Ottawa – On Thursday, March 10, the City’s Planning Committee approved a plan to establish a High-Performance Development Standard for new Ottawa developments.
Buildings are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, and the metrics that make up the new standard would help determine how effective new building projects are at advancing sustainable and resilient design. It would ensure all Ottawa builders work to the same minimum standard for projects that require a site plan control application or a plan of subdivision application.
The standard is in line with the most recent version of the Toronto Green Standard and includes three tiers of metrics. Each tier would require the applicant to meet an increasingly stringent energy standard. It would be mandatory for all buildings to achieve tier-one metrics while tiers two and three would remain voluntary for the first few years. Successive updates, however, would make the tier-one standard more stringent over time. The City is also developing an incentive program to help encourage applicants to strive for higher tiers.
New development applications would need to include an energy model report starting in June 2022, although targets would only be enforced starting in June 2023, giving applicants time to learn what changes they might need to make to meet the tier-one standard.
Except where noted, recommendations from this meeting will rise to Council on Wednesday, March 23.
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