Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee

Minutes

Meeting #:

06

Date:

Thursday, September 07, 2023

Time:

10:00 A.m. - 11:00 A.m.

Location:

Ben Franklin Place, The Chamber, Main Floor, 101 Centrepointe Drive, and by electronic participation

Present:

• Chair George Darouze, 
• Vice-Chair Clarke Kelly, 
• Councillor David Brown, 
• Councillor Catherine Kitts, 
• and Councillor Matt Luloff 

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1.

Notices and meeting information for meeting participants and the public

Notices and meeting information are attached to the agenda and minutes, including: availability of simultaneous interpretation and accessibility accommodations; in camera meeting procedures; information items not subject to discussion; personal information disclaimer for correspondents and public speakers; notices regarding minutes; and remote participation details.

Accessible formats and communication supports are available, upon request.

Except where otherwise indicated, reports requiring Council consideration will be presented to Council on Wednesday, September 13, 2023 in Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee Report 6.

The deadline to register by phone to speak, or submit written comments or visual presentations is 4 pm on Wednesday, September 6, 2023, and the deadline to register by email to speak is 9:00 am on Thursday, September 7, 2023.

This is a public meeting to consider the proposed Comprehensive Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendments listed as Item 4.3 on today’s Agenda.

For the item just mentioned, only those who make oral submissions today or written submissions before the amendments are adopted may appeal the matter to the Ontario Land Tribunal. In addition, the applicant may appeal the matter to the Ontario Land Tribunal if Council does not adopt an amendment within 90 days of receipt of the application for a Zoning By-law Amendment and 120 days for an Official Plan Amendment.

To submit written comments on these amendments, prior to their consideration by City Council on September 13, 2023, please email or call the Committee or Council Coordinator.

2.

Declarations of Interest

No Declarations of Interest were filed.

3.

Confirmation of Minutes

3.1

ARAC Minutes 5 - Thursday, July 6, 2023 

• Carried

4.

Planning, Real Estate and Economic Development Department

4.1

Omnibus Official Plan Amendment 1

ACS2023-PRE-EDP-0043 -  City Wide

This report will be submitted to Planning and Housing Committee on September 6, 2023

Robin van de Lande, Planner III, Planning, Real Estate and Economic Development (PRED), and Ben Morin, II (PRED) were present to respond to questions.

Greg Winters, Novatech was present in support, and advised that they did not need to address the Committee if the item carried.

The Committee Carried the report recommendations as amended by the following:

• Report Recommendation(s)

  That the Planning and Housing Committee and the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee recommend Council:

  1. Approve and adopt Official Plan Amendment 5, a series of technical amendments to the Official Plan as presented in Documents 1 and 2; and
  2. Approve the updates to the Tree Protection By-law 2020-340, to extend protections to privately-owned trees on all lands located east of Watters Road that were approved by the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing in the Future Neighbourhood overlay.
  Carried as amended
• Motion No. ARAC 2023-06-01
  Moved by M. Luloff

  WHEREAS the Official Plan approved in 2022, included the Village of Greely Secondary Plan with an area-specific policy intending to permit severances for minimum lot sizes that are consistent with past severances on lots fronting on both Cedar Acres Drive and Stanmore Street; and

  WHEREAS the Village of Greely Secondary Plan, section 5: Area-Specific Polices, policy 1 reads, “In order to recognize local context, on lots with frontage on both Cedar Acres Drive and Stanmore Street, the City may permit new lots for residential purposes on private services. The new lots may not be less than 0.2 hectares in size, applications must demonstrate that adequate private services can be established and maintained in the long term and, that there is technical evidence that cumulative effects will not create an adverse effect to public health or the environment”; and

  WHEREAS prior to the 2022 Official Plan, with the exception of six lots, properties with the same frontage along Cedar Acres Drive and Stanmore Street were severed creating new lots with less than 0.2ha; and

  WHEREAS the remaining six lots are between 0.36 ha and 0.38 ha in size, requiring potential new lot creation through a consent to sever to be at least 0.18 ha in size.

  THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee recommend that Council approve an amendment to the Village of Greely Secondary Plan, Section 5, policy 1 by replacing “0.2 hectares” with “0.18 hectares” as the potential minimum permissible lot size to align with the other property sizes in the area.

  Carried
• Motion No. ARAC 2023-06-02
  Moved by D. Brown

  WHEREAS at the Planning Committee meeting of February 27, 2023, City Planning staff were directed to prepare a series of ‘omnibus’ reports relating to different amendment categories and

  WHEREAS since the February 27, 2023 Planning Committee meeting, staff have identified amendments, attached as Document 1 – Citywide and Urban Amendments and Document 2 – Rural Amendments

  THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that, with respect to report ACS2023-PIE-EDP-0015, City Council approve the amendments to Document 2 as set out in Annex 1 attached to this motion (held on file with the City Clerk).

  Carried

4.2

Rural Community-Building Grant Program – Quarter 3 Applications Review

ACS2023-PRE-EDP-0042 - Osgoode (20)

• Report recommendation(s)

  That the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee approve the recommendations on the Rural Community-Building Grants Program applications as detailed in Document 1. 

