By Joanne Chianello, CBC News Ottawa, May 27, 2020
Ottawa city council voted 15 to 6 Wednesday to expand the city's suburbs by
hundreds of hectares, a decision that followed weeks of debate about how the
city should grow over the next two decades.
Mayor Jim Watson has argued that "modestly" expanding the supply of
residential land will help keep home prices lower, and give builders more time
to adapt to the concept of denser development.
"Ottawa will have one of the most aggressive intensification targets in all
of Canada," Watson said during Wednesday's meeting, which was held by
teleconference.
"We've heard from the vast majority of residents that they support
intensification, but they want it to be done thoughtfully through design,
while respecting the characteristic of established communities."
(...)The councillors who voted against the expansion, which could see 23,000
homes built in the newly added areas, were: Mathieu Fleury, Rawlson King, Jeff
Leiper, Catherine McKenney, Shawn Menard and Theresa Kavanagh.
(...)At council, Coun. Riley Brockington moved a motion to freeze the urban
boundary. "The people of Ottawa want this option to be debated today," he
said.
An EKOS poll commissioned by three urban councillors indicated a little more
than half of respondents wanted council to hold the line, and worried
expanding the urban boundary would place a burden on city services and
jeopardize its climate change goals.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/council-votes-for-urban-expansion-1.5586572?ref=mobilerss&cmp=newsletter_CBC%20Ottawa_727_31000