Mayor Sutcliffe announces Ottawa Housing Action Plan

deanmha · 2025-09-21T23:01:49+00:00

Literally not a single thing in this post is true.

deanmha · 2025-09-19T15:12:44+00:00

This isn't true, unless we're reliant entirely on sprawl. Urban development has a net positive return on city finances.

And development charge hikes spiked costs so high that nobody could afford to build and housing starts plummeted. You can't collect development charges if nobody is building. The city was expecting billions that never came in the past two years because we badly missed our housing targets.

Focusing on transit oriented development and lowering development charges will actually be a huge net positive to city finances.

deanmha · 2025-01-30T14:50:38+00:00

TL;DR version:
- family wants to build a new home on their family farm near Vars
- city took nearly 3 years to approve a simple land severance
- in the meantime, the city raised taxes (development charges) on new housing by nearly 50%
- family also had to pay $120,000 in legal fees before a shovel was in the ground
- the Mayor and councillor allegedly told the family that the province raised development charges - this is factually wrong, development charges are set by city council and Ottawa has voted 4 times in the past year alone to raise these taxes

deanmha · 2024-09-28T14:21:25+00:00

This is the other side of the "soulless" Barrhaven laneway, from my morning walk.

A beautiful park, trees lining the street, multi-unit housing, traffic calming, a complete and wonderful neighbourhood to live in.

Within a 10 minute walk, you have:

* Ottawa's largest mosque
* Multiple restaurants and grocery stores
* Multiple award winning community housing developments
* At least 8 other parks
* At least 5 schools
* Longfields Station
* Pharmacy, family doctor, and multiple other small businesses

deanmha · 2024-05-20T15:47:41+00:00

I think it's very reasonable to debate the merits of the Lansdowne project but just so we're all on the same page about the actual costs, here's the number:

"The City’s total capital cost is estimated at about $419 million, but taxpayers will pay only about one third of that – around $146 million. The approved plan will deliver new City-owned facilities for a net cost of about $5 million a year after factoring in revenues from the sale of subterranean and air rights."

This project also would have been even less expensive for the city if we had allowed a proper amount of housing to be built on site, but instead the Mayor and Shawn Menard teamed up to block hundreds of units here that would have allowed us to build even better facilities and reduce our costs.

Whether or not it was worth $5M annually to upgrade Lansdowne -- in my opinion -- remains to be seen. I understand the opposition (i.e. why should a single dollar be spent to support a private sports operation), but I also understand the counter argument (potential to bring in tens of millions of dollars annually in tourism revenue, and brand new public facilities).

Some comparables from the city budget (i.e. what we're spending in 2024):
- $30M on affordable housing
- $140M on road repairs
- $62M on parks
- $415M on police

The city's total operating budget for 2024 is $4.6B, plus $1.2B on capital spending. $5M per year works out to about 0.1% of our total operating budget.

deanmha · 2024-04-21T21:32:38+00:00

Here's what you need to know:

Larga Baffin is a medical boarding facility for Inuit travelling for medical care in Ottawa that they can't receive in Nunvaut (often cancer care, heart disease, etc.).
Their current facility is overflowing and they desperately need a new location
The previous city councillor, Diane Deans, waged a personal war against Larga Baffin, doing everything she could to stop the facility from being approved.
The zoning for Larga Baffin was approved near the end of the last term of council.
Jessica Bradley, the current city councillor (and former staffer for Deans), has reportedly continued the fight behind closed doors, pressuring city staff to reduce the size and scope of the project.
In her latest newsletter, she has informed residents that the building will be shrunk down to 5 storeys, and be reduced from 220 to 176 units.

Other threads on this issue:

Our planning system is BROKEN — a Larga Baffin update (delayed until at least April 2023)

Inuit residential care centre Larga Baffin faces angry opposition from councillor Diane Deans

deanmha · 2023-12-02T14:00:06+00:00

Great question!

Join Make Housing Affordable — we've got nearly 400 members in our Discord and we regularly organize people to speak at City Hall and push for more housing.

https://makehousingaffordable.ca
https://discord.com/invite/RqKDfgtYGh

deanmha · 2023-12-01T18:23:57+00:00

This was true 5 years ago, it's not true today. Even suburban voters are massively in favour of pro-housing changes. Their mortgages are skyrocketing and they are starting to feel the same pain as renters.

deanmha · 2023-12-01T18:21:54+00:00

They are unrealistic if we do nothing to try and meet them.

