Ottawa was required to update its Official Plan to align with a new Provincial Planning Statement (PPS) released last fall. The Crystal Beach Lakeview Community Association sent feedback. We were concerned, not so much with the text of the amendment we saw, as with a related map we got hold of that showed unexpected density on Greenbelt land near Moodie Station. Crystal Beach Lakeview (CBL) is a small residential community between two Major Transit Station Areas (MTSAs) and the Ottawa River. The future development of the entire community depends very much on how the MTSA’s are treated. We copied Councillor Kavanagh and MP Vandenbeld, and both acknowledged receipt of our concerns.
Documents and Information
The relevant documents and more information are:
- CBLCA Comments on Application D01-01-25-0001 to Amend Ottawa’s Official Plan (the comments we sent to the city planners.)
- Major Transit Station Areas (MTSA) Map of Moodie Station
- Application Number D01-01-25-0001 Official Plan Amendment
- Youtube video of Joint Planning and Housing Committee and the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, June 18. (“the Joint Meeting”)
- Document 4 – Details of each Major Transit Station Area (the document released after the comments period. Moodie Station is on page 30.)
- Youtube video of Ottawa City Council meeting June 25 (Discussion of the Amendment to the Official Plan begins at approx. 3:07)
The Outcome
Council passed the Amendment to the Official Plan on June 25, so the wording in the amendment is now the official wording.
Previous wording for Moodie Station
As we said in our comments, “the Official Plan, Section 5 Transects, p. 28 clearly states, “5) Given its location in the Greenbelt Transect, Moodie Station is not a candidate for Transit Oriented Development or intensification.”
The draft amendment to the Official Plan, PPS Consistency Draft Vol 1 Amendments Table A confirms a target of “No intensification”. In Table 3A, the entry for Moodie Station in the column “Minimum Area-Wide Density” is “0”.
Final wording for Moodie Station
Document 4 – Details of each Major Transit Station Area was not available to Crystal Beach Lakeview when we wrote our submission.
The wording that is in the Comments in Document 4, page 30 is “The Moodie MTSA is largely surrounded by the Greenbelt and therefore intensification opportunities are restricted. Most of the existing people and jobs come from the existing Abbot Point of Care health sciences facility.”
The wording that is in the Rationale for Alternate Density Target, also p. 30, says, “As per PPS Section 2.4.2 Policy 4a, development is restricted on a significant portion of the lands within the delineated area being the NCC greenbelt to the west, a limited pedestrian network to the east due to the existing design of the residential subdivisions, and Highway 417 as a barrier to the south. Any future growth would come from intensification opportunities within a small Neighbourhood designation.”
It is worthwhile to listen carefully to city planner Royce Foo’s answer to Laine Johnson’s questions about how Iris station and Moodie station will be developed. He said, of Ottawa’s 52 MTSAs, 15 will not be able to achieve the targets the Province wants and will have to reach their targets some other way. Is that what he said?
You can listen to it on the Youtube video of Joint Planning and Housing Committee and the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, June 18 at approx. 2:40 to 2:42.
Frustration with the Rushed Process
Although the Amendment to the Official Plan did appear on Engage Ottawa, it was not really treated formally like the Official Plan or secondary plans. Rather weirdly, it was handled through “Dev Apps” where we usually see applications for specific developments.
Councillors, delegates, and the Federation of Citizens Associations all complained about the rushed process. Even Jason Burggraaf, Head of the Greater Ottawa Builders’ Association thought the amendment was being done too quickly. Several communities are having their secondary plans trampled as part of the amendment. Staff admitted that there was no Provincial deadline and that other municipalities are not rushing to rewrite their plans to comply with the province’s demands. Staff and Council were just trying to get the amendment out of the way so the Zoning Bylaw can be finished. At Council, on June 25th, several councillors complained again about the process, but the amendment passed with hopes that the Province will stop interfering and give more respect to democratic engagement.
Documents not available until after the review period
Document 4 – Details of each Major Transit Station Area was not available to Crystal Beach Lakeview when we wrote our submission. Circulation of the draft amendments and the Comments period ran from April 17 to May 15, 2025, with an open house on June 2. We met the deadline for comments May 15. Updates, including Document 4, were added June 10 before the Joint Meeting on June 18. Document 4 included a last-minute change to the wording for Moodie Station that we didn’t see until after the Joint meeting.
If we had not had a sneak peek at the maps through somebody in the FCA, we would never even have known that anything was happening at all, before the deadline for comments.
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