City wants to make it easier to convert offices to housing

Ottawa's office vacancy rate has ballooned while its rental housing market remains tight, and city staff are looking to streamline building conversions to solve both problems at once.

Ottawa's office vacancy rate has ballooned while its rental housing market remains tight, and city staff are looking to streamline building conversions to solve both problems at once.

In a report to council's planning and housing committee, they're pitching ideas to save developers time and money on projects to transform office towers into apartments.

That includes cutting fees, which can run as high as $54,015 for some steps in the application process. Staff are also recommending efforts to save paperwork, such as waiving transportation impact assessments for most conversions.

The report also recommends more flexible zoning rules. Residential and office buildings don't always have the same standards on things like setbacks from other properties, so developers often have to head to committees and seek amendments when they want to change from one to the other.

That can be a costly, time-consuming process. So staff are recommending automatic exemptions in cases where conversion projects don't add floors or additions. They also want to relax requirements for amenities like patios, gardens or balconies.

City staff hope the ideas will help Ottawa meet its provincial targets to add 151,000 housing units by 2031.