MINUTES

PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE

REGIONAL MUNICIPALITY OF OTTAWA-CARLETON

CHAMPLAIN ROOM

25 JANUARY 2000

3:00 P.M.

PRESENT:

Chair: G. Hunter

Members: D. Beamish, M. Bellemare, B. Hill, J. Legendre, W. Stewart and
R. van den Ham

REGRETS: P. Hume and A. Munter

CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES

That the Planning and Environment Committee confirm the Minutes of the Meeting of 14 December 1999

CARRIED

 

REFERRAL

1. COMMUNITIES AND
ENVIRONMENTAL PRIORITY PLAN PROPOSAL

- Referred to Planning and Environment Committee by Council

at its meeting of 22 Dec 1999

- Planning and Environment Committee Co-ordinator’s report
dated 11 Jan 2000

Councillor van den Ham stated he did not have a problem with the first part of the motion, as he felt it was necessary to look at this in a comprehensive manner and identify priorities at both the City and neighbourhood levels. He said it was his understanding there were a number of initiatives underway by staff from the Region and the local municipalities (e.g. CAO, Treasurers, etc.) to ensure that the priorities of the lower tier governments do not "fall through the cracks".

With respect to the third "Be it Resolved" in the motion, (i.e. that a small amount of money and some staff time be provided to each Councillor to prepare a Community And Environmental Priority

Notes: 1. Underlining indicates a new or amended recommendation approved by Committee.

2. Reports requiring Council consideration will be presented to Council on 9 February 2000 in

Planning and Environment Committee Report Number 49.

 

Plan for each ward), the Councillor felt the purpose of the Councillors’ office budgets were to undertake things such as this. He also suggested it could be a part of the election process, for the candidates to identify communities’ priorities. He said if individual Councillors wanted to prepare community environment plans, then it should be their own initiative and no additional resources should be allocated to this. He stated he would not be supporting this portion of the motion.

Responding to questions from Committee Chair Hunter, Nick Tunnacliffe, Commissioner, Planning and Development Approvals noted the enabling legislation establishing the new City of Ottawa stated the Official Plans of the Region and the area municipalities would remain in effect until they are changed. He said the new City will have to go through the process of bringing them together into one plan and how this will be done has yet to be finalized.

Councillor Hill noted all of the local official plans are obliged to conform to the Regional Official Plan and stated therefore there should not be that great a difference. Mr. Tunnacliffe advised that some local municipalities have not yet brought their plans into conformity with the Region’s 1997 plan. As well, he pointed out there is a significant amount of overlap, so when the plans are brought together, the duplication will be stripped out making the plan simpler.

Chair Hunter noted as well, although the local official plans might be in conformity with the Regional Official Plan, the policies within the official plans could be significantly different from one another. He gave an example of the creation of new lots in the rural areas; one municipality might require they be five hectares and another might require ten or 25 hectares. The Chair also noted the differences would be magnified with respect to the zoning by-laws.

Responding to further questions from Councillor Hill, Mr. Tunnacliffe stated the Region has a well established consultation process. He said staff could not predict exactly how long the entire process would take but what staff will be proposing to the new Council is to move in stages; doing some things very quickly and other areas that require more consideration, proceeding slowly with.

Councillor Beamish expressed his opinion that it is really a matter for the new Council to decide how they want to proceed and said he could not see the value in doing this at this point. He opined there may be some value in doing the individual ward plans, however, he agreed with Councillor van den Ham that these should be done using the Councillors’ office budgets. Councillor Beamish indicated he definitely would not support the portion of the motion calling for additional funds and he did not believe he would be supporting the rest of the motion either.

Councillor Stewart expressed agreement with the points raised by Councillor Beamish and noted that staff from the Region and the various municipalities are already working closely to put together the twelve different administrations. She could not see what benefit would come out of a ward plan like this at this time, in the middle of an election campaign. She felt at best it would be redundant and at worst, a waste of time and money. Although the intent of the motion was good, it will be done in any event without additional costs. Councillor Stewart indicated she would not be supporting this motion.

Referring to the second "Be it resolved", Councillor Legendre asked if staff would, in any event, be providing Council with an assessment of the process to integrate the plans across the Region,. Mr. Tunnacliffe confirmed staff had already begun thinking about this, particularly from the point of view of the Official Plan, less so concerning the zoning (as the Region is not currently responsible for zoning).

