Handling neighbourhood concerns
To request enforcement of by-laws or to report unsafe conditions, please call the Ottawa Police Service at 613-236-1222.
If you have community concerns that you would like the City to investigate place a request
by e-mail at 311@ottawa.ca sends e-mail)
or by calling 3-1-1
Be specific in highlighting your issues with the operator and they will forward your request to the appropriate City staff for review.
Residents' Initial contact with the City's 3-1-1 system will generate a service request number which you can use to track your concern. If applicable, your issue will be assigned to an Assessment Specialist for review in the City's Safety and Investigations Branch.
Based on these results, the Assessment Specialist will either provide you with options as described below or forward your request to the Area Management Branch as a viable candidate for further study.
Management Options
Quick Fix: In some cases, this approach may be attempted for localized issues, especially those that relate to behaviour. Quick fixes can include:
• survey - to inform residents of actual rules and/or to identify a specific issue
• Use of portable/ localized measurements if applicable
• Targeted enforcement by by-law services
Operational/Safety: A significant safety issue may require an immediate response, such as a missing signs or malfunctioning equipment. These issues are immediately referred to the appropriate City department.
Referral: For some issues, management measures may not be appropriate or effective and the issue will be referred to the appropriate department. Examples of issues that may suggest a referral include land use issues, commercial operations, road maintenance, transit service and utilities.
Temporary / Low cost solutions: Occasionally issues may be addressed with lower cost solutions such as additional signage, temporary traffic calming measures, or additional pavement markings. Additional information can be found in the Service Catalogue.
Local road - 40km/h request: The City of Ottawa offers residents the ability to request, by means of a petition, a reduction in the speed limit to 40 km/h on streets designated as local residential in the City of Ottawa Transportation Master Plan. To qualify, there must be a consensus of a minimum of 66 per cent of residents on the entire street (confirmed via a petition process).
Other petitions
a non-binding survey-of-interest (50% interest or greater), circulated among local property owners, will be required to gauge the level of interest in alterations and to justify the application of City resources to undertake the assessments.
Alteration will only be considered as a Local Improvement initiative, initiated by a Local Improvement Petition process. This approach will capitalize on economies of scale, minimize disruption, and provide consistent levels of service to adjacent properties.
Cost recovery for a Local Improvement project would be from all benefiting property owners.
In areas outside urban areas, villages and estate lot subdivisions, consideration of alterations on a property-by-property basis could be considered on an exception basis. However, in all cases, a request will only be permitted if supported by an adequate technical assessment. The cost of any alteration project which benefits a single property in a rural area, will be at the proponent’s expense.
Area Management Project Screening: Any issue that cannot be resolved quickly or addressed by the options listed above will be moved forward for screening to determine if it would qualify for an Area Management Study.
Measures used in Area Issues Management (AIM)
The City's Area Issue Management Program provides communities a resource to help plan and implement area management and solutions. The application of area issues management may be appropriate when other methods have been unsuccessful.
Area Issues Management (AIM) is a process using a set of measures to ensure that neighbourhoods are served appropriately. The primary objective is to minimize the impact of issues these neighbourhoods, improve safety and the quality of life for all residents.
To ensure a fair and transparent process that prioritizes requests based on a problem severity, the City may approve the Area Issues Management Guidelines in 2019 which provides a comprehensive breakdown of the processes, procedures, and methods used to screen, prioritize and address area issues management across the City.
The undertaking of an Area Issues Management (AIM) study allows communities to:
• Understand competing interests – There are many competing interests within communities with respect to how things should function. These studies are a good opportunity for communities to gain an understanding of those interests.
• Build Consensus on a Solution – An AIM study provides opportunities for community participation and consensus building around defining current problems, identifying potential solutions (including the benefit and impacts associated with each) and selecting the preferred solutions.
Measures used in Area Issues Management (AIM)
There are a variety of measures that can be considered, including regulatory measures, physical measures and programs. The feasibility and context of each measure must be evaluated on an individual basis as each will have unique benefits and impacts that need to be considered. The City will seek to resolve concerns by considering the possible use of measures from all of the categories listed under Categories of Measures below.
The effectiveness of these measures increases when implemented as part of a comprehensive plan. Area Issues Management measures are an integral part of healthy communities.
Developing a plan to address a neighbourhood concern should strike an appropriate balance between these three elements:
1. Effectiveness in solving the identified problem
2. Unintentional and potentially undesirable secondary impacts
3. Capital and operating cost
Categories of Measures in fact gathering
1. Issues Management - Numbers affected
Issues management measures to address concerns could include:
• Partial closures
• Full closure
• New or modified city services
• New prohibitions
• Introduction of volunteer services
• Other modifications
2. Issues Management - Behaviour
A number of regulatory and physical measures can be used to modify behaviour:
• Rezoning
• conversions
• parking
• markings
• street modifications
• Realignments
• New rules
3. Physical Measures
These are measures with the primary purpose of reducing severity of problems and improving behaviour by causing a change in behaviour. However, undesired secondary impacts can be a greater concern.
4. Measures - Other
There are a number of other modifications to neighbourhoods that can be implemented in order to improve the environment. There is great opportunity in the comprehensive zoning by-law review to incorporate progressive new design-oriented approaches into zoning, especially in areas where significant physical change is anticipated and detailed design studies have been completed. In stable neighbourhoods , traditional zoning tools continue to apply.
5. Education and Enforcement
Education and enforcement are intended to address issues and behaviour. They typically have limited secondary impacts but can be relatively costly if widely implemented. Enforcement is considered to have limited effectiveness unless it is applied frequently.
The Ottawa By-law services will be encouraged to co-ordinate enforcement efforts with education and other elements of an overall area issues management program. Enforcement should respect both safety and the liveability aspects of neighbourhoods.
6. Environment
Landscaping, streetscaping, gateways and surface treatments on streets can be used to create the need to respect the community. Options include:
• Streetscaping
• Gateways
• Textured crosswalks
• Textured surfaces
• Sidewalks
7. Traffic Control
Potential traffic control measures could include:
• Stop signs (if warranted)
• Roundabouts
• Mini roundabouts
Please note that regulatory measures such as stop signs and signals conform to warrants that establish criteria that define thresholds for the use of traffic control. Stop signs are a form of traffic control used to assign the right-of-way at intersections not as speed control since in some cases they can result in higher speeds.
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