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The 5 Big Moves

A New Official Plan

The City is rewriting its Official Plan- the strategic document that describes how the city will grow over time, where we will place major infrastructure, and what policies will be in place to support economic growth and guide the development and evolution of communities. The purpose of this review is to position Ottawa to be flexible, resilient, and, above all, a city where people want to live, work, and play.

Preliminary Policy Directions

The City is proposing to make a number of significant policy changes through the Official Plan to make Ottawa the most liveable mid sized city in North America. Known as the ‘Five Big Moves’, the following statements capture the most significant policy proposals for the new Official Plan:

1. Growth: Achieve, by the end of its planning period, more growth by intensification than by greenfield development. This growth will provide a variety of affordable housing options for residents.

2. Mobility: By 2046, the majority of trips in the City of Ottawa will be made by sustainable transportation.

3. Urban Design: Improve our sophistication in urban and community design, and put this knowledge to the service of good urbanism at all scales, from the largest to the very small.

4. Resiliency: Embed public health, environmental, climate and energy resiliency into the framework of our planning policies.

5. Economy: Embed economic development into the framework of our planning policies.

Read the full 5 Big Moves report here.

Read the full report to Planning Committee and Agricultural and Rural Affairs Committee here.

15-minute neighbourhoods

The 15-minute neighbourhood concept provides options for residents to meet their daily or weekly needs within walking distance by bringing destinations closer together. These neighbourhoods are designed to enable easy, safe, and enjoyable connections between destinations. The approach focuses on walking as a viable option for accessing regular needs, as it is the most universally accessible mode of transportation. In 15-minute neighbourhoods, residents ideally spend less time travelling to fulfill their regular needs, by creating locally focused neighbourhoods with more options closer to home. Residents have opportunities to save on transportation costs, enjoy their neighbourhood more, and improve their daily activity.

Introduced in the Five Big Moves, the principles of 15-minute neighbourhoods are integral to the strategic directions contained in Ottawa’s Draft New Official Plan. The concept of 15-minute neighbourhoods supports a variety of objectives relating to intensification, economic development, energy and climate change, gender equity, and culture. Additionally, planning for 15-minute neighbourhoods represents a critical means of embedding health resiliency in planning in order to achieve healthier, more inclusive communities.

15-minute neighbourhoods are compact, well-connected places with a clustering of a diverse mix of land-uses; this includes a range of housing types, shops, services, local access to food, schools and day care facilities, employment, greenspaces, parks and pathways. They are complete communities that support active transportation and transit, reduce car dependency, and enable people to live car-light or car free, if they so choose.

The 15-minute neighbourhood study is the first step at understanding the components of a 15-minute neighbourhood as they evolve across Ottawa’s urban, suburban, and rural transects. This study of 15-minute neighbourhoods is composed primarily of two different mapping exercises. One looking at access to available services and amenities; and the other focusing on the safety and enjoyability of the pedestrian environment with respect to walking to these services and amenities.

Report [ PDF 6.047 MB ]

Maps:

Appendix B [ PDF 950 KB ]

Appendix C [ PDF 1.179 MB ]

Healthy and Inclusive Communities Infographic [ PDF 1.340 MB ]