FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Statement: City of Ottawa’s New Comprehensive Zoning By-law is failing to enable canopy trees to grow in our city

OTTAWA December 16 2025. As the final draft of the City of Ottawa’s new Comprehensive Zoning By-law comes before the Joint Planning and Housing and Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee on Wednesday, December 17, 2025, community groups are raising concerns that proposed zoning provisions will not provide the minimum conditions required for trees to grow, mature, and remain healthy in urban areas.

CAFES Ottawa has been advocating for the new zoning by-law to include provisions that will support tree canopy growth through 30 cubic meter soil volume requirements, soft landscaping minimums of 50% or 30 cubic meters on residential lots, front yard setback minimums of 4.5 meters or larger, and other policies that would provide adequate space for trees to thrive to maturity in the face of increasing density and infill development.

“Our priority is for zoning to enable a compact, green and livable city for all. As the city intensifies, a mature, healthy canopy is essential to cool down temperatures, absorb greenhouse gases, create walkable streets, clean the air, and provide an overall healthy environment for citizens to live.” said Erica Shardlow, Trees and Greenspace Coordinator for the CAFES network.

Despite extensive research submitted to staff by CAFES and our network on the biological requirements of trees and the feasibility of zoning provisions to encourage canopy growth, the planning team has been dismissive of these recommendations. The final draft of the by-law, released in October 2025, removed soil volume requirements - deleting the soil depth requirement, only requiring surface area metrics. In most subzones, the front yard setback and soft landscaping minimums remain too small to successfully grow a large canopy tree on each lot.

The city’s mature trees are already dying off and being cut to make way for redevelopment, and young replacement trees are failing to reach maturity. Without the adequate space for tree roots to grow, our city’s canopy will see drastic net loss over time.

The final version of the by-law needs amendments to reinstate the soil volume requirements and increase setbacks and soft landscaping minimums. Amendments may be made during and following the committee on December 17th. The by-law is expected to be enacted in early 2026.

For more information see the backgrounder.

Contact: Erica Shardlow – eshardlow@cafesottawa.ca

ABOUT CAFES: Community Action for Environmental Sustainability is a non-profit network that supports community-led environment and climate action across Ottawa. More info at www.cafesottawa.ca

PRESS RELEASE: OTTAWA is not zoning to allow viable tree canopy