City tackles outdated bylaws

Gatineau adopts major Land Use Planning omnibus bill

Gatineau’s planning (urbanism) overhaul took another step on January 24 as city council approved a second Planning omnibus bill. More than a dozen changes were adopted to tackle problems, primarily in six bylaws.

As pointed out by Richard Bégin, Advisory Planning Committee president and Deschênes councillor, this latest omnibus bill is part of the ongoing reform in the Planning department which got underway three years ago. The first omnibus bill was adopted in the fall of 2015.

According to Catherine Marchand, Gatineau’s Planning director, this omnibus bill will help clear up some confusion and correct certain contradictions in Planning Bylaws. It will also help harmonize municipal rules with provincial ones. Roughly 100 items are affected by this omnibus bill.

The language in many provisions of the Land Use Planning bylaw is clearer and certain elements have been clarified. For example, rules for the construction of a mezzanine were modified to match the provincial law. The same has been done for the method used to calculate the surface-area of a business selling alcohol.

One change is the introduction of temporary business permits. It will, for one, enable businesses to set up shop more quickly. The city will also start to accept certificates of compliance from experts and affidavits indicating that a space conforms to the rules or that it has not changed since the last permit as ways to speed up the permit process. According to Marchand, these changes will help reduce costs for businesses.

The omnibus bill also brought forward modifications to the rules surrounding workshop or art-studio residences, which were only permitted in 13 zones. With the change, workshop residences will be determined as an additional usage under certain conditions.

There were also modifications regarding the building of schools, permitting them in all zones except industrial. The goal is mainly to speed up and ease the approval process of building a new school, of which there will be a few in Aylmer in coming years.

 

Outdoor patios are another type of construction that Aylmer will see more of, especially with these new modifications. The city will now allow more types of businesses, such as golf clubs, to have a terrace. Under the previous rules, only bars and restaurants were granted the right to have patios.

The omnibus bill is also tackling the vertical integration of buildings, a well-known issue following the notorious 79 Fraser Road case and, to lesser degree, the 42 Cochrane Street story. With this change, a new construction will need to respect revised rules to ensure a better integration with other building heights in an established neighbourhood. For example, a new construction will need to take into account the front doors’ thresholds of neighbouring buildings to determine if the height of a new building is acceptable.

Another change will see the city permit gas tanks to be installed above ground but, as Marchand stated, they will be not be allowed just anywhere. Synthetic grass, on the other hand, will be banned from the territory with the exception of sports fields. In the fall of 2015, the Bulletin had reported on a situation where the city asked a Wychwood resident to remove recently-installed synthetic grass from her backyard. She contested this because the bylaw was open to interpretation. This is no longer the case.

On another topic, the city is now permitting residents to install solar panels on a wall and on a roof in every yard (back and front) and will allow panels to be visible from the street. The goal is to encourage residents to use this type of renewable energy.

Another modification will see the city impose new rules to limit mould cases in homes. As such, the maximum degree of humidity in a dwelling will be 60% and the city will require the installation of a dehumidifier. A homeowner will also be required to remove mould as soon as it appears. These new rules will help the city maintain a quality housing stock.

The rules will be adopted gradually and if everything falls into place, the changes should be adopted by the summer.