On December 12, 2020 some 40 + people convened by the People's Official Plan identified policy priorities for their neighbourhoods, based on the City's "transects", that is, planning areas (downtown core, inner urban, outer urban, suburban and rural). Following are the top three priorities from each sub-group. Downtown core transect Breakout room #1 1. Create and target more predominantly pedestrian and cycling streets instead of car heavy streets. 2. Proper planning of green spaces and year-round public gathering spaces. Strict neighbourhood level targets for tree canopies that are properly resourced with adequate enforcement when a development occurs. 3. Retrofitting older homes to have them become more energy efficient and converting existing buildings to accommodate more multi-unit housing. Breakout room #2 Densification in core for families - re-evaluations of office space needs - convert to larger family dwellings. Having retail spaces on street level. Encourage people to live in downtown core rather than suburbs. 30% should be affordable housing for families. No empty buildings. 2. Using abandoned/out of use railway lines for multi-use passageways to connect rural and urban areas. 3. Building context specific in terms of height and setback for greenspace. Allow for greenspace all along the buildings and in balconies. Ex. 2.5-3 story buildings most appropriate in most contexts. Inner urban transect Breakout group #1 1. Enhance the urban canopy and greenspace on a neighbourhood basis: this must be done at a minimum to meet the 40% canopy target set out in the OP. It is also a necessity for healthy neighbourhoods and to mitigate negative climate change effects. This should involve residents in identifying spaces where more planting could take place. Explore planting fruit and nut trees and change the bylaw if necessary. Also choose an opt out policy for replanting trees on streetscapes. 2. The city must provide a seat for Indigenous representation as a right. 3. Focus on the integrity of 15-minute neighbourhoods. Make sure local voices are heard through Community Plans. This can help ensure that conditions are in place for small businesses to succeed, that food stores find a place in food deserts, that provision is made for community gardens and rooftop gardens and that front yard and backyard gardens are encouraged. Breakout group #2 1. Need for energy requirements as part of the development process. 2. Need for a wide range of non-profit and affordable housing in an environmentally friendly way that contributes to walkable communities. 3. Need policies to strongly support more ambitious targets for “missing middle” / “gentle density” housing (i.e., housing that matches neighbourhood character while enhancing density) city-wide. Breakout group #3 1. Prioritize development around neighbourhoods and communities. -particularly diversity of households. -greenspace in proportion to population 2. Facilitate the rapid transformation away from car-centric lifestyles to fewer cars (and those that remain to be electric) 3. Having an overarching plan for Tree planting including recommendations for species and locations. Tree protection during snow management. Ensuring new large canopy urban trees are planted to thrive. Breakout group #4 1. Plan for impact of transformation: e.g. reduce traffic by free shuttles to parks and beaches, free weekend buses everywhere, ensure that neighbourhoods are protected and respected 2. Neighbourhood tree canopy targets and tighten the language around trees and parks (requirement, not aspiration), with strong metrics (e.g. 40% by 2030, but progressive annual targets) 3. Support for diverse mix of condos and apartments that allow for families, singles with visitors’ rooms, couples, plus office spaces for work-at-home -- ensure inclusivity -- include immigrants Breakout group #5 1. Commitment to 15-minute neighbourhood concepts in all other master plans (food production/EV/active transportation/decentralized waste/building standards/retrofitting/allowing coops, etc. 2. Because everything in the plan needs to be read together, it means we need to monitor key metrics (energy units, etc.) 3. Be more precise in definitions and stronger language supporting key goals (15 minutes, transect, wetland protection (floodplain), zoning bylaw powers, transect) Suburban transect Breakout group #1 Enforce requirements for safe, continuous, uninterrupted walking/biking infrastructure for active connectivity within and between new residential development. “Safe” here implies separated from vehicles by physical barriers. Actively enforce criteria for requiring a fixed percentage of new neighborhood development to be set aside for mixed-use, non-residential development (eg. greenspaces, playgrounds, community spaces, athletic fields, stores and services). Criteria must be referenced to reducing car travel, 15-minute city. Facilitate active citizen input into local planning, and make development contingent upon citizen input. Create online dashboards for accountability/citizen input into city planning at the local level. Set regular deadlines for city planning accountability reports at local level, referenced to aggregated city targets. This needs to be on-the-ground engagement at the project level--not at the broader, abstract policy level which also needs attention but is distinct. Breakout group #2 Expand housing and amenities for homeless and marginalized groups beyond the downtown area. Details on proportion of affordable units in new developments Design agreements between the city and developers on must-have amenities within and outside the home This should include the protection of our suburban tree canopy Less unnecessary restrictive bylaws. Enable households to: Hang laundry Grow gardens 3. Develop neighbourhood-level plans that include analysis of resiliency towards health and safety (i.e. pandemic preparedness, biodiversity protection, and air quality) Outer Urban transect Breakout room #1 1. Right now, hubs are large shopping centres. Hub that wants to be more... A complete hub, that meets the requirement of 15 min neighborhoods. Lots of services to bring people, roof top gardens for food security, etc. with access using a child’s lens. Services close enough together to be walkable in winter, but close to accessible paths, the LRT. Make it a destination, with a park at centre, some restaurants. Add some residences to and through hubs too. If this can be done through retrofitting existing buildings, great! Perhaps unused office buildings. 