Sustainable Development

Kitchissippi Ward has experienced significant growth as it has become increasingly known for its high quality of life, vibrant streetscapes, active community organizations and the transformation of Hintonburg and West Wellington. The impacts of this growth are both positive and negative where balance is required to ensure responsible development of the community.

Counselor Leadman has been working to establish the right framework for growth based off of her successful intensification symposium. This structure is required so Ottawa can begin to properly build inwards into a vibrant, sustainable, progressive and world-class city. Sustainable growth also means ensuring compatible development inside existing vibrant communities and mitigating any negative aspects that occur from that growth.

Planning for Sustainable Growth
Central to making intensification work is having the appropriate framework and review for development applications. Having the right structure in place is crucial to having healthy communities. Counselor Leadman has passed better rules and guidelines that developers must follow when building inside existing communities to ensure compatibility and appropriate development. This better framework includes:

• Better Local Planning – Councillor Leadman has worked to ensure the approval of the Westboro Richmond Rd CDP and ensuring the proper conversion of the plan to Secondary Plan status. This will gives it better legal weight in planning decisions and appeals. She also has worked to see the West Wellington CDP move forward and for greater use of the successful Neighbourhood Planning Initiative to ensure it becomes the model framework across the City.
• An updated Official plan with several motion successfully pass by Councillor Leadman that provides greater clarity on how the city will be grow and intensify. It recognizes and better nuances what appropriate compatibility and transition are to limit subjective interpretation. As well, better support for growth through priority for background studies, better Traffic Demand Management (TDM) measures and a better framework for density credits were passed. Council together approved the official plan that froze the line on urban expansion, provided better clarity of high-rise compatibility and better local planning templates. This will help facilitate the proper foundation for the city to grow responsibly in the short and long-term.
• An updated development charge by-law that ensures ‘growth pays for growth’ with improved funding for community centers and soft infrastructure. Councillor Leadman successfully fought for a new $9M community space fund to ensure soft infrastructure is adequately supported throughout the City.
• A new comprehensive zoning by-law to provide a harmonized, uniform and consistent planning framework.

Building the Right Foundation
Having the right infrastructure in place is the pivotal to sustainable growth. The City reorganization has made this mandate central to its operations. Identifying, building and supporting the right infrastructure in time for growth and correcting past pitfalls will ensure the appropriate level of necessary services needed to mitigate any negative impact of growth on the affected communities. The following steps have been undertaken to ensure this occurs:

Improved water management
Sound water management policies are critical to ensuring that we have better environmental protection of our rivers and that we eliminate any problems that could affect neighbors have when development occur. The new Infrastructure Master Plan forecasts spending $1.58 billion over the next 10 years for required for water and wastewater capital projects. This represents 25% of all capital spending. A major component of this funding is for supporting intensification projects which account for $412M in new funding. This funding includes $215M for rehabilitation in intensification areas, $80 for integrated sewer separation and $56M for rehabilitation of collectors.

Managing Transportation Needs
With the growth in the community, the demand for transportation has risen. However in the core there is limited capacity to expand the existing road network and so a different paradigm is needed to meet the transportation needs of the community.

In the Richmond Rd/Westboro CDP area the targeted level of intensification 40% of the community transportation needs must be met without use of a car. To achieve this aggressive but necessary goal large investment is required to make these forms transportation not just available but desirable, practical and viable.

Councillor Leadman has achieved funding and priority for a plan to examine, time and implement the 40% modal target for the area. While the study and its measures are implemented, Transplan 2009 directed considerable new resources received during the 2009 budget to improve services that doubled or tripled the frequency of most routes in the ward. Improving transportation is a complex and challenging file but Councillor Leadman has been working on behalf of the community on making meaningful improvements throughout her term.

Additionally, the ongoing McKellar Park / Highland Park / Westboro Area Traffic Management Plan once completed will assist in improving traffic in a significant portion of the ward.