What is Smart Growth?
Ottawa’s population will grow by 400,000 people over the next 25 years, including the largest annual increase of Millennials in the country. The City of Ottawa’s new Official Plan will consider options for where and how to accommodate that growth.
Where are Ottawa’s 400,000 new residents going to live? The Greater Ottawa Home Builders Association believes in the smart, sustainable growth of our city.
Ottawa’s population will grow by 400,000
people over the next 25 years.
We need to build more homes
Experts and thought-leaders agree that to make housing more affordable and accessible for all, we need to build more homes.
The Globe and Mail, September 4, 2021 Read More
TVO.org, August 16, 2021 Read More
The Ottawa Citizen, August 30, 2021 Read More
The Globe and Mail, August 28, 2021 Read More
Housing Affordability and Choice
The cost of land for housing within the city has tripled over the last 5 years. House prices have risen by 30-50% in that same time frame. The draft Official Plan provides for a mix of increased intensification and new land in order to accommodate the 195,000 new homes we need over the next 25 years for our growing population. Importantly, it provides for a check-in after 5 years to ensure we’re on track.
Holding the urban boundary will compound increasing prices and ensure that we won’t build enough homes for everyone. Building new communities on a sustainable land supply supports affordability and choice.
The current Urban Boundary is just 13.1%
of the land in the City of Ottawa.
Building new communities
close to existing City services and
infrastructure makes sense.
It supports housing affordability and choice.
Planned Growth is Smart Growth
We need well planned growth centred on transit, jobs, community centres and schools, contributing their fair share to infrastructure and taxes. This is not sprawl, it is planned growth.
Growth that puts people and families close to transit, schools, work, recreation, shopping, and other services is smart growth.
Kanata, Stittsville, Barrhaven, Riverside South and Orleans already have City services and infrastructure in place – and have population densities on par with, and in some cases more than, areas in the urban core.
Click where you live in Ottawa to send a note to your City Councillor and committee to say that smart growth must include housing affordability & choice.
