Implementation - Making Change Happen

Making urban design an important part of city making, placing a high value on good architecture and design and investing in high quality public realm projects has become an important direction in major cities across North America. This is especially true in downtowns and the most urban places in these cities. Prior to amalgamation, downtown urban design was not a defined process or priority in the city building process outside of the National Capital Commission controlled Capital Realm. Ottawa is a complex city that must balance the need to create new urban areas at its edges, while managing re-urbanization and improvements to the exiting urban fabric. In both cases urban design is important.

Urban design needs to be discussed publicly and often for it to become a strong part of the culture of a place. Additionally it needs successes to thrive as a culture. It is important that the City take the lead role in pursuing design excellence to move it from an "add on if the budget allows” to a “core requirement” for how the city does business.

There are several clear opportunities, which should be pursued in this regard:

• The City should establish a task force of senior staff members who can improve coordination between departments and find ways to ensure that all city projects are using the available resources to add to the design quality of the public realm. This would help the City to adopt a more holistic approach to public works projects by making sure that infrastructure projects also add to the visible quality of the downtown community. The joint perspectives of engineers, landscape architects and artists will add immensely to the quality of public works projects. Some municipalities provide direction for this group by adding the role of City architect and City landscape architect to the senior management group.
• The formation of a Downtown Ottawa Design Centre, with specifically assigned staff and resources, could assist both the public and private sectors in understanding how they can participate in the many positive initiatives outlined in the Strategy. The Design Centre could also become a focus for design education and new directions by bringing the best practitioners in the various design professions to Ottawa for public sessions on a regular basis. The architecture school at Carleton and the NCC would make excellent partners in this endeavour.
• Design Review Panel. Some places are very important and fundamental to the overall perception of Downtown Ottawa. The NCC has a panel of nationally recognized design experts that review the commissions of public realm buildings and landscapes, and most planning directions. In Vancouver, under a different provincial planning structure than Ontario, a design panel is being very effective in creating some of the most interesting and high quality redevelopments in the downtown area. The City may choose to do the same for projects in key locations where there is high civic visibility and association or where the City is poised to spend significant capital on improvements. Many cities use this method exclusively for private sector developments, however Ottawa would benefit from the application of this overview to publicly developed projects as well.
• Many cities and universities are utilizing managed design competitions for significant public buildings and parks. The advantage is to bring diversity of design experience and a broader approach to the design of public elements while using the competition as a way to involve the wider community in the design process. Recent open space competitions in Toronto have resulted in the Bloor Yorkville Park, Courthouse Square and most recently, the HTO Harbourfront Park. All of these places have received critical acclaim and are positioned as elements that define the civic image of the city.

There are two key goals inherent in embedding the Downtown Ottawa Urban Design Strategy into the City's regulatory framework: the first is to streamline the development review process as much as possible, providing an incentive for developers to implement good urban design principles; and second, to ensure consistency throughout the various aspects of the development review process with the principles and objectives of the Downtown Ottawa Urban Design Strategy.

Regulatory Framework

An essential element of the Design Strategy is the integration of the urban design approach into the regulatory framework, namely, the Official Plan, community design plans, site plan approval, the comprehensive zoning by-law review and even right-of-way protection for municipal roads. There are, within these documents, the opportunity to "codify" this new approach to development, and refer back to the principles and recommendations of the Downtown Ottawa Urban Design Strategy.

1. The Official Plan

Ottawa's new Official Plan establishes a design-oriented policy approach to development for the newly amalgamated city. More detailed design strategies will be developed in future community design plans, which are targeted for areas other than the Downtown. To augment the Official Plan's design approach, the strategic directions and main policy recommendations emerging from the Downtown Ottawa Urban Design Strategy should be integrated into the Official Plan, including into the relevant sections of the existing Secondary Plans for the Central Area and adjacent neighbourhoods.

The list of priority strategies identified in the Downtown Ottawa Urban Design Strategy could be appended to the Official Plan, to provide information and policy direction to staff in charge of relevant public works. The appendix could be updated as projects are completed and new projects contemplated, without requiring formal amendment to the Official Plan.

