15-minute neighbourhoods are…
- Complete: A variety of options for places to live and places to go. Shops, services, infrastructure, parks and recreation that meet the needs of residents. Sufficient density and housing options (variety of unit sizes, tenures, price points) to sustain neighbourhood services and amenities and to promote inclusion and social connections.
- Walkable: Delightful, engaging, safe, year round walking routes and cycling/rolling pathways.
- Attractive, safe, healthy and green: Tree-lined streets, new homes that compliment our streets, beautiful parks, less paving and more seating.
- Thriving, equitable and diverse: Peoples of all ages and incomes living life to the fullest. Businesses and workplaces animating walkable shopping streets. Run-down buildings are replaced or renewed
- Sustainable: Environmental, financial and socially responsible priorities that guide neighbourhood planning and regulations.
The “How-To” of 15-Minute Neighbourhoods
15-Minute Neighbourhoods rely on a healthy ecosystem of interdependent elements: small shops that require population density to thrive; greenspace, parks and recreation to support health; walkability; and useful destinations.
Ottawa needs to commit to a new definition of a 15-Minute Walkable Neighbourhood: a neighbourhood in which residents can conveniently and safely walk year-round to at least 80% of their weekly destinations and to a frequent transit stop, along routes that are enjoyable. Many areas that the City has identified as being 15-minute neighbourhoods in their Baseline Report (2021) do not meet this definition as they lack access to services, amenities, and quality pedestrian environments. These features are crucial to the implementation of 15 minute neighbourhoods because Ottawa will not be able to reduce car dependency and adopt active transit until our neighbourhoods are complete and our walks are enjoyable.
Where in Ottawa can Walkable Communities Thrive?
Ottawa must identify areas for future transition to walkability - areas well-served by transit with ideal locations for Small Commercial Veins, and not sliced up by wide high-traffic roads. In the next 10 years, these areas should receive the initial infrastructure and ground-work for walkability including street tree planting in all available locations, zoning, and sidewalks along future Small Commercial Veins.
At a neighbourhood scale, Ottawa must collaborate with stakeholders to identify and map key residential development patterns and future Small Commercial Veins. This will provide a simple but meaningful structure for our transitioning neighbourhoods, as well as for our ongoing collaboration.
Complete Neighbourhoods
The City must invest in Complete Neighbourhood Projects to ensure that all neighbourhoods are equipped with walking and biking infrastructure, underground infrastructure (i.e., utilities), parks, as well as social and recreational amenities. These resources must be scaled and upgraded to match the planned population increase (i.e. number of people needed to populate shops, support recreation amenities, etc). Commitment to timelines and budgets must match neighbourhood density increases.
Complete streets are necessary for Small Commercial Veins and are a precondition to attracting shops and offices. Transitional all-season sidewalks must be installed on one side of most neighbourhood streets that do not yet have sidewalks. These transitional sidewalks must be replaced with permanent sidewalks.
All new zoning must generate desired development patterns including simplicity, variety of infill design, sidewalk animation, and greenspace. Ottawa’s tree canopy must be expanded by incentivizing tree planting and preservation during redevelopment and around buildings. Zoning must expand opportunities for infill housing, small shops, and offices that prioritize animation, walkability, and sustainability. Infill must also be sensitive to scale and proportion. Upgrades to infrastructure and recreational facilities must be scheduled such that transitioning communities embrace change with confidence and acceptance. There is not one single solution that will bring us to walkable and complete neighbourhoods - a muti-faceted approach is necessary.
Gentle Density
New residential zoning in neighbourhoods should:
- regulate setbacks and height (low-rise),
- animate street frontages with windows, doors, porches and people spaces,
- provide incentives for tree protection and require root space for new trees,
- permit transitional parking,
- prohibit bunk houses and allow dwelling unit numbers and sizes to be designed in response to market demand.
This will grow neighbourhood diversity, meet housing needs, and generate the gentle density needed to achieve the number of people needed to populate shops.
Most older neighbourhood streets have fallen in density, with the average number of persons per household decreasing from 4.3 in 1941 to 2.4 in 2021 (StatsCan, 2024; StatsCan, 2023) They will need to nearly double in density to return to original population levels. This increase would support a transition to walkability.