Councillor Legendre then referred to the third "Be it resolved", and asked if staff had difficulty with this. Mr. Tunnacliffe stated there were two aspects of difficulty. He said he felt the Regional Plan did a pretty good job of setting out the urban structure and the overall direction in terms of the way the community must grow. He said where improvement is needed is at the community level and this will take some time because it requires a substantial amount of input from each community and direction from the Councillors who are going to be a part of that. He saw it as difficult to do this year as input from the new Council will be required. He said staff could establish a theoretical model of how it might be done, but this would require bringing the existing area municipalities on board, because it is really their responsibility right now. The Commissioner said the second difficulty is the notion of providing special monies to the Councillors and not doing it within a departmental budget.

Councillor Legendre stated in this year already, it is necessary to stop talking in terms of upper and lower tier municipalities. He said with the election coming up, it is the citizens that have to brought along to this process and he felt this motion was addressing the need to make the communities aware of this. He felt that clearly there would be nothing decided on this year that would hamstring the new Council.

The Councillor went on to say that he did not see this motion as outlandish or of no value, nor did he see it as a terribly onerous process. As well, he understood that the process would vary enormously from ward to ward and pointed out that Councillor Doucet’s ward would be one area that perhaps would require a more significant amount of work. Councillor Legendre indicated he was very supportive of the motion.

Councillor Legendre then asked legal staff, if the recommendation were to fail, in view of the fact that it has already been through Council, what would the effect would be.

Mr. Marc drew the Committee’s attention to page 6 of the agenda, noting that the motion had been accepted in principle by Council and was referred to the Planning and Environment Committee for consideration. He said, as Council had endorsed the broad principle that an examination be made at some level of how the plans might be consolidated, if the Committee were to defeat the motion entirely it would require a vote of three-quarters of the Committee. Mr. Marc offered his opinion that the first two active clauses of the motion were an integral part of the motion, and could not be defeated without defeating the intent of the motion. He said the last two portions were matters of detail that the Committee could accept or modify by majority vote.

Councillor Hill asked the Commissioner if there were projects the Department was working on that needed to be completed before the new City is formed. Mr. Tunnacliffe advised there were in fact hundreds of projects going on and he indicated the Committee would have a very full agenda over the next few months. Councillor Hill stated she would rather see staff finish matters that are currently "on their plate", before taking on something like this. She felt it was not necessary and she would be voting against it.

Responding to questions from Councillor van den Ham, Mr. Tunnacliffe noted planning staff from the Region and the area municipalities had already begun meeting to discuss how to proceed with the integration of the various Official Plans and would be meeting weekly. Councillor van den Ham stated he agreed some staff work should be done and he said it was very important that the items at top of the priority lists of the various area municipalities, do not get lost so that the new Council will have a record of what is important to those local areas. The Councillor asked that the motion be split with the first two action items and the last two, being voted on separately. He indicated he would be supporting the first portion, as he believed the spirit of the motion was contained in these.

The Committee then considered the first part of the motion.

That the Planning and Environment Committee consider the following Motion:

WHEREAS the year 2000 is the transition year to the new City of Ottawa and new types of planning will have to be undertaken to assist the new Council to identify priorities at both the city and the neighbourhood level,

BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff provide Council with an assessment of what would be a reasonable method of integrating the multi-layers of plans presently in force across the Region,

BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff provide an analysis of what Council will want to consider as the new city plan and the planning process required to get there.

CARRIED

    1. Beamish and B. Hill dissented)

Councillor Legendre then put forward an amended to the first, of the last two "Be it resolved", that would read "Be it resolved that as part of the preparation for the new city plan, staff in concert with the ward councillor, prepare a Communities and Environmental Priority Plan for each ward."

Referring to Councillor Legendre’s amendment, Councillor Stewart stated she felt it was premature. She said there was a real chance some of the Councillors would not be back and, if this planning were left until the new Council was in place, many of the new ward representatives would be bringing experience from the lower tier where this detailed planning has been done for many years. She said although this planning would have to be done, it should be done by the new Council very early in the term. She indicated she would not be supporting this amendment.

At Councillor Stewart’s request, Councillor Legendre clarified there would be no extra funds allocated for this; it would be staff time in concert with the ward Councillors. Councillor Stewart asked staff if they would be able to do this within their existing departmental budget, noting this would entail renting facilities in the communities to do extensive comprehensive community consultation in the next twelve months. Mr. Tunnacliffe advised there was no money provided, so if Committee and Council directed staff to do this, money would have to be taken from other things.

Moved by J. Legendre

That the motion be amended to read:

"Be it resolved that as part of the preparation for the new city plan, staff in concert with the ward councillor prepare a Communities and Environmental Priority Plan for each ward."

LOST

NAYS: D. Beamish, M. Bellemare, B. Hill, G. Hunter, W. Stewart, R. van den Ham….6

YEAS: J. Legendre….1

The Committee then considered the last two portions of the motion, as presented.

