The Use of Land in the City of Ottawa
The city of Ottawa has an area of 2,797 km2, about half the size of Prince Edward Island, for a population roughly equivalent to that of New Brunswick and PEI combined. Only 12.6% of this significant land mass is urban land, and it is home to 9 out of 10 Ottawa residents.
In this issue, we examine the use and consumption of land in the city of Ottawa. The information is taken from the City’s 2005 Land Use Survey, a detailed and accurate picture of land use across the urban and rural parts of the city. The Land Use Survey is undertaken every five years and the full report with companion urban and rural maps are available at the City’s Client Service Centres.Urban Land Use
 |
 |
|
Single-detached homes occupy 70% of Ottawa’s residential land but house only 38% of the city’s households |
 |
 |
|
Apartments house almost as many households, but use only one-tenth as much land as single-detached homes. |
The city’s urban area is designated in the Official Plan and includes lands between Stittsville and Kanata that were added by the Ontario Municipal Board in 2005. The total urban area of 352.7 km2 is almost evenly divided between inside the Greenbelt (184.5 km2 or 52% of the total) and outside the Greenbelt (168.2 km2 or 48%).
Top land use: our homes
Overall, 102.3 net km2 or 37.3% of developed urban land is used for housing. Even though three-fifths (62.1 km2) of developed residential land is located inside the Greenbelt, these lands represent a smaller percentage of all uses (35%) than in suburban centres (41%) due to the greater variety of development inside the Greenbelt.
Although there are differences in dwelling types between neighbourhoods, single-detached houses are the overall dominant form of residential land use in urban Ottawa and constitute the largest single use of urban land. Single-detached housing lots account for 27% of all developed urban land and consume an area of more than 73 km2.
Single-detached housing accounts for over 70% of all urban residential land, 67% inside the Greenbelt (41.6 net km2) and nearly 80% (31.6 net km2) in the suburbs. Although they consume a large amount of land, single-detached units represent only 38% of the occupied housing stock. Apartments consume only 7% of the residential land but account for 35% of all urban households. In other words, apartments hold almost as many households but only occupy one-tenth the land as single-detached homes. Most apartments are located inside the Greenbelt, where they account for almost half (46%) of all households. In suburban areas, 90% of units are singles and townhouses.
Second highest land use: Vacant land for future growth
Of the total urban area, 274.2 km2 (or 78% of the total) is developed, and 78.4 km2 (22%) is vacant urban land.
This means that over one-fifth of Ottawa’s designated urban area is available for future generations of the city’s growth. These lands may presently appear rural or under agricultural cultivation, but are approved for urbanization with full municipal services, including roads, water, sewers, public transportation, community centres, retail, employment and other services.
Vacant land represents less than five percent of total land inside the Greenbelt (864 ha), and is concentrated in a few areas, including CFB Rockcliffe, Moffat Farm, and some business parks. Nearly 7,000 ha of vacant land exist in suburban centres for future development.
Third highest user of land: Roads
Roads take up just over one-fifth of Ottawa’s developed urban land area, making them the third biggest consumer of land in the city. Roads are wider in the suburbs. |
Fourth top land use: Parks and green space
 |
|
Fully 20% of Ottawa’s urban area, covering almost 55 km2, is devoted to recreational and open space. |
It’s often said that Ottawa is a very green city, and the numbers certainly prove it. Fully 20% of the urban area is devoted to recreational and open space.
Of the 54.8 km2 of parks and open space available to Ottawans, most (34.7 km2) can be found inside the Greenbelt. This works out to 67 households per hectare of recreational and open space in the urban area inside the Greenbelt. Suburban Ottawans enjoy 20.1 km2 of green space, which translates into 44 households per hectare of urban greenery.
