Residential Intensification In Ottawa
One of the key directions of the City of Ottawa Official Plan (2003 OP) is to “grow in, not out.” This translates into policies that establish a firm urban boundary, direct more new development to key areas in the city that are served with existing infrastructure, and prescribe higher densities and transit-supportive design for suburban development. This is generally described as an “intensification” approach.
What is intensification?
Intensification means increasing the density of urban development. There are several ways to achieve intensification. Intensification can be an increase per unit of land area (e.g. hectare) in the number of people, buildings, jobs, commerce or any other urban function including recreational space. There is a growing awareness of urban form and design as being among the most important elements to integrate infill or more intensive development into an existing context, and achieve denser, well-designed, pedestrian-scaled development.
Intensification happens naturally in growing cities, as more people and functions seek to congregate close to one another and mutually support each other. A municipality can promote, encourage or provide incentives to intensification in cases where it wishes to jump start, facilitate or accelerate the process at selected locations or, more generally, as part of an overall growth management strategy that seeks to maximize the use of public investment in infrastructure and people services.
The following illustrated examples show various forms of intensification.Illustrated examples
| Infill | |
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Creation of a development lot This pair of semi-detached homes was built on the back portion of a through lot that had its main frontage, and its original building, on the parallel street opposite the frontage seen here. Prior to the creation of this infill parcel, the land was part of an oversized backyard. Over the years, the yard became unkempt until the property changed hands, and the infill opportunity was created. |
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Development on a consolidated number of small lots The original Centretown lot fabric consisted of a succession of small lots with narrow homes. Successive demolitions led to the creation of two larger lots that served as surface parking, until the two condominium apartment buildings seen in this picture were constructed in 2001. The two new buildings restore a continuous street wall, infilling the void created by the parking lots. |
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Development on a single lot In cases where the original development of a neighbourhood or subdivision bypassed an individual lot that later finds itself surrounded by an urbanized area, the construction of a building on this lot several years later would be considered infill. |
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Infill on an underdeveloped lot The building on the left in this picture is a new condominium triplex that replaced a small single detached house. The new infill is aligned with its older neighbour to create a consistent street edge, and triples the number of dwelling units on the property. |
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| Redevelopment | |
Creation of new uses on previously developed land This condominium apartment building replaced a two-storey funeral home that had long ceased operations. The redevelopment of this inner-city property introduced new residential uses by replacing a shuttered service-commercial use. |
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Conversion of an existing building Over its century-plus life, this building served a variety of purposes, from a hospital to an office building and a military depot. Its current use came through its conversion as loft apartments. |
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Addition of new uses This building was originally an apartment house. Over the years, as its street evolved and consolidated into a neighbourhood Mainstreet, the property experienced intensification through redevelopment by the addition of retail uses in its basement level. The front yard was excavated to allow for a new full-height retail level slightly lower than the sidewalk, accessible by stairs and ramps. |
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Addition of new residential units Originally a single-detached house, this building is now a four-plex (four apartment units). |
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| Brownfields | |
Underutilized Sites The former CFB Rockcliffe is one of Ottawa’s largest brownfields. As a former military base, it will need some environmental clean-up. Its location close to the centre of the city gives it active redevelopment potential. |
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Redevelopment of possibly contaminated commercial properties Certain commercial land uses, notably gasoline stations and auto repair garages like the one seen above right, are in prime locations where the value of real estate justifies environmental clean-up and the development of more intensive uses. In the picture seen below right, a seven-storey building with retail along the sidewalk, condominium apartments in the upper floors, and underground parking, replaces an old mechanics’ garage. The new building consolidates the retail and residential fabric of a quickly revitalizing mainstreet, West Wellington. |
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Vacant or abandoned commercial properties In many older neighbourhoods, prime corner sites or streetfront properties that were previously occupied by commercial operations have been abandoned. In the case of gasoline stations, for example, the likelihood is higher that the sites will require environmental remediation. |
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Vacant or abandoned industrial properties Many sites in older parts of the city are vacant for what seem to be inexplicable reasons given their proximity to major hubs of activity. Longer memories remember rail yards, meat packing plants, chemicals manufacturing, steel foundries, scrap metal yards or similar activities that have long since disappeared but whose remnants have remained in the soil and delay redevelopment. |
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Market Demand
In order to achieve the intensification and higher intensity development of the type desired in the Downtown, the Mainstreets, the Mixed-Use Centres, the Vicinity of Rapid Transit Stations and the suburban Town Centres, higher density forms of housing must be demanded by the market and built by the home building industry.
At the end of 2005, 51% of the occupied housing stock in the city of Ottawa was in the higher-density housing forms of townhouses and apartments. Apartments alone represent 32% of the city’s occupied housing stock.
| Share of housing starts by type, Ottawa, 1982-2005 Source : CMHC |
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Housing starts over the five-year period 2001-2005 show that higher density forms of housing have increased their share of new construction. A longer time series of housing starts reveals that the share of higher density forms of housing is cyclical and coincides with economic periods where affordability is a more critical factor in the housing market.
By and large, however, the Ottawa housing market has a steady and sizeable demand for higher density forms of housing. Even at peak economic times, when demand for single-detached homes tends to surge, townhouses and apartments combined never account for less than 30% of annual demand and usually average between 45% and 55%.
| Residential infill by type, 2001-05 Source: City of Ottawa Building Permits |
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The Ottawa housing market has responded to the demographic shifts and evolutions in taste by producing an increasing amount of denser forms of dwelling at more central locations. The share of housing starts defined as “intensification” represents about 31% of urban housing construction for the 2001-2005 period.
