By Mark Buckshon
Ontario Construction News staff writer
The City of Ottawa says it is hoping to find ways to speed up the approval process for new housing developments in the city.
On Jan. 29, city council approved a new task force that will look at ways to streamline the process and cut down on red tape.
The task force is being asked to look at a number of potential solutions, including:
- Enhancing the role of Build Ottawa in housing innovation
- Accelerating disposal of city land for innovative housing models
- Discounting long-term leases on city-owned lands
- Exploring the viability of lease-to-own models for attainable housing, vendor take-back mortgages, issuance of bonds and other potential financial tools for developments on city land
- Streamlining the urban design review process
- Accelerating development approvals
- Using new technologies to speed up Building Code reviews
- Fast-tracking non-profit affordable housing projects and pre-zoning city land for affordable housing
- Speeding up development approvals for federal surplus lands in the Canada Public Land Bank or lands close to existing servicing that could be developed quickly
- Creating a program for deferring development charges
- Encouraging innovation around Transit Oriented Development (TOD)
- Working with other levels of government to replace growth revenue
The task force is expected to report back to the city’s planning and housing committee and the finance and corporate services committee later this year.
In the meantime, the city has also approved a new public-facing dashboard that will show the average time it takes to get a building application approved, the number of approvals so far this year, and the number of homes being built in Ottawa.