In addition, there is not enough projected population growth in Ottawa to achieve the population density needed to attract and support small shops and offices within walking distances from homes. Intensification must be directed to existing neighbourhoods that are not yet complete in order to attract small shops and justify investments in parks and other public amenities. A complete community is what is needed to trigger a modal shift to greater walkability. Adding population to neighbourhoods that are already very walkable results in those new residents moving in to be able to walk or bike/roll - but delays or denies the same possibility for all residents in neighbourhoods that will continue to lack the population to support it.
Shops, Offices & Educational Facilities
New zoning for Small Commercial Veins must regulate setbacks, set maximum building heights at least a half storey above nearby residential streets and require ground floors to be at the level of the sidewalk. Residential, commercial and reasonable office use that promotes animated street fronts must be permitted on ground and second floors. New car-centric infrastructure should be prohibited because they prioritize car travel, large parking lots and deter walkability. Promoting walkable residential developments while permitting commercial, office and educational developments that are ideal for drivers will undermine the progress of walkable neighbourhoods. Preventing the development of new car-centric establishments will support Small Commercial Veins to transition to biome shopping destinations as neighbourhoods achieve the number of people needed to populate small shops.
Fees and development application requirements need to facilitate supply that matches demand for a variety of housing sizes and types, including housing for aging in place, households of various sizes and incomes, multi-generational homes and others. Financial incentives can and should promote walkable development.
Transitional Parking
Transitional parking, including short driveway parking, street permit parking, and temporary surface parking lots are necessary for neighbourhoods to support a transition to walkability. Once neighbourhoods become walkable, these parking solutions can be removed or reduced. Transitional parking solutions are necessary to reach the number of people needed to populate shops. When cars are necessary for most or all of your daily needs, housing requires parking. Builders will not build housing without parking because people will not buy or rent without parking if the city is car centric. If all new residents need dedicated parking onsite, our communities would have to be paved over and treeless to accommodate this, whereas transitional parking lots can be repurposed as greenspaces once they are no longer required.
Definitions:
Car-centric developments: Developments that depend on the majority of residents, shoppers or office workers to arrive by car, and are designed primarily to facilitate that mode of arrival such that arrival of active transportation is uncomfortable and inconvenient.
Complete Neighbourhood Projects: Projects required to complete a neighbourhood with the physical and social infrastructure in proportion to population density including; parks, servicing, sidewalks, paths, recreation centres, social services, schools, trees, benches and public toilets.
Complete street: A treed street with separate paved lanes for pedestrian, bike and vehicular traffic. According to Complete Streets for Canada, they are designed for the safety of all users, regardless of age, ability, income, race, ethnicity or mode of travel.
Ecosystem approach: As defined by the United Nations University (2003), an ecosystem approach to urban management aims to manage over multiple scales (geographic and temporal), integrate natural and social components, adapt and deal effectively with uncertainty, create flexible institutions for management, visualize and identify planning problems with appropriate tools and methods and work to identify trade-offs and synergies in undertaking interventions. Our use of this approach aligns with the understandings of Sir Patrick Geddies of cities through the interrelationships of their parts.
Gentle density: Infill housing in small multi-unit buildings that fit into existing single-family streetscapes, enhance valued neighbourhood characteristics, attract a diversity of residents and are not designed around car ownership.
Small Commercial Vein: A street zoned to allow its transition into a walkable shopping destination.
Transitional parking: Parking provided to accommodate the needs of residents, commercial or office space users within a neighbourhood that has not yet transitioned to be walkable. This parking ‘times-out’ when walkability is achieved.
15-Minute Walkable Neighbourhood: A neighbourhood in which residents can conveniently and safely walk or roll year-round to at least 80% of their weekly destinations and to a frequent transit stop, along routes that are enjoyable.
Walk-to-Shop Zoning: Regulations that permit the densities needed to sustain small shops which are great destinations, located along busy walking routes and on the way to transit. These regulations should also couple small shops with small offices and service providers to generate foot traffic and clientele through the workday.
Zoning By-law Revision Process
All information related to the coming of the new Zoning By-Law is accessible on the City of Ottawa’s Engage Ottawa - New Zoning By-Law webpage.