Mayoral candidate Chiarelli vows to save 'single family neighbourhoods' if elected

Mayoral candidate Bob Chiarellisays he does not support "killing off Ottawa's single family neighbourhoods" and would fight to keep zoning rules that allow only single family homes to be built on certain streets across the city, according to an announcement released early Monday.

Chiarellisays he's against expanding the urban boundary, but also vows to eventually build 16,000 new homes per year.

Like other candidates, he says he supports intensification around transit stations plansthe city is already undertaking and fast-tracking the planning approval process. Chiarelli says he'dnegotiate with the federal government to both speed up the housing portions of the Tunney's Pasture and Confederation Heights redevelopment projects, but also increase the number of affordable units in both these projects.

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Chiarelli, who is releasing his housing plan weeks after his main competitors, appears to be setting himself apart from the 14-candidate field by taking an aggressive stand on what's known as exclusionary R1 zoning, which allows only a single family home to be built on a property.

"Most single-family neighbourhoods were sold to owners on the promisethat the city's single-detached (R1) zoning would protect that character," said Chiarelli in a news release. "Now it's bait-and-switch. It double-crosses every owner who invested their life savings to live in such a neighbourhood."

In fact, homeowners do not have any guarantee the zoning for their streets won't change.

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Other candidates, includingMark Sutcliffeand Nour Kadri, agree with Chiarellithat the exclusionary zoning needs to stay.

Catherine McKenney and Brandon Bay, however, are in favour of doing away with the rule that protects single family homes. They argue that being able to replace a single family home with two semi-detached homes or a triplex even a four-plex in certain situations is a more gentle form of intensification that would occur over decades.

Atask force on housing struck by the Ontario government recommended an end to exclusionary R1 zoning, but the Progressive Conservatives didn't act on it before last spring's provincial election. Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark told CBCin recent months that the province is still looking at all options for increasing housing supply.

Chiarellialso says he's against inclusionary zoning, which would force developers to include a certain number of affordable units in larger projects, because it would make the other units in the building more expensive. Instead, Chiarelli wants to see housing built above one-storey commercial buildings insuburban areas.

Chiarelliwon't follow city's climate master plan

Last week, Chiarelli released his environmental plan that calls the council-approved to-do list to combat climate change "unsustainable."

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His climate platform includes not expanding the urban boundary or building new roads, plus replacing the trees lost in the last four years.

Earlier in the campaign, Chiarelli said he would put off the city's planned purchase of electric buses for financial reasons, but his climate plan says he'd purchase a small number of vehicles at a time "to do the proper testing."