2. Zoning By-Law

There is great opportunity in the comprehensive zoning by-law review to incorporate progressive new design-oriented approaches into zoning, especially in areas where significant physical change is anticipated and detailed design studies have been completed. In areas that are expected to remain stable, traditional zoning tools can continue to apply.

This implies that the design orientation of this Strategy can be incorporated into zoning in a number of ways:

• For areas expected to remain stable, retain traditional zoning provisions which might be augmented or enhanced with new design provisions to protect the positive attributes of that particular part of the community. Centretown is an example where this approach might be applied, as well as the neighbourhoods surrounding the downtown.
• For areas such as the Eastern Market, Upper Rideau Street and the Escarpment District, among others, which may be subject to future design studies, the new by-law could create new design-oriented zoning categories. These categories would be based on zoning envelope drawings to illustrate height and mass, stepbacks and setbacks, without reference to densities. This approach has been applied successfully to reinvestment areas in other cities where built form takes precedence over land use regulation. It has proven to be extremely flexible, but does require a higher level of precision over the design parameters to be included within the by-law.

3. Development Permits

For those areas which have been the subject of more extensive design review, the application of the new development permit system should be considered. The Development Permit is a new planning tool that was added to the Planning Act in 1995 (Section 70.2(1)). Its objective is to allow municipalities to streamline the zoning, minor variance and site plan control processes into one development permit requirement. Under this system, municipalities have greater flexibility to tailor their individual approval process, specifically allowing them to integrate design considerations into otherwise rigid zoning regulations. In addition, a far greater degree of authority is granted staff in approving development applications and minor variations within the permit parameters, thereby reducing Council's role in site-specific planning approvals.

Implementation of the development permit system requires the inclusion of enabling provisions in the Official or Secondary Plans, as well as the drafting of the development permit by-law with the relevant zoning and design criteria embedded. This requires a fair degree of design and regulatory work "up front" as well as significant public consultation. For once the development permit by-law is adopted for any particular area, the public no longer has the right of appeal to individual development proposals (an important aspect in the streamlining of the approvals process.)

The Province of Ontario has created "pilot project areas" to test the Development Permit System, and it is recommended that the City of Ottawa apply to have one of the targeted areas included within the pilot project process. Areas that might be used as pilot projects for an Ottawa development permit system include the Escarpment Park; Sparks Street; or the Upper Rideau/Eastern Market area.

Likely, a combination of these regulatory strategies will be applicable to different parts of the study area, to reflect varying objectives, levels and scale of development anticipated.

Additional Considerations

There are several other aspects of development review which must be integrated with the Design Strategy. These include: the Committee of Adjustment process; Site Plan review (including right-of-way adjustments and approvals) and the application of policies relevant to the various Heritage Conservation Districts within the study area. To a large extent, the key here is to ensure that both the public and staff are aware of and proactive in ensuring that the principles of the Design Strategy are an inherent part of the review process.

Committee of Adjustment

The Committee of Adjustment is a common recourse by which increases in density and height are achieved. In many instances, the review and approval process entails consideration of design aspects, some of which are incorporated into the conditions of approval. It is of great importance, therefore, that staff and Committee members ensure that the principles of the Design Strategy are also incorporated to ensure consistency and the achievement of a cohesive design approach to the downtown.

Site Plan Control Review

Site plan control review is the part of the approval process which most addresses the details of urban design and provides the opportunity to enhance the public realm - be it through specifying the nature and quality of landscape and streetscape treatment, pedestrian and vehicular accessibility, and to a certain extent architectural treatment. This is the greatest opportunity to achieve the benefits inherent in an overall Design Strategy. However, in order to realize these benefits, all of the departments and staff involved in site plan control review must be committed and proactive in implementing the design-oriented approach. The same can be said of decision-making around the acquisition and treatment of municipal rights-of-way, which also provide the opportunity to enhance the quality of the public realm.

