CAFES spent a lovely Mother's Day morning giving out 67 trees to local community members for planting on private property, as part of our third annual Mother's Day give-away!

This year our event was hosted in Laroche Park in Mechanicsville, in partnership with the Mechanicsville Community Association. The purpose of this initiative is to increase backyard planting and overall tree canopy by supporting kids and families in gifting a tree to their parent for Mother's Day. Trees are intended to be planted in the urban neighbourhoods of Ottawa to ensure we are increasing tree canopy where it is especially needed.

Planting instructions were provided with each tree, and many community members spoke with us about how to plant, water, prune and care for their new trees. We had a wide variety of native species this year including Silver Maple, Yellow and Paper Birch, Red and White Pine, Spruce, Cedar, Pin Cherry, Butternut, Pussy Willow, and McIntosh Apple.

We were thrilled to have seen such great uptake this year, and were especially pleased that many of the trees went to homes directly in the Mechanicsville neighbourhood. As Mechanicsville is among the neighbourhoods with the lowest canopy cover in the city, trees are needed more than ever.

A huge thank you to the volunteers who helped at our event, and thank you to the tree recipients - coming out with your bikes, scooters, and wagons - for taking initiative to green our city!

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It's time to have your say on Draft 2 of the new Comprehensive Zoning By-law! From now until June 30th, the public consultation period is open for you to submit your comments, concerns and ideas to the city's planning team.

The city is holding three public consultation open houses - the first one was just last night on Thursday May 29th. The open houses will include presentations from city planning staff on the major changes from Draft 1 to Draft 2, which includes changes to Neighbourhood Zones, height transitions in Mainstreet Zones, communal parking lots in neighbourhoods, and changes to permitted uses in Industrial Zones. At the end there will be a question and answer period. Public attendance will likely be high and it will be best to come prepared with your questions. See details below for the next two open houses:

• In-person open house - Monday June 2nd at Ben Franklin Place, 101 Centrepointe Drive, 6:30-8pm. No need to register.

• Virtual open house - Tuesday June 3rd via Zoom, 6-8pm. Register for the Zoom link HERE.

You can also submit your comments in writing to NewZoning@ottawa.ca. Again the deadline is June 30th. At some point in June, there will be focused surveys coming to Engage Ottawa as well - stayed tuned for those and watch for more updates on the Engage Ottawa Zoning page. Draft 3 is expected to be released on September 8th, 2025 and will go to Joint Committee and Council on December 17th 2025 and January 28th 2026, respectively. The final version of the by-law is expected to be enacted in Q1 2026.

Continue reading below for a background on CAFES' involvement with Draft 2 with respect to trees, and the new Zoning By-law as a whole.

On Monday, March 31st, 2025 the Joint Planning and Housing and Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee met to receive Draft 2 of the New Comprehensive Zoning By-law. Erica Shardlow, speaking for the CAFES network, provided a public delegation in support of zoning metrics that protect and regulate the space for canopy trees through required soil volumes, soft landscaping minimums and setbacks on residential lots. The March 31st committee meeting can be viewed on Youtube here.

CAFES' comments and recommendations on Draft 2 are summarized in the following points, and you can see our full presentation below.

• The by-law is an important opportunity to lay the foundation for achieving the Official Plan's 40% canopy cover target. We want to see a compact, green and livable city and recognize equity and 15-minute neighbourhoods as essential considerations.
• CAFES has been advocating for trees planted in proper soil volumes to ensure trees are being given adequate space to thrive to maturity. Currently, Draft 2 requires 30 cubic meters soil volume to be provided above underground structures. We are pushing for it to be required in all residential rear lots, front yards, surface parking lots, and above stormwater infrastructure.
• We support Draft 2 provisions for no car parking minimums, single lane shared driveways at 3m width, driveways with permeable wheel strips, EV chargers, the prohibition of reverse-slope driveways in flood plains, and soft landscaping minimums in surface lots.
• We suggest 6m front yard setbacks city-wide. Where this is not possible, small 3m setbacks should be paired with large Right of Way space to allow for contiguous soil and space for trees.

CAFES has been engaged in the New Comprehensive Zoning By-law since January of 2024 when a group of experienced volunteers formed a working group and co-wrote a recommendations paper on how zoning can regulate trees. We have been continuing to update our paper throughout the development of the new by-law and submitted version 3.0 to the city in October 2024. Also in October, we submitted a detailed recommendations document on Draft 1 as part of the Peoples Official Plan Coalition (POP).

If you have questions or comments please contact Erica at eshardlow@cafesottawa.ca