Unlimited tower heights in Ottawa? City officials dampen developer hopes

A developer plan to supercharge housing construction by drastically loosening zoning rules isn't meeting much enthusiasm at Ottawa city hall, at least for its most radical proposals.

The Greater Ottawa Home Builders' Association released a white paper this week pushing for unlimited building heights within 800 metres of transit stations and blanket permission to build up to four storeys high everywhere in the city.

It comes as the city works on a new zoning bylaw, with a first draft expected this spring. But top planning officials say the new rules almost certainly won't go that far.

David Wise, acting director of economic development and long-range planning, said none of the city's existing plans envision totally abandoning height limits. 

"If we were to go that route, that would be a much more significant policy undertaking and that's just not in scope right now," he said.

"We certainly are not looking at blanket upzoning of neighbourhoods to four storeys as of right across the city," Wise added.

Planning and housing committee chair Jeff Leiper agreed. He expects height limits will stay in place — even if they go up — so developers will have to come to his committee on a case by case basis to get permission for supertall skyscrapers.

"If a developer wants to go to 80 or 90 or 100 storeys at one of our transit stations, come see us about a rezoning," said Leiper, "but I'm not convinced we need that as of right and frankly I'm not convinced the market is there."

The association's white paper also calls for allowing front-yard parking and ditching rules that force developers to provide parking spaces for residents.

Leiper has previously signalled that the new zoning bylaw will likely loosen minimum parking rules, but it's unlikely to eliminate them altogether.

What about fourplexes?

The white paper does support a policy that has a better chance of passing at council: allowing up to four residential units on every lot with city services.

The province already forced the city to allow three, but the federal government has appeared to insist on four as a condition for Ottawa getting a share of the $4 billion housing accelerator fund.

When the city signed a deal to get more than $176 million from the fund, it seemed like the policy was a sure thing.

Now, according to an opinion from a city lawyer, council seems to have some wiggle room.

Senior legal counsel Timothy Marc said the city is obligated to propose a draft bylaw that allows four units everywhere, but it has made no binding commitment to actually pass it.

Still, Leiper said rejecting four units would be a risky move.

"That decision is council's to make," said Leiper. "It will be interesting to see how that discussion goes: four units per lot is going to be controversial. I think if we don't adopt it, we heighten our risk."

That risk could be expensive. The city could lose out on $44 million — the fourth and last instalment of the housing accelerator money.

Technically, that money hinges on meeting targets for the city to issue thousands of building permits. But Leiper expects that the decision to withhold the money will be a political one even if the city comes up short — and the federal government has made its four-unit preferences clear.

Who should dish out the money?

Councillors also debated what to actually do with all that money once it comes.

Leiper's committee voted Wednesday for a plan to devote 90 per cent of the cash to projects in the so-called affordable housing pipeline, a shortlist of non-profit proposals that are ready to go — but lack funding. The plan still has to go to council for final approval.

But Wednesday's vote didn't come without controversy, especially over who would call the shots.

Staff are asking for authority to dole out the money to the shortlisted projects themselves, without coming back to council every year for approval.

River ward Coun. Riley Brockington was uncomfortable with that. He asked why a single official, the housing services director, should have "carte blanche" to spend so much money.

"I do think on an annual basis it's wise, given the amount of money we're talking about, to see what their proposed list is, sign off on that, and go forward from there," he said.

Though other councillors shared his discomfort, Brockington was the only one to ultimately oppose the plan when it came to a vote.

The city shortlist of housing providers eligible for funding includes the Shepherds of Good Hope, whose plan to open a fourth supportive housing building in Carlington has generated vocal opposition in Brockington's ward.

"There's a lot of concern in the community with a centre that they opened last summer, and I would like to deal with and get those issues to bed before we talk about building a fourth building in that community," he said.

Leiper thinks councillors should keep their distance and allow staff to pick the projects.

"When it comes to deciding which housing providers are receiving the funding that flows through from the province, that flows through from the feds, that flows through from our own capital budget, politicians have traditionally been hands off," he said.

"You don't want politicians playing politics with serving the most vulnerable people."