  Carried as amended
• Motion No. ARAC 2023-06-03
  Moved by D. Brown

  WHEREAS the Metcalfe Community Association was approved for funding in the amount of $8,955.00 under the 2023 Rural Community-Building Grant Program for a project to replace four village signs at main village entrances; and 

  WHEREAS a subcommittee of the Metcalfe Community Association (MCA), the Metcalfe Loops Committee of the MCA, submitted an application for the 2023 Rural Community-Building Grant Program in order to erect signage for their cycling network in the village of Metcalfe; and

  WHEREAS Paragraph 7: Reporting Requirements of the Contribution Agreement for the 2023 Rural Community-Building Grant Program states that the recipient shall be ineligible for any City funding, grant, or contribution if they do not submit the Cash Expenditures Claim Form and final report to the City in accordance with the terms and conditions of the agreement; and

  WHEREAS the prior approval given to the Metcalfe Community Association for the erection of heritage signs at the four main village entrances, which will be manufactured and installed by the City, has been slowed down due to delays in the process, meaning they have been unable to submit the necessary Cash Expenditures Claim Form or final report as of yet; and

  WHEREAS the Metcalfe Loops sub-committee application is unable to move forward until the prior project has been finalized as per the terms and conditions of the Contribution Agreement.

  THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT, notwithstanding Paragraph 7: Reporting Requirements under the Contribution Agreement for the 2023 Rural Community-Building Grant Program, the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee approve an exemption for the application for the Metcalfe Loops Committee of the MCA allowing for their application in the amount of $6,047.25 to be included within the 2023 Q3 funding envelope, provided that:

  1. All necessary documentation is provided to the Rural Affairs office following the completion of the work related to the prior application; and
  2. That all necessary documentation provided to the Rural Affairs office is accurate and to their satisfaction.
  Carried

4.3

Zoning By-law Amendment – 147 Langstaff Drive, anomaly lands

ACS2023-PRE-PS-0105 - West Carleton-March (5)

• Report Recommendation(s)

  1. That Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee recommend Council approve an amendment to Zoning By-law 2008-250 for part of 147 Langstaff Drive, as shown in Document 1, to permit a portion of a residential subdivision, as detailed in Document 2.
  2. That Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee approve the Consultation Details Section of this report be included as part of the ‘brief explanation’ in the Summary of Written and Oral Public Submissions, to be prepared by the Office of the City Clerk and submitted to Council in the report titled, “Summary of Oral and Written Public Submissions for Items Subject to the Planning Act ‘Explanation Requirements’ at the City Council Meeting of September 13, 2023,” subject to submissions received between the publication of this report and the time of Council’s decision.
  Carried

5.

In Camera Items

There were no in camera items.

6.

Open Mic Session

6.1

Ken Holmes - Rural Transportation Solutions

6.2

Grace Thrasher and Bruce Fanjoy - Trucks in South Ottawa

Grace Thrasher and Bruce Fanjoy (Manotick Village & Community Association) provided a slide presentation to Committee and answered questions. A copy of the slide presentation is on file with the City Clerk.

7.

Notices of Motions (For Consideration at Subsequent Meeting)

There were no Notices of Motion.

8.

Inquiries

8.1

Councillor D. Brown - ARAC-2023-02

• Given that Transit staff are currently undergoing a route review to optimize Ottawa’s transit system, would staff in Transit Services or Legal Services be able to provide information for the following questions:

  1. Through the route review, can staff advise as to whether private services can be leveraged to offer expanded transit options within the rural area where OC Transpo is currently operating or where no OC Transpo Service exists?
  2. Can Staff advise as to what provincial legislation or municipal by-laws would need to be amended to permit private services to operate within the City of Ottawa to offer parallel service, or to replace OC Transpo as the primary service provider throughout rural Ottawa to better reflect the realities of living in a rural area?

8.2

Councillor D. Brown - ARAC-2023-03

• Over the past several months, residents, landowners, applicants and their representatives have been contacting my office and the office of my colleagues inquiring about the status of their applications that are working through the legal department within the City.

  Residents have spoken about applications taking months to work through the City’s legal department or external legal counsel that has been retained by applicants who have indicated that what used to take the City a matter of weeks, is now taking close to a year to process.

  Residents have shared stories about losing sales of properties due to the delays caused by the City of Ottawa and a lack of communication about progress being made on individual files being shared by staff.
  The situation has become so concerning that 11 legal firms circulated a letter to the Mayor, members of ARAC and Senior Staff outlining their concerns.

  Therefore can staff respond to the questions below.

  1. What is causing the backlog?
  2. How many files from infrastructure agreements, development applications, rural severances and other cases that require oversight by the municipality are backlogged?
  3. How long does it take for these files to work their way through the Legal standard process prior to the pandemic vs. now).
  4. How many agreements are generated through the Legal Department per week?
  5. Can the City send some of these applications to external firms to expedite the processing of the backlogged files.
  6. How does the Legal department determine which external law firms can assist with these types of backlogs?
  7. Can staff outline the selection processed used to retain an external law firm
  8. What is the cost of retaining an external firm?
  9. How are the costs recovered?
  10. Do staff require the intervention of Committee or Council to improve the situation?

9.

Other Business

There was no other business.

10.

Adjournment

Thursday, October 5, 2023.

The meeting adjourned at 10:58 am.