City backs off on wetland designations - for now

The city of Ottawa is backing off on re-designating hundreds of acres in Goulbourn southwest of Stittsville as provincially significant wetlands -- for now.

The city's Planning and Growth Management Department is deferring any further consideration and action regarding the proposed expansion of significant wetland areas in Goulbourn and an associated Official Plan Amendment process until after this fall's Rural Summit being convened by the city of Ottawa

Following the Rural Summit, which is to be held in late October or November, any solutions or directions that arise from the two-day gathering, this issue of the proposed expansion of significant wetland areas in Goulbourn southwest of Stittsville will be reconsidered by the Planning and Growth Management Department, with an appropriate action plan developed at that time.

This delay in the whole process came about as a result of public consultations which the city conducted in July to identify issues to be discussed at the upcoming Rural Summit.

 Feedback provided from Stittsville and Goulbourn residents identified concerns around this re-designation of significant wetland areas in Goulbourn and the associated land use implications.

Since the city wants to follow a collaborative process and wants to ensure that an open discussion takes place at the Rural Summit, with appropriate solutions identified, the planning and growth management department of the city decided that it would halt any action on re-designating additional wetland areas in Goulbourn southwest of Stittsville until results of the Rural Summit are known. One of the goals of the Rural Summit is to develop practical solutions and action plans for the major issues identified by the rural community.

As a result of this decision by the city, all of the previous timelines announced by the city with regard to independent wetland evaluation submissions and the Official Plan Amendment process are now suspended.

The Rural Summit is being held to address rural citizens' concerns and to develop concrete solutions for these concerns. The city has committed to working cooperatively with rural residents in developing action plans to implement the solutions that are determined.

The first day of the two-day Rural Summit will focus on promoting an overarching general discussion of the types of rural-urban issues facing many parts in Ontario.

The second day of the Rural Summit will focus on finding practical solutions to specific city of Ottawa rural issues as outlined in an Issues Paper that is going to be released soon by the city. The day will be organized in a workshop format with participants putting forward their experience and ideas and working with city staff to develop solutions and an action plan for the various issues.

A Rural Summit task force will be established immediately following the Rural Summit with a mandate to follow up on Rural Summit findings and to ensure action plans are implemented and accounted for in the city's 2006 budget and future budgets.

The primary focus of the Rural Summit is to identify and to understand rural issues and, for those issues that directly related to city of Ottawa, to work together to develop concrete and practical solutions that will be implemented, making a difference in the lives of Ottawa's rural residents.