they wish to have. These residents, referred to as the Design Group, prepared a plan shortly after municipal amalgamation in order to direct future growth of the village while embracing its history. Community design plans are identified in the City of Ottawa Official Plan as a means of translating the principles and policies of the Official Plan to the community-scale. Adopted as policy documents by City Council, these plans show how growth can be managed to achieve community goals, within the framework of planning principles established in the Official Plan.

1.2 Collaborative Planning Process

The community design plan for North Gower combines the strong direction set by residents with technical and research support provided by City of Ottawa staff. Starting with a draft plan that had been in progress for more than a year, staff developed a collaborative process that built on the work that had already been undertaken. The process included information gathering and analysis by staff, meetings with the Design Group and specialists on specific issues, and consultation with the larger community at key intervals.

Information gathering

• Assessing available studies and data (i.e.: lot creation in the village) and initiating new work (i.e.: groundwater study, parks and open space plan)
• Identification and confirmation of village issues
• Assembly of heritage building and farming practices information by Design Group members

Consultations

• Two public meetings (June 2003 and March 2004) organized by the Design Group to obtain feedback on “vision” for North Gower and draft plan prepared by the group
• Five focused presentations by planning and technical staff to the Design Group on planning policy and zoning, Rideau Valley Conservation Authority policies and practices, results of groundwater study, natural systems in the village, and heritage buildings
• A public workshop in June, 2005, to present findings to date and to obtain feedback on the goals and objectives set for the Plan
• A public meeting/open house in June 2006 to present recommendations of draft plan, including parks and multi-use pathways plans
• A final public meeting/open house in January 2007 to present revised plan based on public comment

1.3 Goals and Objectives

Goals and objectives were drawn from the community’s plan to support achievement of the community vision. The draft goals and objectives were reviewed at a June public workshop in 2005, and were revised accordingly.

Growth Management

Goal: To manage growth in North Gower in an orderly way that fosters economic opportunities while providing for a mix of housing for residents recognizing its rural setting.

Objectives:

• To protect and enhance commercial functions in the Village Centre
• To provide adequate opportunity for employment
• To provide a variety of business to support the day to day needs of residents and visitors and surrounding farming community
• To create a venue that is attractive and interesting for visitors, building on attributes of the village
• To provide an adequate mix of housing, including affordable housing, for current and future needs of residents
• To attract and provide support for the rural/farm community

Village Character

Goal: To preserve and enhance the village’s natural features, historic character, open spaces and amenities in order to build upon residents’ sense of community.

Objectives:

• To ensure new development is compatible with the existing look and feel of the village’s oldest streets located within the core and its existing village character
• To recognize significant landforms
• To design with nature
• To preserve the riparian zone adjacent to Stevens Creek and improve public access to the creek corridor
• To identify a safe and convenient multi-use pathway system that links open spaces and recreational resources and land uses
• To conserve and to promote North Gower’s cultural and architectural heritage resources

Public Services

Goal: To ensure that village residents’ safety and security is provided for and that there is adequate infrastructure services to permit growth.

Objectives:

• To provide adequate lighting levels (streetlights)
• To ensure safe water and wastewater disposal systems
• To provide recreational and leisure facilities that are convenient to residents
• To identify partnerships for ongoing management for these recreational and leisure facilities
• To provide state of the art accessibility to communications
• To ensure safe vehicular traffic flow within the village
• To provide adequate fire services
• To ensure a system of sidewalks and pathways to encourage pedestrian activity
• To protect existing development and to protect the floodplain from inappropriate development in the vicinity of the Stevens Creek floodplain

North Gower is a village centred on the crossing of three main roads in the southern part of the City of Ottawa. The village is surrounded by a gently rolling landscape of actively farmed land. The village is located in an area characterized by scattered drumlins, spoon-shaped hills of till pushed up by a glacier. Between these drumlins lies a clay plain deposited by the Champlain Sea.

A white church spire is the tallest structure and is visible from the major roads leading to North Gower. Surrounded by a broad agricultural plain, North Gower has thrived as an agri-business centre. Its role has diversified over time to embrace young families and others seeking a rural lifestyle, with potential for new tourism and recreation opportunities in the future. North Gower lies just beyond the doorstep of urban Ottawa, about a 20-minute drive along Highway 416 from the urban boundary and the shopping and employment opportunities there.

2.1 Historical Roots

North Gower’s historical roots extend back to the time of the original survey of the Township of North Gower, undertaken in 1791 by John Stegmann. The lots and concessions were surveyed in 1820. The same year, Stephen Blanchard, lumberman, located the site of the present village. In 1823 the Methodist preacher, Peter Jones, and his wife, Anna Eastman, settled on Lot 18, Concession 4 and established a school and church in their log shanty home. Other Eastmans, the John Thomson family, Richard Pettapiece, William McEwan and several more pioneers followed. The Callenders, Wallaces, Dillons and Craigs arrived in the 1830s and Moffats, Carsons and more Craigs in 1840.