While intensification can be achieved at a small or large scale, there are also high-density types of housing (apartments and stacked townhouses), which by their multi-residential nature, can legitimately be counted as part of the housing market shift toward denser forms of housing, even though in some cases an individual project may be of lower density because of the amount of open land (such as surface parking) surrounding it.
Between 2001 and 2005, there were 30,808 housing starts in Ottawa. Of this total, 27,583 were in the urban area.
Of those 27,583 urban housing starts, 8,445 (31%) represented infill and intensification.
When all high-density forms of housing are included (namely apartments and stacked townhouses), Ottawa had a total of 9,175 housing starts that could be described as intensification and higher-density. This amounts to one-third of all urban housing starts for the five-year period 2001-2005.
Types of infill and higher-density construction
Between 2001 and 2005 ownership housing represented 61%, and rental 39% of the infill and higher density dwellings added to the city’s housing stock. These new dwellings took a variety of forms.
Infill single-detached, semi-detached and townhomes
Single-detached, semi-detached and townhouse dwellings combined for 21% of all infill and higher-density housing between 2001 and 2005 and about 93% of those homes were built inside the Greenbelt. Between 2001 and 2005, 1,959 infill single-detached, semi-detached and townhouse dwellings were built in the city of Ottawa. Eight per cent of those were constructed in replacement of demolished houses; the balance were new homes built on vacant lots, interstitial lots or newly created infill lots. Over 98% of infill was built inside the Greenbelt.
The breakdown is as follows:- 619 single-detached homes, accounting for 6.7% of all infill and higher-density construction for those five years, 88% of which were inside the Greenbelt.
- 232 infill semi-detached, representing 2.5% of all infill and higher-density construction between 2001 and 2005, 96% of which were inside the Greenbelt.
- 1,108 infill townhouses, representing 12.1% of all infill and higher-density construction between 2001 and 2005, 96% of which were inside the Greenbelt.
Apartment Additions
The City of Ottawa issues building permits for basement apartments, granny flats, secondary suites and accessory apartments added to an existing residential or office building. Between 2001 and 2005 the following number of apartments were created through additions:
- 52 apartments were created as one-unit additions to single-detached homes (typically as basement apartments but also through various forms of additions).
- 111 apartments were created as unit additions to small apartment buildings (for example, a third unit added to a duplex to create a triplex).
- 91 apartments were created as unit additions to medium or large apartment buildings (for example, the conversion of a three-bedroom apartment into two one-bedroom units, or the conversion of an office space, recreation room or part of a basement into new units).
- 68 apartments were created through conversions of non-residential uses (for example, this total includes 8 former convenience stores turned into apartments, and also conversions of office space and warehouse space).
In total, 322 apartments representing 3.5% of all infill and higher-density development between 2001 and 2005 were created as additions to existing residential buildings. Of this number, 89% were inside the Greenbelt.
Market Rental Apartments
Purpose-built rental apartments target a variety of tenants. There were 3,012 purpose-built rental apartment units between 2001 and 2005, broken down as follows:
- 1,025 units in retirement residences, 60% of which were inside the Greenbelt.
- 936 units in student residences, all of which were inside the Greenbelt.
- 807 units in open-market rental apartment buildings, 52% of which were inside the Greenbelt.
- 244 apartments were created in mixed-use buildings, almost all inside the Greenbelt;
In total, market rental apartments accounted for 32.8% of all infill and higher-density development between 2001 and 2005 and 71% of those units were inside the Greenbelt.
Non-Market Apartments
There were 271 non-market rental units added between 2001 and 2005 across a variety of projects, including:
- 49 rooming house units added through additions or new construction;
- 222 apartment units added through new construction for cooperative housing, special needs housing or subsidized housing.
Non-market rental units accounted for 3.0% of all infill and higher-density development between 2001 and 2005 and 73% of those units were inside the Greenbelt.
Condominium apartments
Sixty condominium apartment projects with a combined 3,611 dwelling units were built in Ottawa between 2001 and 2005. Projects ranged from three to 450 units, the average being 60 units per project.
Of this total, 266 units were in the form of stacked townhouses, and 87% of these were built outside the Greenbelt. Stacked townhouses represent 3% of all infill and higher-density development between 2001 and 2005.
The remainder, 3,345 units, were in 48 condominium apartment buildings, and 98% of these were located inside the Greenbelt. The average apartment condo building had 70 units.
Most of the condominium apartments (1,689 units, or 50% of the total) were downtown. Of the downtown units, about three out of five were east of the Rideau Canal, in and around the Byward Market.
Fourteen projects with 885 apartments (26%) were built in the Inner West area, with the largest cluster (370 units) located along the West Wellington-Richmond corridor.
Thirteen of the 48 condominium projects had retail uses at street level and were located on or within one block of a Traditional Mainstreet as designated in the Official Plan.
Condominium apartments accounted for 39.4% of all infill and higher-density development between 2001 and 2005.
Summary
Residential intensification is taking place in Ottawa as a result of market demand, which reflects the city’s evolving demographics and changing needs and preferences. The City of Ottawa’s Official Plan supports sensitive residential intensification at specific locations in the city where the influx of new residents will strengthen existing communities and support greater availability of services.
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