City of Ottawa looking at ways to make office-to-residential conversions easier
CTV
The city of Ottawa is looking at ways to make it easier for developers to convert unused office space into housing in an effort to reach a goal of 151,000 new homes by 2031.
The city of Ottawa is looking at ways to make it easier for developers to convert unused office space into housing.
A report prepared for next Wednesday's Planning and Housing Committee recommends that council approve a plan to waive the planning application fee for office-to-residential conversions in cases where both an official plan amendment and a zoning bylaw amendment are required.
Converting office space that has sat empty since the COVID-19 pandemic into apartments was identified as one of the ways the city could reach its goal of 151,000 new homes by 2031.
Ottawa has an overall office vacancy rate of 13.6 per cent, according to the Q3 2023 Ottawa Office Figures by CBRE. That includes a 14.2 per cent vacancy rate downtown. The latest data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) earmarks Ottawa's residential vacancy rate at 2.1 per cent.
City staff say, after being directed this past February to explore options to help streamline office-to-residential conversions, they came up with six recommendations for council to consider, including waiving some development fees, making zoning bylaws more flexible to allow for converting office buildings to housing, and recommending the provincial government revisit some of its rules.
In the last 10 years, city staff say more than 700 residential units were created through converting old office buildings into housing. More than 900 units were created by converting non-residential buildings like old places of worship and hotels into homes.
But with the federal government announcing plans to significantly reduce its office footprint, city staff say there is an opportunity to turn old government offices into homes.
