On October 3rd, 2025, CAFES submitted a response paper to Draft 3 of the City's new Comprehensive Zoning By-Law. CAFES has been researching and advocating for the prioritization of trees, greenspaces and soft landscaping in the new Zoning By-Law since City planners began working on the first draft in 2023. To date, we have submitted a CAFES Trees and Zoning position paper, followed by two detailed submissions on Drafts 1 and 2 as part of the People's Official Plan Coalition (POP).
Draft 3, which was released in September 2025, is the final draft of the by-law. It will be coming to the Joint Committee of Planning and Housing and Agriculture and Rural Affairs (ARAC) on Wednesday, December 17th, 2025, and after Council approval in Q1 2026, it will be enacted by Q2 2026.
In our submission, we emphasized the need for zoning to require sufficient soft landscaping metrics. Specifically, 30 cubic m of soil at 1 m planting depth should be required over underground structures, in surface parking lots, in front and rear yards in residential zones, and on busy hub zones, corridors and mainstreets, in order to provide enough soil for canopy trees to thrive to maturity and provide shade, cooling and carbon capture. We advocated for front yard setbacks in residential zones to be combined with Right of Way space so that each lot has a minimum of 6m - enough space for at least one canopy tree per lot.
Pointing to a significant change between Draft 2 and 3 regarding electrification and EV-readiness, we researched the Hydro Ottawa recommendations on file and then recommended that provisions for Electric Vehicle readiness in new parking spaces should be strengthened - that all new parking spaces should have electric conduits for future electric car use. Retrofitting and rebuilding in the future is always far more expensive.
We also urged that zoning should permit residents to rent out existing parking spaces to car-sharing services. It would be a big affordability gain and environmental pollution reduction if households could switch their second cars for community shared car options, and if shared car companies in turn, could rent the vacant second parking spaces.
See our full submission below. Visit the Engage Ottawa zoning page for updates, links to the by-law drafts and more information. For questions and comments please contact Erica at eshardlow@cafesottawa.ca
