Greening the Official Plan: activists push city to add environmental values

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  2. Greening the Official Plan: activists push city to add environmental values

By Paige Peacock, Capital Current, January 20, 2021

Environmentalists are urging city council to inject green values into its revamped Official Plan, which will frame Ottawa’s expansion and development for the next 25 years.

Some citizens are concerned about how the municipal government intends to address climate change and incorporate environmentally sustainable policies and strategies into the city’s blueprint for growth, which will be drafted over the next year or so.

Paul Johanis, chair of the Greenspace Alliance — a local non-profit environmental organization — says that the Official Plan must hold the City of Ottawa accountable about climate change.

(...)Shyanne Matone, a youth climate ambassador with Ecology Ottawa, said that while there is progress being made on the issue, Ottawa needs to do more.

“Certain things we are definitely making important moves on — such as the electric bus pilot program that the city is putting money towards — but in other ways, not so much,” said Matone. “Our main goal is to ensure that the city doesn’t pursue urban expansion.

“All of our growth over the next 25 years should come from intensification, making communities more compact, more walkable, using public transit and bike lanes so that people have access to what they need without needing to own a vehicle.”

For Matone, urban sprawl is a major concern.

https://capitalcurrent.ca/greening-the-official-plan-activists-push-city-to-add-environmental-values/

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