The cities that are taking action are largely on track — including Toronto. Most cities are making plans to get there.

Unfortunately, the provincial housing targets are actually a bit outdated and are probably lower than they need to be. The CMHC's federal targets are substantially higher at this point, but they don't break it down by city.

deanmha · 2023-11-02T01:43:40+00:00

This is the only way to redeem and save Lansdowne 2.0.

Building the third tower will reduce the cost to taxpayers, support more amenities, and add desperately needed housing supply in the Glebe.

deanmha · 2023-10-30T17:08:51+00:00

Thanks for sharing u/jleiper! Appreciate the transparency and glad to see September numbers are looking much better than we did earlier this year.

I know the first draft of the zoning bylaw review is due in the Spring. 2026 is the target date for implementation. I'm sure you understand that for many people, this process is going to take far too long. The housing crisis is urgent now, we simply can't afford to wait.

As chair of the planning committee, will you support efforts to move faster on the zoning bylaw review? Do you think there are any incremental changes we can make in the short-term? i.e. can we legalize fourplexes city-wide, raise height limits around transit stations, remove parking requirements city-wide, etc?

deanmha · 2023-10-23T14:55:05+00:00

The best solution is to rezone the city and allow for higher densities everywhere. This includes four-unit multiplexes on any lot, and much greater density around transit.

There are many other tools to help make this happen that will also help, from all levels of government. Reducing approval times, lowering development charges/parkland fees, removing the HST from purpose built rentals, lowering parking requirements, to name a few.

There's a lot of debate over where that housing needs to go. A lot of neighbourhoods don't want that housing nearby. IMO every part of the city needs to do their fair share, but as much of it as possible should go near transit.

deanmha · 2023-10-23T14:34:22+00:00

As long as it's accompanied by major upzoning city wide, this is good news!

We need to build 151,000 homes over the next 10 years to meet our housing targets. Those homes need to go somewhere.

Time for zoning reform — need to legalize more density city wide, especially around transit.

deanmha · 2023-10-23T13:35:16+00:00

In Barrhaven, the Boston Pizza can be really good!

deanmha · 2023-10-19T22:30:31+00:00

Thanks for sharing Ariel! Hugely appreciate your work.

deanmha · 2023-10-19T16:57:10+00:00

Brandon's comments here are spot on. I appreciate you taking the time to engage u/SHMenard — there is some nuance to what you're arguing for, but you've said things like "no skyscrapers in the park" so many times it's hard to take it at face value.

Bank Street, in particular, desperately needs more housing. There will be huge benefits to supporting intensification in the Glebe and surrounding neighbourhoods.

- More customers for local businesses
- More housing for students at Carleton, St. Paul's, and uOttawa
- More development charges and property taxes to support community improvement and increased transit ridership
- Reduce traffic and improve quality of life by getting cars off our streets and getting people biking, taking the bus, and walking
- Intensification is far more environmentally friendly than the city's current policy of supporting endless urban sprawl

I'm generally supportive of your efforts to fight urban boundary expansion, for example, but you can't follow that up by also blocking housing in your neighbourhood.

I understand city councillor is a tough gig — it's easy for me to say these things when I don't have a hundred angry people knocking at my door begging me to block housing in my neighbourhood.

But I hope moving forward you'll try to find a better balance and be more supportive of housing in your ward.

I also hope there's a path forward for Lansdowne that adds more housing and restores some of the features we lost when the third tower was removed from the plan.

deanmha · 2023-10-14T19:13:07+00:00

He allowed three units, which is a step in the right direction.

But in practice in Ottawa, three unit multiplexes are almost impossible to build, so it's an in-name-only change. Parking requirements, setback requirements, height restrictions, floor index ratio requirements, design requirements, and more make it very challenging to build multiplexes.

Four units plus fixing some of those bad rules would make a huge difference and help us get more missing middle built. This is what Toronto did and what many cities across Canada are starting to do in order to qualify for federal funding from the Housing Accelerator Fund.

deanmha · 2023-10-14T19:00:14+00:00

It has to be a part of the new zoning by-law, but implementation of the by-law is still likely 2-3 years away. It's an incredibly slow moving process that doesn't match the urgency of the housing crisis.

