A local home builders’ association is urging the City of Ottawa to rethink building height limits in the proposed zoning bylaw, saying they will impede the city’s housing goals.
The comprehensive zoning bylaw, which was first proposed in May 2024, aims to streamline regulation and divide the city into six zones labelled N1 through N6, with six sub-zones labelled A to F. The zones will have regulations for density and maximum height of buildings, among others.
It also includes amended zoning allowances for transit hubs, main street zones, minor corridors and neighbourhood mixed-use zones, as well as industrial and transportation zones and zones for institutional, recreation and green space.
The bylaw will also include “special districts” for areas like the ByWard Market.
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“The Official Plan directs how the city will grow for the next 25 years and we’re trying to focus growth to locations where it’s going to make the most sense for the city — in a bunch of different ways, like around transit stations — to make complete, livable communities and a financially sustainable city,” said Carol Ruddy, the city’s manager of zoning and intensification, in April.
Currently, city staff are gathering public opinions on its second draft of the bylaw, which caps housing in N1 and N2 zones (traditional low-density residential areas) at 8.5 metres tall, or around two storeys. This means only detached, semi-detached and duplexes can be built.
Outside the Greenbelt, building heights are capped at 11 metres in low-density neighbourhoods, or around three storeys. This will enable low-density housing like townhouses and rowhouses to be built, which are often called “missing middle housing” in urbanist circles.
“We are at a turning point when it comes to creating the right conditions for the next generation of city building here in Ottawa,” said Barrhaven West Coun. David Hill in April.
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Hill also introduced two motions at the council meeting on April 16, asking staff to include an option that would set a building height limit of 11 metres in single-family neighbourhoods. Both motions were carried.
Draft 2 also introduces regulations on building heights in mixed-use zones next to low-rise residential areas.
If the zoning bylaw passes, there will be a 30-metre-deep height transition area next to any nearby low-rise residential areas. For example, buildings in one area can be approximately 27 storeys tall (the proposed maximum height for high rises) but must transition to 13 storeys, then to six storeys, then to four storeys within 30 metres of the abutting low-rise residential area.
City staff said the height transition area was developed after consulting with community associations in the latter half of 2024.
“Thirty metres was selected as the threshold where staff can be reasonably confident that qualitative considerations can be managed by any proposal,” according to a City of Ottawa report.
So why the opposition?
Jason Burggraaf, executive director of the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association (GOHBA), said the comprehensive bylaw changes are a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to create zoning that encourages smart urban growth.
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The province says Ottawa, the fastest growing census division in Ontario, is projected to grow by 60.2 per cent from 1.11 million in 2023 to 1.79 million in 2051.
“The decisions we make today are really affecting that housing way down the line … Councils, decades before, chose to build and approve land to be built out because they see the need for more housing for our residents,” he said.
“Even though there’s plenty of housing today, we could use triple the number of empty houses today than we had before. It’s really thinking of that long-term view of what Ottawa needs for its capacity, because the growth that we’re anticipating is significantly higher than what we’re planning in terms of housing right now.”
However, he urged councillors to rethink the proposed height transition network for high rises, which would make high-rises along transit corridors and main streets “effectively undevelopable” at needed densities.
Instead, the city should impose a 20-metre-deep height transition area with design elements like privacy-conscious balconies, thoughtful landscaping and facade articulation.
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“(High rises) are only about 42 and 52 metres wide to begin with, so if you’re cutting off more than half of that before you can start the tower, you’re not going to get very many units in there,” he said.
Burggraaf also urged the city to reconsider the proposed height restrictions for low-density residential areas. The regulations will limit missing middle housing to areas best suited for growth, which are largely walkable, transit-accessible neighbourhoods close to amenities and jobs.
Not everyone wants to live in busy areas, he said, but not everyone wants to buy or can afford a single detached house in the suburbs.
“The city wants to achieve a certain level of intensification and increased density inside the core of the city and not adding on new communities, but it’s not showing that it can achieve those numbers if it isn’t allowing (townhouses) in neighbourhoods,” Burggraaf said.
“We need to try to get a bunch of different types of housing in existing neighbourhoods so that people have options.”
This is especially important for elderly Ottawans who may be looking to downsize.
“My neighbour is 93 years old and she lives in a single detached home, which is meant for a family of five … But she doesn’t have anywhere to go. We focus a lot of our high-density stuff in major transit corridors, but she doesn’t want to live on a busy street,” Burggraaf added.
But Burggraaf emphasized it’s also important for young, working Ottawans who might be looking for their first home outside of the city centre.
More and more people are moving to commuter neighbourhoods like Arnprior, Carleton and Rockville to find affordable housing, he said. Those outside communities used to account for 10 per cent of the housing built in Ottawa, while now it’s up to 20 per cent.
“These are the type of homes that are going to mostly be sold to people who are moving out of rental apartments. We need to have more of everything so that people can have the options of moving around,” he said.
“So many people are just kind of stuck in the housing that they’re in, let alone the people who can’t even get into the housing (market) right now because there isn’t enough fluidity.”