January 20 2013,
His Worship Jim Watson
Mayor of Ottawa
110 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 1J1
Re: Urgent Need for a “Student Housing Strategy”
Dear Mayor Watson,
City View
Community Association
Glebe Community
Association
Community
Association
Ottawa East
Council has identified “Healthy and Caring Communities” as one of its top priorities for this term.
Developing a city-wide strategy for the planning and development of student housing would be an
opportunity to further address this priority.
Council has stated that it wants to, “Help all residents enjoy a high quality of life and contribute to
community well-being through healthy, safe, secure, accessible and inclusive places”. However,
currently most student housing is being created through residential housing conversions, de-facto
rooming houses, and developments planned with the singular goal of accommodating as many
students in as little space as possible. These developments have had negative impacts on the
quality of life of residents in the surrounding areas and are often unsafe and unhealthy for the
students occupying them. Recently, we have witnessed the emergence of a new trend as some
of our communities now face proposals for massive purpose-built off-campus student residences,
despite the fact that Ottawa’s zoning by-laws do not identify student housing as a permitted use
anywhere in the City. Without a coordinated effort to plan for this type of development a number
of our communities may face similar challenges.
Community Association
From suburban communities to the oldest neighbourhoods in this city, the residential, cultural and
heritage integrity of Ottawa has been negatively impacted by the accommodations decisions
made by Post-Secondary institutions. Universities and colleges in Ottawa have largely abdicated
their responsibility to provide on-campus housing facilities commensurate with their enrollment,
which continues to grow year over year. Students now account for more than 10% of the
population of Ottawa. Of the nearly 100,000 full-time post-secondary students in Ottawa only 8%
can be accommodated on-campus.
As the student population of post-secondary educational institutions in our city continue to grow
and the city transforms itself through such developments as the LRT, there is a need for a
comprehensive approach to ensure that student housing is integrated into our communities in the
most thoughtful and constructive manner possible. This is necessary to ensure the character of
our communities and ultimately that of the City of Ottawa is not further undermined.
As such, we the undersigned, as representatives of our respective community associations, call
upon Your Worship, our Councillors, and the City of Ottawa to take urgent action to address the
student housing crisis in order to remediate the situation in neighbourhoods that have already
seen considerable negative impacts from student focussed housing, and to protect other
communities that may be at risk in the future.
To this end, we propose that the City of Ottawa develop a comprehensive student housing policy
that can draw on the experiences of other Canadian municipalities and that would plan for and
establish enforceable standards for all types of student housing, from single-home conversions to
the large scale off-campus developments that are increasingly being proposed.
Queensway Terrace
We would like to actively support the City in developing a student housing strategy for Ottawa that
builds on the recent leadership by a number of City Councillors and the many community
organizations that are signatories to this letter. We feel this process should commence
immediately and be enriched in the near future by holding a city-wide summit on student housing
to allow stakeholders to come together to articulate what a student housing strategy for Ottawa
should look like. Students deserve to have safe and affordable accommodation, and
communities deserve to have our municipal government plan appropriately for the development
of new student housing.
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South Ridgeview
Community Association
-2While it is important that we begin to work collectively towards a comprehensive student housing
strategy it is also important that the City take immediate action to diffuse the growing tension on
this matter that has becoming increasingly complex and for many communities an increasingly
bitter experience.
We therefore request that the City carry out the following activities in the immediate term:
1. Implementing an immediate freeze on the development of any student housing that is not on
the campus of a post-secondary educational institution. Once again, this should cover all
types of developments from housing conversions to more large scale plans for student
housing.
2. In anticipation of an eventual student housing strategy, the City of Ottawa should examine its
current zoning by-laws and policies to determine what elements could be strengthened and
enforced in the immediate term to help shape the Student Housing strategy.
Once again, in trying to achieve the goal of a comprehensive city wide student housing policy we
the undersigned communities commit to working with the City in a pro-active manner to develop
an approach to student housing that is in the best interest of all stakeholder groups. We would
like to propose a meeting with you where we could go over the most pressing issues and
determine how we can work together.
We urge Your Worship and Council to seize this opportunity to ensure a high quality of life for
residents of Ottawa, including students.
Yours Sincerely,
Christopher Collmorgen, President
Action Sandy Hill
Thomas McVeigh, President
Centretown Citizens CA
Joan Clark, President
City View Comm. Assoc.
Christine McAllister, President
Glebe Community Association
Matt Whitehead, President
Hintonburg Comm. Assoc.
John Dance, President
Ottawa East Comm. Assoc.
Linda Hancock, President
Old Ottawa South CA
Sheila Perry, President
Overbrook Comm. Assoc.
Marc Lugert, President
Queensway Terrace North CA
Andrea D’Agostino, President
Queensway Ter. S./Ridgeview CA
?, President
Ryan Farm Community Association
Marnie McKinstry, President
South Keys Greenboro CA
Mike Bulthuis, President
Vanier Community Association
_______________________
Michael Powel, President
Dalhousie Community Association
__________________
Sylvia Milne
Glebe Annex Comm. Assoc.
Cc:
Mathieu Fleury, Councillor Ward 12
Diane Holmes, Councillor Ward 14
David Chernushenko, Councillor Ward 17
Katherine Hobbs, Councillor Ward 15
Diane Deans, Councillor Ward 10
Peter Clark, Councillor Ward 13
Rick Chiarelli Councilor Ward 8
Encl.
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