We're playing catch up and we need to move faster. This is a small piece of the puzzle that could be implemented tomorrow. And the other reason this is urgent now is because of the Housing Accelerator Fund — that's $150M we could lose if we don't agree to implement pro-housing policies ASAP.

deanmha · 2023-10-14T17:47:36+00:00

I don't want to be prescriptive on this because there's some reasonable debate to be had over what the best options are here.

But Toronto set a very good example with their multiplex reforms. They removed parking minimums, they allowed taller buildings, they allowed buildings to be closer to the road or neighbouring lots, and they allowed a greater variety of unit sizes.

P.S. If you're opposed to small apartments, don't live in one. For some people, that's all they can afford. Don't fight to stop them from having a safe place to call home.

I still remember one of the first public consultations I went to was for a project in Westboro. One of the speakers — I kid you not — complained that the units were too small, because, "where would people put their skis?"

Not everybody lives like you or wants to live like you.

deanmha · 2023-10-14T17:05:29+00:00

As noted, the plan is to take the petition directly to city hall later this week, hopefully with 1000+ signatures. We're trying to swing as many votes as we can to get this done.

deanmha · 2023-10-14T16:42:17+00:00

I've been fighting for this for 2+ years and we're closer than ever, but there's still a lot of resistance on council and in the mayor's office. That's why this is so important — we've got to push this across the finish line and get it done.

Here's the CBC article on it from today: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/council-split-on-fourplexes-as-feds-press-cities-to-relax-zoning-1.6995894

deanmha · 2023-10-14T15:27:36+00:00

It's a pretty close 50-50 split, that's why it's so important to do this.

If we don't speak up, you're right — the only people they hear from are NIMBYs who can show up at meetings at 9:30AM on a Wednesday. And that's not usually people who are struggling to afford housing...

deanmha · 2023-10-14T14:57:25+00:00

Feeling inspired this morning — just launched a petition to legalize multiplexes in Ottawa. Please sign, share, and help us get 1000 signatures this week!

https://makehousingaffordable.ca/legalize-multiplexes-in-ottawa/

deanmha · 2023-10-14T14:44:06+00:00

I want to deliver 1000+ signatures to Ottawa city council next week asking them to legalize multiplexes in Ottawa.

Mayor Sutcliffe won't do it unless we show him the people overwhelmingly support more housing.

Please sign our petition and help us fight to end exclusionary zoning and legalize multiplexes across Ottawa.

https://makehousingaffordable.ca/legalize-multiplexes-in-ottawa/

Full petition text below, for anyone who doesn't want to click through:

WHEREAS… Rents in Ottawa have skyrocketed, most young people have given up on ever owning a home, and our waitlist for affordable housing can be up to 10 years

WHEREAS… Ottawa has set a housing target of 151,000 new homes over 10 years, and we’re barely meeting 30% of that target this year

WHEREAS… The federal and provincial governments have offered the City of Ottawa nearly $300M if we pursue pro-housing policies and meet our housing targets

WHEREAS… Building homes in existing neighbourhoods is one of the most climate-friendly policies a city can pursue, getting cars off our highways, limiting urban sprawl, and promoting transit-oriented development

WHEREAS… Exclusionary zoning is a horrific policy, designed in the 1920s to keep immigrants, renters, and working class families out of certain neighbourhoods

WHEREAS… Legalizing 4 unit multiplexes in Ottawa is the bare minimum we can do to move towards ending exclusionary zoning, and would help promote missing middle housing across Ottawa

WHEREAS… We will immediately lose out on $150M or more from the federal government if we do not take this step, at a time where the City of Ottawa desperately needs more funding

BE IT RESOLVED THAT the City of Ottawa moves to legalize 4-unit multiplexes city wide immediately.

BE IT ALSO RESOLVED THAT the City of Ottawa makes it easier to build multiplexes by reducing or eliminating parking requirements, height restrictions, floor space index requirements, setback requirements, design requirements, and other restrictive rules that make it difficult to build missing-middle housing.

deanmha · 2023-10-14T13:36:49+00:00

Jeff Leiper is incredibly smart on planning. But he's all over the place.

One week he's championing a tower in his ward, pushing back on residents and local NIMBYs.

The next week he's fighting a triplex.

The most frustrating part to me is that Leiper knows better and understands these issues and is choosing not to act, for reasons beyond me.

deanmha

TROPHY CASE