Recreational land is counted separately from “open space” because it is specifically meant for human recreation. The majority of open space inside the Greenbelt is associated with transportation corridors, such as the NCC parkways. Recreational land, on the other hand, is divided into active uses (e.g. sports fields) and passive (e.g. walking trails) categories. There are about two hectares of passive recreation for every hectare of active recreation, both inside and outside the Greenbelt. In 2005, for every two hectares of residential land there is one hectare of recreational land of all types. This pattern is consistent inside and outside the Greenbelt.
Places of Learning, Working and Shopping
 |
|
Most suburban schools like the one pictured above are sprawling buildings built on large sites with lots of parking and idle land that separates the building from the rest of the neighbourhood. Traditional schools like the one shown below are taller, closer to neighbouring houses and easier to walk to. |
 |
 |
|
Urban office buildings need not be highrises. Many are of smaller scale and are well integrated into their street by matching the setback of the neighbouring buildings and providing storefronts along the sidewalk. |
 |
|
Suburban campus-style office developments, be they federal complexes or high-tech parks, tend to consume large amounts of land, notably with surface parking. This makes them automobile-dependent destinations. |
Places of education, employment and commerce account for 21.5% of the city’s urban land, distributed among seven different categories. Industrial land is the largest of these categories, covering 12.9 km2. About three-quarters of Ottawa’s developed industrial lands are inside the Greenbelt, typically in large industrial parks along traditional rail corridors or close to major highways. One-quarter of the city’s developed industrial land is outside the Greenbelt, but the suburbs have significant amounts of vacant industrial land awaiting future employment growth. Industrial land represents 4.7% of the city’s developed urban land.
Institutional uses (e.g. schools, universities, churches, hospitals) account for 4.6% of Ottawa’s urban land. Unlike in the older neighbourhoods, schools and hospitals in the newer sections of the city have become voracious consumers of land and are, in some cases, islands unto themselves. Unlike the neighbourhood Victorian multi-storey school with compact schoolyards and little parking, many of the newer schools are low buildings with very large fields, large paved parking lots and setbacks that isolate them from the adjacent neighbourhood. Modern hospitals follow similar patterns.
Therefore, although suburban institutions account for 27% of Ottawa’s institutional land, the suburbs have nowhere close to 27% of the institutional services in the city, most of which are still located inside the Greenbelt.
Retail land uses show similar trends as well. Retail accounts for 4.1% of the city’s urban land use, covering 11.3 km2. The urban area inside the Greenbelt has 67.7% of the developed retail land, and it accommodates over 78% of Ottawa’s urban retail floor space and 80% of the total number of stores. This is because older sections of the city, especially downtown and the Traditional Mainstreets, have smaller stores and more compact, pedestrian-friendly retail environments that are not dominated by parking lots. The suburbs outside the Greenbelt have 32.3% of the city’s developed retail land but just 22% of the total floor space and 20% of the number of stores. In the suburbs, large stores and extensive surface parking dominate the retail landscape.
Office space, which accounts for 3.2% of urban land use, occupies a total of 8.64 km2 of land. Of this total, the largest amount (about 75%) is inside the Greenbelt. Despite the fact that much of this office space is in high-density downtown highrises, there remain a number of low-density federal office parks dating back to the post-World War II era of the Greber Plan. Examples include the NRC campus on Montreal Road, Tunney’s Pasture and Confederation Heights. In the suburbs, most of the office space is in low-density, campus-style settings.
Urban Density
 |
|
Residential density has increased inside the Greenbelt over the last ten years, a sign that there is genuine market interest for urban dwelling options. Overall, however, Ottawa’s residential density nudged down between 2000 and 2005 due to the higher proportion of low-density single-detached homes built outside the Greenbelt. |
Household and population density has been increasing inside the Greenbelt in the last decade (1995-2005). Household density grew from 34.6 occupied dwelling units per net residential hectare in 1995 to 36.3 units/ha in 2000 and 37.2 by 2005. Population density rose from 81.6 persons per net hectare to 85.3 between 1995 and 2000, with a minor increase to 85.4 by 2005. These increases were driven primarily by the construction of multiple dwellings; for example, during the last five years 52% of new housing units inside the Greenbelt were apartments, 30% were townhouses and only 13% were single-detached. While household density will increase in future as higher density redevelopment and intensification continues, population density is expected to be relatively flat due to ongoing declines in average household size.