2. Planning should be more holistic, not piecemeal. Trying to have a vision then find the way to meet that vision. Now, no way to go from shop to shop inside, very car centric. City should buy back, or city purchases land, like Calgary. Not remain owner forever but to start the process. Would allow the city to do better. 3. 40% tree canopy should be per neighborhood rather than across the city. It will encourage people to walk more. Breakout room #2 1. HOW TO RE- DEVELOP NEIGHBOURHOOD? THIS IS CRITICAL. How to retrofit neighbourhoods – need to think about essential developments (grocery, employment), heritage considerations (mid-century) and bike and walking paths all at the same time. Mid-century heritage overlay - protect. Flex in walking distance. Distance young and old can walk in 15 minutes is different, hard rule of 400 meters need flex. Building height - instead of one super tall building at one intersection several of medium (8-12 stories). Mix of housing… not everyone wants the same type of big 3-bedroom house. Will inclusionary zoning be used now and what does this mean and how would it bring everything together? Why bother when the city pays no attention to zoning? 2. PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT TO MOBILIZE POPULATION TO SUPPORT TRANSITION AND CHANGES IN NEIGHBOURHOODS Massive education and communications campaign is needed to explain what is meant and comfortable with ideas. Groups like today are converted people. How to engage those who aren’t supportive or involved? Need massive support and engagement. Opportunities to build engagement through high schools and universities and other education. City has to invest in consultation and education early in the development of the plan and throughout the planning process. Generate enthusiasm to build a liveable city and what is possible (why can’t we be like Vienna or Santa Fe?) 3. Indigenous voice on council - Can there be an indigenous counselor on council? Not for a ward but for the whole community. Anglican Church does this. Need indigenous perspective in planning not just tokenism. Rural transect Breakout room #1 The current draft has No rural voice, weaker regulation in rural area, and few opportunities for interaction between rural urban areas No rural perspective 3. No support for small agriculture, holdings

Prepared by the People’s Official Plan for Ottawa’s Climate Emergency Municipal governments in Canada are empowered to promote cleaner, safer, and healthier economies and enhance employment and new careers through a wide range and mix of policy measures. The new Official Plan for the City of Ottawa provides an opportunity to innovate in this role while at the same time responding in a meaningful way to the climate emergency. We are well-placed to take this path. Ottawa is located at the confluence of three great rivers and connects to many human and natural resources that make up the region (Ottawa Valley, eastern Ontario, western Quebec). Rural Ottawa is 80% of the city’s landmass, and a potential engine for generating and sharing the benefits of green innovation in our economy. Working together across urban, peri-urban and rural parts of the city and with the greater Ottawa-Gatineau region offers significant economic opportunities for all and is our best option to avoid the worst consequences of global heating and ecological breakdown. At a City of Ottawa Committee meeting August 22, 2019 City staff presented draft Policy Directions for the Official Plan that include economic development for the first time in its history. How can this draft be improved? First, balance a global orientation for economic development with a strong regional economy . This means attention to building local and regional linkages in supply and demand chains for food, energy, building materials and recreation and tourism. Local and regional linkages in economic activity multiply the economic and employment gains of everyday expenditures related to meeting basic human needs. A greater degree of self-provision and autonomy also provide a kind of insurance in the face of disruptions to economic networks, whether these be due to the climate crisis or unstable global economic forces. Second, plan for the carbon economy . Nationally and globally, pricing carbon is a key policy instrument in the fight against climate change, and an economic driver. The Official Plan can do more to protect public lands that provide critical ecosystem services and help owners of private lands host desirable land uses. As all Ottawa residents benefit from ecosystem services, tax breaks and payment for services from rural forest fragments and wetlands is consistent with the benefit principle of public finance (beneficiaries pay). Creating opportunities for ‘carbon farming’ is also a potential economic driver. Cover crops, windbreaks/shelterbelts, reduced tillage, mulching and compost application, and other reliable but underused farming practices on commercial farms and in household and community gardens are among many ways to farm carbon at a scale that can make a difference. Below-ground biomass in the form of unsealed soils with high levels of organic matter are even bigger carbon sinks than than the trees above. Supporting ecosystem services and carbon farming offers ‘double insurance value’ by providing