{"id":56571,"date":"2021-08-16T16:21:24","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T20:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=56571"},"modified":"2021-08-16T16:23:42","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T20:23:42","slug":"citys-new-official-plan-may-not-be-doing-enough-for-climate-change-community-groups-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/citys-new-official-plan-may-not-be-doing-enough-for-climate-change-community-groups-say\/","title":{"rendered":"City’s new official plan may not be doing enough for climate change, says community group"},"content":{"rendered":"

This September, Ottawa will present the new official plan at city hall for final consideration, but there has been pushback from the community on whether or not it has prepared for the rapidly changing climate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the UN released a report on climate change, which the UN chief said is a \u201ccode red for humanity.\u201d The report said that if by 2030 global emissions are cut in half and net zero is reached by mid century, the global community may still be able to halt warming, and possibly even reverse temperatures.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was clear in it\u2019s message; however, that there is not a second to waste towards this effort.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cities play a major role in cutting carbon emissions. Ottawa's new official plan, which is a document that lays out how the city will grow over the next 25 years, was first released in November. But an unprecedented, disapproving response from the community has resulted in the city releasing revised chapters of the plan over the summer months.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they brought forward their new official plan, they said this is a blanched plan,\u201d said Paul Johanis, the chair of the Greenspace Alliance of Canada\u2019s Capital, a non-profit organization that works with other community groups to preserve natural green space in Ottawa and Gatineau.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s not the time now for balanced approaches. It\u2019s the time for unprecedented and dramatic approaches, it can\u2019t be business as usual.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ottawa declared a climate emergency in 2019, and launched the Ottawa Climate Action Fund<\/a> earlier this year, which is working to eliminate green house gases by 2040.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a plan that Johanis says is ambitious and won\u2019t work unless there are fundamental decisions acted on quickly through the city.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The city plans on moving towards 60 per cent of it\u2019s development being done through infill, which means existing homes will be replaced in neighbourhoods. If this is done properly with intensification in mind, which means building more units on existing properties to avoid urban sprawl, Johanis might be hopeful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But he also believes that an integral part of city planning is accounting for greenspace.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGreenspace not only helps to mitigate the climate change, but it helps to adapt to climate change,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The revised plan looks at intensification through building in hubs and corridors, such as major intersections and transit stops, and less in existing neighbourhoods. The fear with this kind of development is that concrete jungles will form, Johanis said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt does make it denser, but we don\u2019t think it\u2019s a sustainable way of producing intensification, and we think it will actually destroy neighbourhoods,\u201d he explained. \u201cYou\u2019re creating kind of remnants of neighbourhoods here and there. It\u2019s really not an organic way of developing a community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Johanis thinks that for city hall to respond differently to urban development, residents will have to become increasingly vocal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not owning up to the reality of the current situation,\u201d he said. \u201cIt would require a huge push from residents, saying you need to move faster on this and reconsider decisions you made.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You can read the city\u2019s revised official plan<\/a> at the city of Ottawa website.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Listen to the story below to hear more about how climate change is impacted by urban development:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This September, Ottawa will present the new official plan at city hall for final consideration, but there has been pushback from the community on whether or not it has prepared for the rapidly changing climate.\u00a0 Earlier this week, the UN released a report on climate change, which the UN chief said is a \u201ccode red…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":56572,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,222,225],"tags":[3383,1201,8791,2503],"radio":[1290],"origine":[267,269,1571],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56571"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56571"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=56571"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=56571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}