Joint Meeting of Planning Committee and Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee

WHEREAS the City of Ottawa is recognized as a strong location in the international marketplace as a growing hub for goods movement facilities; and WHEREAS the prime location for these sites is adjacent Highway 400 series interchanges; and WHEREAS the majority of lands adjacent Highway 400 series interchanges within the urban area are owned and controlled by the National Capital Commission (NCC); and WHEREAS Staff have recommended the Approval of lands identified in Appendix E, representing land clusters of 20 net hectares, as new Rural Industrial, Freight and Storage lands and direct staff to insert this Appendix into the draft Official Plan for technical circulation purposes; and WHEREAS the Owners of the subject lands have completed an Agricultural Impact Assessment which shows the lands have a LEAR score well below the 125 Threshold value; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Joint Planning Committee and Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee recommend to Council direct staff to evaluate the new LEAR information and consider the validity of the submission and report to Council by June on whether the City can add an additional 34 gross ha as new Rural Industrial Freight and Storage on lands at the south west quadrant of the Hwy 416 / Fallowfield interchange, as shown on attached Schedule A.

WHEREAS Recommendation 3 of staff report ACS2021-PIE-EDP-001 identifies a cluster of land shown as South March (175.35 net hectares) as a potential area to be identified for urban expansion, depending on the results of further analysis and study; and WHEREAS this is a challenging area to develop due to the exclusive reliance on March Road, the adjacent country residential subdivisions and the proximity to the South March Highlands, so much so that Council has previously rejected expansions into this area, only to have been overruled by the Ontario Municipal Board; and WHEREAS the lands identified are difficult and expensive to service due to the bedrock conditions and the potential impact on the five adjacent country residential subdivisions; and WHEREAS further expansion in this area towards Dunrobin and the South March Highlands may stir speculative land investment for future investment, which is also contrary to the City’s intent to prevent encroachment on villages; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Joint Planning and Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee recommend that Council approve that the South March land cluster identified in Recommendation 3 be removed and that the land supply (175.35 net hectares) be added to the new community option in Recommendation 5 of the staff report, as amended.

WHEREAS in 2017, at the start of the Official Plan process, City Council directed staff to develop this Official Plan with the intention of completing communities and planning for a new community to accommodate the City’s growth in an environmentally and financially sustainable manner; and WHEREAS, in May 2020, Council adopted a blended methodology for determining new lands to come into the Urban Boundary in this OP, updating the scoring methodology currently used based on a set of criteria used to rate parcels or cohesive blocks of land, consistent with the Provincial Policy Statement and validating the choice of new lands against the Five Big Moves; and WHEREAS City Council is committed to reconciliation with local Indigenous communities and recognizes the importance of working with the Algonquins of Ontario as a meaningful opportunity towards achieving that goal; and WHEREAS in February 2018, City Council approved a formal commitment to the Truth and Reconciliation action plan that includes supporting opportunities to weave Indigenous communities into the socioeconomic fabric of Ottawa in an environmentally sustainable way; and THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Joint Planning Committee and Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee recommend that Council approve that Recommendation 5 of the staff report be amended to read as follows: ‘Direct staff that the remaining 445.35 ha be added into the Urban Boundary on the lands identified as Tewin, and that staff focus on the creati