BE IT RESOLVED THAT as part of the preparation for the new city plan a small amount of money and some staff time be provided to each councillor to prepare a Communities and Environmental Priority Plan for each ward,

BE IT RESOLVED THAT these plans would identify on a ward by ward basis, through a process of community consultations what the various communities which comprise each ward regard as priority issues to be addressed in the new city plan and year 2001 budget process.

LOST

NAYS: D. Beamish, M. Bellemare, B. Hill, G. Hunter, W. Stewart, R. van den Ham….6

YEAS: J. Legendre….1

 

The Committee then considered the motion, as amended.

That the Planning and Environment Committee recommend that Council approve the following Motion:

WHEREAS the year 2000 is the transition year to the new City of Ottawa and new types of planning will have to be undertaken to assist the new Council to identify priorities at both the city and the neighbourhood level,

BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff provide Council with an assessment of what would be a reasonable method of integrating the multi-layers of plans presently in force across the Region,

BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff provide an analysis of what Council will want to consider as the new city plan and the planning process required to get there.

 

CARRIED as amended

    1. Beamish and B. Hill dissented)

 

ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES ITEM

2. RIVERCARE 2000

- Director, Water Environment Protection Division, Environment and
Transportation Department report dated 06 January 2000

That the Planning and Environment Committee recommend that Council endorse the proposed Rivercare 2000 Project.

 

PLANNING ITEM

3. CITY OF OTTAWA OFFICIAL PLAN AMENDMENT NO. 34 -
MUD LAKE

- Planning and Development Approvals Commissioner’s report
dated 7 Jan 2000

That the Planning and Environment Committee recommend that Council:

1. Lift Deferral No. 22 to the City of Ottawa Comprehensive Official Plan, and approve the designation of "Environmentally Sensitive Area" as described on the Approval Page attached as Annex I, and;

2. Approve Official Plan Amendment No. 34 to the City of Ottawa Official Plan as modified by the Approval Page attached as Annex II.

CARRIED

 

INQUIRIES

Councillor Legendre referred to a notice received concerning the possible exposure to lead in tailings in West Carleton. He asked for staff comment on this.

Mike Sheflin, Commissioner, Environment and Transportation Department advised that because of the nature of the material, it is not used on Regional road works. He said it was his understanding that wells in the immediate area would be tested but from a general Regional point of view, at this stage he did not see a problem.

Councillor Legendre asked, in terms of the environment, who would be responsible to monitor this situation.

Tim Marc, Manager, Planning and Environment Law, advised the Ministry of the Environment and the Medical Officer of Health, would have jurisdiction in this matter. He explained that only if the lead had made its way onto Regional property or Regional roads, would the Environment and Transportation Department have a role to play.

Councillor Legendre stated he was disappointed to know that the Environment and Transportation Department would not have a role to play in this matter.

 

Councillor van den Ham asked that staff provide Committee with an update on development in the rural areas. He said he understood there were a couple of studies that were to be initiated and he wanted to know the status of those initiatives, such as examining growth or potential growth in the rural villages. He asked that a report be brought forward to the Committee.

 

Councillor Legendre referred to a memorandum received regarding Trail Road Landfill and the gas utilization project. The Councillor had questions concerning the noise levels of the turbines used and whether or not these would be acceptable to the surrounding neighbours. Mr. Sheflin advised the nearest farmhouse to Trail Road is actually a substantial distance away. He noted as well, the turbines currently used in the plants are extremely noisy, while the new replacements have substantially lower noise factors.

The Councillor noted the memo stated that any excess power would be exported to the local utility at no charge. He felt this was a bad policy from a public policy point of view and provided no incentive to do this type of thing.

Jim Miller, Director, Engineering, noted the memo referred to by the Councillor set out a one year experiment with one supplier. He said the concept of getting a beneficial use of this resource is intended and staff will be following through with a proposal call to test the market, looking for a revenue for that energy.

Councillor Legendre stated he hoped this would be the case and noted in New York, during the energy crisis of the early 70’s, the state’s policy was to buy energy from private producers at the highest rate because they were in fact saving the Country from having to import oil.

Mr. Sheflin added the difficulty to date has been with the policies of Ontario Hydro. He noted Nepean Hydro had been very supportive all along, however, they have advised that they would pay less than the market rate. The Commissioner said unfortunately this location (Trail Road) must rely on the carrier, as it is not able to use 100% of the power as is the case at the Pickard Centre,.

Information Previously Distributed

1. Subdivisions - Central Park - Ashcroft Developments Inc.

- Acting Regional Solicitor’s memo dated 24 Dec 1999

 

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 3:40 p.m.

 

 

 

____________________________ ________________________

COMMITTEE COORDINATOR COMMITTEE CHAIR