Crystal Beach Lakeview Community Association

Crystal Beach Lakeview Community Association

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  • Have your say on policy direction for the new Zoning By-law

    CBLCA

    April 28, 2023
    Transportation, Transit and Infrastructure
    Have your say on policy direction for the new Zoning By-law

    If you’re not already familiar with Engage Ottawa, it’s a good site to know. For example, City planning staff are currently working on a new comprehensive Zoning By-law to implement the policies and directions in the new Official Plan. The new Zoning By-law will replace the current Zoning By-law (By-law 2008-250). The new by-law won’t go to Council for approval until 2025, but Engage Ottawa lets you make your thoughts known now about the policies behind it at https://engage.ottawa.ca/zoning, specifically, through seven discussion papers with related surveys. Somebody said the discussion papers are like the Five Big Moves policy documents that the City used for engagement on the Official Plan. The deadline is July 28, 2023.

    The plan for re-development

    As you probably know, the City is trying to avoid urban sprawl and keep within our boundaries the over 40% more people we expect to add by 2046. That’s a good thing. Staying within Ottawa’s boundaries will be cheaper and healthier and aid the fight against climate change.

    In the Outer Urban area to which Crystal Beach Lakeview belongs, a big part of the intensification is planned to come from a change that allows homeowners to increase the number of dwellings on what is currently an R1-lot (most of CBL is R-1) to three dwellings. That’s a done deal; the three-dwelling rule is not going to change, and it probably shouldn’t.

    The increase in density will occur in an uncoordinated one-at-a-time fashion as property owners decide individually when to add a dwelling or two. Private recreational space will disappear in the process—space that families currently use for building snowmen, jumping on trampolines, shooting hoops, swinging. playing hopscotch, barbecuing, gardening, putting up birdfeeders, swimming, throwing a frisbee for the dog, goofing around, and so on.

    Meanwhile, the City’s Parks and Recreation Master Plan is pretty much “business as usual” with a not-particularly ambitious target of 2.0 ha of parkland per 1,000 people, down from the 2.8 ha it used to be—a target the City will miss–and no recognition that anything different is about to occur. Even before Bill 23 removed the requirement for developers to contribute money for parkland, our Outer Urban sector was slated to fall short of its parkland target by 34%.

    All this to say that we should probably be thinking about the new zoning by-law and ways to mitigate the changes and, if we have views, we should be making them known.

    civic engagement, development, housing, zoning
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    2 Responses to “Have your say on policy direction for the new Zoning By-law”

    1. trudy Avatar
      trudy
      May 2, 2023

      I truly wish that there was a By-Law that would ensure that cats cannot wander freely and trespass on
      everyone’s property in the Crystal Beach neighborhood to do their regular bathroom duties!!!
      There are 4 cats (three from one household) that come into our gated yard on a daily basis.
      Dogs have to be on a leash and their owners faithfully carry poop pickup bags. I feel that cat owners
      need to be held to the same ruling and accountability.
      What can be done about that?

      Reply
      1. Kate Twiss Avatar
        Kate Twiss
        May 6, 2023

        I don’t know, but it would be interesting to find out. I’m not sure the rule would belong in the current zoning bylaw discussion related to the Official Plan and Bill 23.
        Outdoor cats don’t live as long as indoor cats and outdoor cats are the second worst threat to birds after habitat loss.
        See the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s FAQ on Outdoor Cats and Their Effect on Birds at:
        https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/faq-outdoor-cats-and-their-effects-on-birds/#:~:text=In%20North%20America%2C%20cats%20are,to%20feral%20or%20unowned%20cats.

        Reply

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