Heritage Conservation Districts

There are a number of designated conservation heritage districts within the downtown area. These have been retained by the Downtown Ottawa Urban Design Strategy as essential elements in preserving the quality of the downtown. The review process by the City and the Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee (LACAC) for development within these districts is guided by the criteria contained within the respective policy documents, much of which relates to the character and quality of the architecture as it relates to its historic context. As such, it is recommended that these policies continue to be implemented by the City as complementary to the Downtown Ottawa Urban Design Strategy principles and approach.

Ensuring Internal Coordination

All of the regulatory processes described above will only be successful if City staff are committed and organized appropriately to follow through on the design recommendations. The most effective means to achieve consistency is through the aforementioned Task Force of Senior City Managers. They must ensure that the Downtown Design Strategy is not only part of all capital initiatives, but is inherent in the review and negotiations which are an integral part of the development review process. Downtown applications, whether rezoning, committee of adjustment or site plan, should be passed through this task force to comment and ensure the highest quality urban design and architecture is achieved. The Task Force must also be forceful in communicating the message to all review staff the importance of the Design Strategy in development review.

It is anticipated that over time, community design plans and secondary plans will integrate these important design criteria, but in the interim, senior staff must be especially proactive if the culture shift described earlier is to successfully occur.

Maximizing Community Gain

An essential part of this exercise is to ensure that each individual development adds to the quality and essence of the communal public realm across the downtown area. Excellence in architecture, landscape and streetscape design is a definite potential benefit of a co-ordinated strategy.

Additional community benefits can also be secured under Section 37 of the Planning Act, which allows a municipality to accept such benefits in exchange for increases in height or density. Ottawa's new Official Plan already contains the requisite policy to allow for increases in height and density in return for the provision of such benefits as public cultural facilities; building design and public art; heritage preservation; protection of rental housing, etc. The policy also provides for the use of Section 37 for other local improvements identified in community design plans, community improvement plans, capital budgets or other implementation plans or studies. Consequently, the priority items for the downtown area, including public art, architectural and landscape design, and streetscape elements could be "exchanged" for increases in height and density.

More specifically Section 37 could be applied to implement the public open space acquisition strategy as identified in the study. The provision could be applied area-wide or in a more specific target area, especially where pressure or demand for development is occurring. Experience in other major Canadian cities has found that where these improvements are slated on, or adjacent to, development sites, they tend to be more readily accepted by the development industry, which sees that the added benefit (and value) will be enjoyed by their own projects .

Although this mechanism is intended to apply for re-zonings, the same principle could apply to Committee of Adjustment applications. As the zoning variances would likely be smaller than in a rezoning, the level of contribution could be correspondingly smaller.

Getting out in front of change

Many cities are looking for new ways to get at issues of design that involve more people in the process and result in a better quality project and public realm. It is a challenge to get far enough in front of the action to influence the results. The public process used in the creation of the Downtown Ottawa Urban Design Strategy is a good example of this type of broad-based community discussion around what should happen in the future.

Charrette sessions and design workshops are often used to address problematic places in the city or in situations where there is an interest in reversing a trend or situation. Often the suggested results of these sessions have a hard time being implemented because they occur after the fact or are not a part of an ongoing effort or defined program of planning or capital expenditure.

Many cities are finding that these techniques are proving to be more successful if applied proactively to areas where change is anticipated, rather than where it has already happened. Getting ahead of the change is the only way to keep development activity in alignment with the provision of public realm improvements and amenity. As the residential population downtown rises, this alignment becomes increasingly important.

This approach means identifying areas that would benefit from design-based exploration in order to direct future initiatives towards achieving a positive outcome. The Escarpment District and the Eastern Market Reurbanization Zone are good examples of places where significant change is inevitable and needs to be managed towards an agreed set of objectives. These objectives can then be matched against the wide range of public and private sector activity that will occur in these areas over time. Often private sector developers appreciate a clear understanding of what the public sector expects and once these expectations are understood can participate more readily in making a contribution toward the goals outlined.

Many cities have developed interactive tools for this type of exploration that look beyond the impact of a single project on a site. For example, building three-dimensional models or computer visualizations of the city that demonstrate changes to the public realm are good techniques for communicating a range of possible outcomes. These techniques can be part of the design exploration process, and the resulting models may be used to keep changes in the area up to date.