The suburban centres show a different trend. Household density rose from 19.1/net ha in 1995 to 21.7 in 2000, and increased slightly to 21.8 by 2005. Population density increased from 60.2 persons/net ha to 64.0 in between 1995 and 2000, but dropped to 61.9 persons/ha in 2005. Density increases in the suburban centres appear due to increases in the density of single-detached and townhouse dwellings, rather than changes in unit mix. Permits in the last five years show 52% of new units were single-detached, 39% were townhouses, and only 4% were apartments.
Greenbelt Land
The National Capital Greenbelt, with a total area of 207.7 km2, provides a separation between the urban area inside of it and the suburban area beyond it. While Greenbelt lands are generally seen as areas dedicated to the natural environment and more related to rural areas, the Greenbelt accommodates a wide diversity of land uses. Natural landscape features, including forest, open spaces and wetlands cover about 57% of the area. An additional 24% of the land is in agricultural production. Other activities on the remaining 20% of land within the Greenbelt include public and private sector offices, research facilities, as well as the Nepean Sportsplex, the Queensway-Carleton Hospital and the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre. The Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport is also located in the Greenbelt.
Rural Ottawa
The rural area covers 2,230 km2 of land, almost 80% of the city’s area. Of this total, almost 97% is outside of the twenty-five designated villages. The villages encompass 72 km2 of land in the rural area.
 |
|
Single-detached residences represent 34% of the lands in Ottawa’s 25 rural villages. |
 |
|
Outside the villages, 86% of the rural area is occupied by agriculture, forests, idle and shrub land, and wetlands. |
In the rural area, agriculture is the predominant use of land, covering 928.5 km2 or 43% of the area outside the twenty-five villages. Lands classed as agriculture include land used for crop production, pasture, fallow fields, barns, pens and related uses. Farm residences are classed as a residential use of land. Forested land covers about 610 km2 (28%) of the rural area. Another 183 km2 (8.5%) is idle and shrub land. This classification is applied to undeveloped non-agricultural and non-forested areas and includes forest clearings, grasslands and non-farmed lands that are returning to their natural state. Wetlands cover 135 km2 (6.2%) of the rural area outside the villages. These four land uses combine for 1,856 km2 of rural land, which represents 86% of the area outside the twenty-five villages.
Lands classed as residential, industrial, office, retail, recreational, institutional or road rights-of-way occupy 232 km2, about 11% of rural lands outside the villages. Residential lands account for the lion’s share of this total. Rural residences, which are found in country lot subdivisions, farms and on individual lots along rural roads, occupy 128 km2.
It may be surprising to discover that the majority of developed residential land in the city of Ottawa is located in the rural area: 60% of all urban and rural land used for housing is located in the rural area. In the rural area, about 152 km2 of housing lots (within and outside villages) accommodate 29,600 occupied dwellings and a population of 85,300, accounting for 8.5% of the city’s dwellings and 10% of Ottawa’s total population. The dichotomy is due to the low density of development in the rural area, 1.9 households and 5.6 persons per net hectare, compared to 31.1 households and 76.2 persons per net hectare in the urban area.
 |
|
The rural area features much lower residential densities than the urban area. As a result, 60% of Ottawa’s residential lands are located in the rural area, within and outside the villages. However, those lands only account for 8.5% of Ottawa’s dwellings and 10% of its population. |
Commercial, office and retail lands account for an equivalent number of parcels within and outside villages (220 each). However, the land area used by businesses outside villages is nearly four times larger than those inside villages because commercial uses outside villages are much more land extensive (examples include the Rideau-Carleton Raceway and Slots and car dealerships).
The next comprehensive land use survey is planned for 2010.
NEXT ISSUE: Intensification in Ottawa
[ top ]