both long and short term benefits from richer, more productive land that boost farm economies, improves resistance to drought and flooding, locates more food production closer to points of consumption, and allows rural populations to position themselves as innovative, forward-looking climate leaders. Third, leverage the abundant health, economic, and environmental benefits of food producing communities by adopting a strong food focus in the Official Plan . That means allowing for agriculture in all zoning throughout our city, not just in Rural Employment Areas that cluster agriculture with mining of aggregates, transport, construction and storage. Young people are interested in growing food and can do so on small parcels of land in urban and rural areas. Small and medium-sized food businesses can be integrated in the Official Plan through the distribution across the city of space for food manufacturing, warehousing and distribution and integrating more nut and fruit-bearing trees into the urban forest canopy. Demand currently outstrips Ottawa’s supply of products from apiaries, greenhouses, market gardens, poultry eggs, locally adapted seed, and other food products. The new sustainable agriculture goals in the NCC Greenbelt Master Plan, and its special focus on food for people, offer support for and direction for Ottawa to become an edible landscape and world-class culinary, farm-to-table destination. We can Savour Ottawa/Savourez Ottawa within a region rich in nature-based tourism and recreational opportunities, diverse cultural communities, and village and urban historic sites. Fourth, the transition to a vibrant and innovative low-carbon economy requires greater energy efficiency and more local and regional energy generation . The 2015 Energy Evolution Baseline Study found that only 17% of energy dollars spent by Ottawa residents, businesses, and institutions remained within the local economy, and only 5% of the energy consumed during 2015 was produced within the city’s boundaries. The development of a local, decentralized energy grid in Ottawa, aligned with city-wide efforts in comprehensive energy efficiency, could keep more of that economic activity in the regional economy, and boost energy self-reliance. This will require a regional orientation and high degree of cooperation with other municipalities and the provincial government. To achieve it’s potential, the City could also use the Official Plan to reduce barriers for new players in renewable energy production. Energy efficiency also offers enormous economic gains. The sector already employs 436,000 Canadians, more than twice the total in oil and gas. Building and retrofitting existing buildings to a Passivhaus standard would create local jobs and deliver dramatic health, environmental and equity benefits. Fifth, plan for Nature-based Tourism and Recreation locally and regionally. Tourism and recreation are already mainstays of the Ottawa economy. It has many cultural attractions and year-round recreational opportunities including being one of the best places in the world to do white-water rafting and cross-country skiing. Hiking, biking, birding, sailing and swimming are ubiquitous and oft cited reasons why people choose to settle in Ottawa. A regional orientation to the further development of nature-based tourism and recreation offer a significant opportunity to support a cleaner, safer and healthier economy that also integrates rural and village Ottawa into the mix. A policy framework for land use in Ottawa could support a regional orientation to nature-based tourism and recreation that accomplishes two goals: 1. Within Ottawa, attract local residents beyond the Greenbelt - connect suburban/urban to rural areas with nature and recreation corridors, possibly using the hydro corridors to create a web of multi-use trails. 2. Globally, attract external visitors to experience a city and a region with high quality nature-based tourism and recreation. Some physical assets not yet fully appreciated include: ● Rural west - Fitzroy Provincial Park, Morris Island Conservation Area, sailing clubs, Carp Hills, South March Highlands (mountain biking), Greenbelt ● Suburban west - Carp River Living Classroom (3 km of trails by restored section of Carp River in Kanata). ● Rural south - Marlborough Forest, Rideau River, RVCA conservation areas, Greenbelt ● Rural east - Petrie Island, Mer Bleue, SNC conservation areas, Greenbelt ● Region - Gatineau Park, Ottawa River, Larose Forest, Rural villages can support these destinations by providing a place to begin and end outdoor recreation, with restaurants/food vendors, accommodation, equipment rentals, and guides/education). For example, the Village of Carp provides cycling, hiking, cross-country skiing, boating, and is located on the north-south flight path of migratory birds. Wellness businesses in the village also connect people to natural areas - spas, eco-wellness, forest bathing, spiritual renewal. Educational opportunities also support business including eco-camps for kids and guided walks/tours that include a visit to a vineyard or spa. First Nations are also located nearby in the Ottawa valley and in Western Quebec where heritage, education, spiritual experiences can also support tourism and recreational business up and down the Ottawa River and its tributaries. Finally, the Official Plan needs to rethink how planning decisions are implemented through the City’s various plans, programs and budgets, and the need for mainstreaming mitigation and adaptation into these processes. Making the most of local, regional and global economic opportunities from well-planned land use requires a new culture of decision-making across municipal departments and sectors and between local and higher levels of governance. Linkages and synergy at all levels is the key to a cleaner, safer and healthier economy and a caring and creative city at the confluence of three great rivers.