Urban Design and Downtown Community

Ottawa exhibits the typical diverse range of urban forms that make up most North American cities: Edge greenfield suburb, post war suburb, pre-war residential communities and a historic core layered over the original 19th century city. The added dimension is the layer of the National Capital that is not completely restricted to the core but apparent throughout the city. The presence of government is, however, a very strong part of the image of Downtown Ottawa.

Downtown Ottawa is very urban. It is a dense configuration of buildings on urban blocks surrounded by many intact inner-city residential neighbourhoods.

Downtown by definition is very dynamic. There is very little first time construction; it is usually re-urbanization with a focus on buildings not land. Open space is more image making and passive than recreationally based.

These factors combine to require a very specific skill set for success at urban design in the downtown. This skill set is much different than those needed to manage the creation of suburban areas where everything is new, or for existing inner city neighbourhoods where tolerance to change to existing conditions is very low.

Being successful at urban design in the downtown will require changes to the existing methods of urban design used by the City:

• A core group of professionals should be assembled to specifically deal with downtown issues, including the architecture of high density, high coverage urban commercial and residential buildings, multiple medium density residential complexes, and urban open spaces including canals, plazas, courtyards, urban streetscapes and transportation.
• Proactive urban design, largely based on site plan review, should be balanced by an equal measure of proactive exploration on how to positively change the city. This information will make site plan review much more effective.

Urban design must be considered as an activity that requires funding to run design-based exercises, charrettes and design competitions.

Identify projects and share responsibility for making the Downtown better

The National Capital Commission has been very successful over the years in making meaningful improvement to the Capital Realm by clearly identifying projects or directions, broadly communicating them and then, over time, making them a reality.

The City of Ottawa must do the same. Neither the public realm nor the private realm can participate in making a meaningful change without a long-term plan. The Downtown Ottawa Urban Design Strategy is structured around the assumption that it could take many years to complete the process. In fact, it will be most successful if it results in a change in the general approach to city infrastructure building on a permanent basis

The Downtown Ottawa Urban Design Strategy recommends that:

• Annual programs of infrastructure repair and replacement must be organized to systematically include community improvements. Doing this moves community improvement - especially of the public realm - into a regular part of the business of rebuilding and maintaining the city.
• Transit and transportation improvements or expansion programs should include sufficient resources to complete meaningful streetscape and public open space improvements. This method was applied very successfully to U.S. cities over the past 10 years via the Federal T21 and ICT programmes.
• Public art makes urban places much more interesting and can contribute to the civic sense of place. Public art must be a regular part of the commissioning process for civic infrastructure.
• Great cities have substantial trees in their urban centres. Washington's northwest quadrant benefits today from the aggressive tree planting programs of 50 years ago. All civic projects must include a contribution to a defined civic Urban Forest Programme.
• All possible locations for future public open spaces in the downtown must be documented and a system put in place to ensure they are fully considered before being removed from the inventory.
• The City of Ottawa, Public Works Government Services Canada and the NCC are the major players in building the city core, acting as major owners of land, and of buildings, as well as occupiers and, as leasers. As such, their real estate decisions have an impact on the downtown. All three agencies must make a commitment to strategic decision-making and design excellence in the downtown. Partnerships to achieve this goal between the three parties are important.
• Similarly, the places where the City and the private sector could partner on design excellence need to be identified.
• The sale of public land must require design or public realm performance standards.

Celebrate Your Success

Success breeds success. It is important that when a critical piece of the Design Strategy is achieved, or a particularly good project is opened, that it be celebrated and understood as a significant gain to the urban fabric and the economy of Ottawa.

Many cities in North America do this through an annual or bi-annual Urban Design Awards Program where the winners are showcased to the community. The projects that are award recipients become good private models to be repeated throughout the city.

Ottawa has an Architectural Conservation Awards program which has a focus on the successful reworking of heritage structures. This program could be re-titled and expanded to include a more specific focus on downtown development, with categories for buildings, large places or neighbourhood design, visions and master plans.