Councillor withdraws motion to remove 15,000-home development from Ottawa’s Official Plan until after byelection

Artist renderings show plans a mixed-use neighbourhood at the proposed Tewin development in Ottawa's southeast end. (Urban Strategies/release)

Bay Ward Coun. Theresa Kavanagh says she is withdrawing her motion to remove the controversial Tewin development from Ottawa’s Official Plan while she waits for a municipal byelection.

Kavanagh presented a notice of motion in March to the city’s Planning and Housing Committee that was set to be debated April 9. A note on the meeting’s agenda said the motion was withdrawn.

Kavanagh told CTV News Ottawa it’s because there the council seat is currently vacant for Osgoode Ward, where the development would be built.

“By withdrawing the motion this gives Osgoode candidates an opportunity to discuss the issue with residents. I have received the approval of First Nations leadership who agree with this approach,” Kavanagh wrote in an email.

Osgoode Ward was represented by George Darouze, who was recently elected as the Progressive Conservative MPP for the riding of Carleton in the provincial election in February. Council voted to have a byelection in June to fill his seat.

“I can bring back the motion once we have representation from this ward,” Kavanagh said.

When presenting the notice of motion in March, Kavanagh said the Tewin development is “too large, too far, and too complicated and too expensive for the city.”

The Tewin project is a partnership between Taggart Group and the Algonquins of Ontario that would see about 15,000 homes be built on 445 acres of land near Carlsbad Springs, south of Leitrim Road and north of Thunder Road near Highway 417. It would also have shops and services for an estimated 35,000 to 45,000 people.

The project has been controversial in part because of the cost of supplying city services and building roads to the area, with Kavanagh saying water and wastewater services alone would cost nearly $600 million.