By 1864, there were numerous residents providing a wide range of services to fellow villagers, which created a busy and active village. There were general stores (five), blacksmiths (five), shoemakers (five), hotel owners (two) and other useful trades of the day. It is the Design Group’s desire to once again have an active commercial area in the village.

2.2 Population

With an estimated population of 1,750 in 2004, North Gower ranks in the top one-third of the 25 villages in Ottawa in terms of size. Over the last 25 years (1975 – 2000), the number of dwellings in the village has more than doubled and was estimated at 574 in 2003. However, village growth in the former Rideau Township southwest of the urban area is dominated by Manotick - the largest village in Ottawa at 5,200 population in 2004 — while Richmond vies with Greely as the second largest village in Ottawa with a population of 4,330 (City of Ottawa Data Handbook, 2004).

The village offers a wide array of services including a nursery school and recreational programs at the Alfred Taylor Recreation Centre, library, school, bowling lanes and archery lessons on Fourth Line Road, a seniors retirement home, repair services, post office, bank, library, school and convenience stores (see Map 1 – Existing Land Use).

While there are no recent or reliable data on where North Gower residents work, their proximity to Highway 416 provides good access to workplaces throughout the rest of the city. The 2001 census found that throughout the rural area of Ottawa, 28 per cent of residents work in the rural area and another 60 per cent work within the urban area. The rest have no fixed place of work, or work outside Ottawa (City of Ottawa Data Handbook, 2004).

2.3 Village Character

Much of the village character is set by North Gower’s historic settlement, with many of its original houses still intact. Clustered within the Village Centre (core), North Gower’s heritage settlement demonstrates it’s unique character and defines the village for its inhabitants and visitors alike.

The Village Centre is also the social and commercial focus of North Gower. The mix of small-scale commercial and recreational facilities and mixed-use buildings defines North Gower as an active rural community. Collectively, they provide the village with focus by providing some basic services.

Historically and today, Fourth Line Road is North Gower’s main street and offers a mix of businesses, public uses, and residences. Businesses include hair salons, restaurants, an auto service centre, an antique store and repair businesses. Public buildings include the North Gower Branch of the Ottawa Public Library and the Rideau Archives.

Five streets radiate in a star-shaped pattern from the core and each offers a mix of services and residences. For example, Roger Stevens Drive, connecting the centre of the village to Highway 416, includes a lumber yard and builders’ retail centre in the core, a farm supply store, a country market, a newly expanded fire station, a former township building used now as a meeting place, and a seniors’ residence.

Growth of the village has progressed outward from the core along the main roads. Beyond the Village Centre, several residential subdivisions provide primarily single-detached homes that are privately serviced. The subdivisions are developed as cul-de-sacs and P-loops off the main roads that define the village, with small parks in some areas.

The subdivisions are separated from each other and the rest of the village by large expanses of vacant land. About two-thirds of the land within the village is open and actively used for agriculture, including land within the flood plain of Stevens Creek. Families who have lived in North Gower for generations continue to farm within and around the village, even as it has grown around them. Cash crops such as soy beans, corn, wheat and barley are grown within the village, while dairy and livestock operations continue within and adjacent to the village. The Design Group of North Gower has provided an agricultural census in Appendix 1 and lists at least seven active farms within the village boundaries.

2.4 Planning Context

The Official Plan provides a broad context for development in North Gower and other rural communities. The plan proposes that Ottawa’s villages be the focus of rural growth because villages provide residents with the best access to services. As well, focusing growth in villages results in the least impact on the rural area, in terms of impacts on agricultural land and resource development. The plan sets criteria for an increase in village boundaries, including the availability of land for development within the village and the effect of the expansion on agriculture land or other resource land.

Most of the land surrounding North Gower is designated Agricultural Resource, where only agricultural uses are permitted. The policies in the plan are designed to protect these lands from loss to other uses and ensure that other uses that conflict with agricultural practices are not established in the area.

In 2000, North Gower’s existing land uses (see Map 1) shows that vacant lands, predominantly agricultural lands outside the floodplain, represent about 65 per cent of all lands within the village. About 19 per cent of lands are used for low-density residential uses. Paved roads represent almost 7 per cent of land uses while commercial, industrial and institutional uses account for just over 2 per cent of all land uses.

Other policies in the Official Plan set broad directions that affect many aspects of growth in North Gower, such as review of development applications and policies on servicing. The community design plan works within all of the Official Plan policies to guide City Council, staff, and the community on decisions on development proposals and public spending.

This Community Design Plan will also guide future zoning in North Gower. A new zoning by-law has been drafted to replace the zoning by-laws of the previous municipalities. The current zoning in North Gower reflects the actual use of each property, with multiple zoning categories used to capture minor differences in setbacks, permitted uses, and lot size. The proposed zoning by-law identifies a smaller number of zones for villages that will clearly indicate the purpose or function of each zone and permit a greater range of complementary uses within each one. Recommendations for changes to the new zoning by-law will be taken to City Council at the same time as the CDP is considered.

Schedule A - Land Use Plan

Schedule B - Parks and Open Space Plan

Schedule C – Multi-Use Pathway Plan

Schedule D – Future Roads Plan