The city of Ottawa is working on a deal with the National Capital Commission that would create a process to handle developments on federally owned properties.
City council approved a motion at its Feb. 11 meeting to have staff begin talks with the NCC on a framework agreement to create a criteria for identifying lands suitable for development and a unified approach on plans to build new affordable housing.
The pact would look to provide guidance on how the NCC and city can collaborate to “maximize co-benefits in addressing the need for affordable housing supply,” according to the motion.
The framework is also required to consider the protection of ecologically fragile lands, tree canopy targets for wards and the city and “development of complete 15-minute neighbourhoods.”
Coun. Glen Gower, who successfully moved the first iteration of motion earlier this month at the housing and planning committee, said it’s time that the NCC and the city move forward as partners.
“When it comes to housing it would be ridiculous if we keep acting in an adversarial mode with the NCC at the staff level [and] at the political level,” he said during the Feb. 4 committee meeting.
Coun. Laine Johnson, who sits on the committee, told Compass News that the goal of the framework is to provide more predictability to how the city and NCC cooperate on projects.
“This framework I think would get a lot more specific and a lot more predictable with the NCC in a more collaborative way on what they would expect on their land,” she said.
Under the motion, the framework would be submitted to the housing and planning committee.
The committee is also set to hold a meeting on March 25 on the the city’s partnership with Build Canada Homes, the new federal agency.
The city reached a deal with the agency in December for a joint $400 million investment to build up to 3,000 mixed-income and affordable housing units across the city, beginning in 2026.
Per that deal, 2,000 of those homes would be mixed-income and affordable units on federal lands. The deal would allow those projects to be sped up by reducing or waiving development charges, permit fees or property taxes.
Build Canada Homes will then deploy financing for another 1,000 affordable housing units from the city’s slate of housing projects.
