15-minute neighbourhoods
The 15-minute neighbourhood concept provides options for residents to meet their daily or weekly needs within walking distance by bringing destinations closer together. These neighbourhoods are designed to enable easy, safe, and enjoyable connections between destinations. The approach focuses on walking as a viable option for accessing regular needs, as it is the most universally accessible mode of transportation. In 15-minute neighbourhoods, residents ideally spend less time travelling to fulfill their regular needs, by creating locally focused neighbourhoods with more options closer to home. Residents have opportunities to save on transportation costs, enjoy their neighbourhood more, and improve their daily activity.
Introduced in the ‘Five Big Moves’, the principles of 15-minute neighbourhoods are integral to the strategic directions contained in Ottawa’s Draft New Official Plan. The concept of 15-minute neighbourhoods supports a variety of objectives relating to intensification, economic development, energy and climate change, gender equity, and culture. Additionally, planning for 15-minute neighbourhoods represents a critical means of embedding health resiliency in planning in order to achieve healthier, more inclusive communities.
15-minute neighbourhoods are compact, well-connected places with a clustering of a diverse mix of land-uses; this includes a range of housing types, shops, services, local access to food, schools and day care facilities, employment, greenspaces, parks and pathways. They are complete communities that support active transportation and transit, reduce car dependency, and enable people to live car-light or car free, if they so choose.
The 15-minute neighbourhood study is the first step at understanding the components of a 15-minute neighbourhood as they evolve across Ottawa’s urban, suburban, and rural transects. This study of 15-minute neighbourhoods is composed primarily of two different mapping exercises. One looking at access to available services and amenities; and the other focusing on the safety and enjoyability of the pedestrian environment with respect to walking to these services and amenities.
Maps:
Map A1: Service and Amenity Locations
Map A1-1: Grocery Store and Supermarket Locations City-Wide
Map A1-2: Park Locations City-Wide
Map A1-3: Retail Service Locations City-Wide
Map A1-4: Bus Stop Locations City-Wide
Map A1-5: Health Service Locations City-Wide
Map A1-6: O-Train/Light Rail Transit Station Locations City-Wide
Map A1-7: Indoor Community Centre, Recreational Facility, and Library Locations City-Wide
Map A1-8: Elementary and Secondary School Locations City-Wide
Map A1-9: Childcare Facility Locations City-Wide
Map A2: Service and Amenity Diversity City-wide
Map A3: Service and Amenity Diversity with Priority Weighting from Survey City-wide
Map A4: Service and Amenity Concentration with Priority Weighting from Survey City-wide
Map A5: Access to Services and Amenities, Combined Scores City-wide
Map A6: Pedestrian Environment, Commercial Street Classification City-wide
Map A7: Pedestrian Environment, City-wide Assessment City-wide
Map A8: Access to Services and Amenities, and Pedestrian Environment City-Wide
Map A8-1: Access to Services and Amenities, and Pedestrian Environment Downtown Core
Map A8-2: Access to Services and Amenities, and Pedestrian Environment Inner Urban
Map A8-3: Access to Services and Amenities, and Pedestrian Environment Outer Urban
Map A8-4: Access to Services and Amenities, and Pedestrian Environment Kanata-Stittsville
Map A8-5: Access to Services and Amenities, and Pedestrian Environment South Nepean and Riverside South
Map A8-6: Access to Services and Amenities, and Pedestrian Environment Leitrim
Map A8-7: Access to Services and Amenities, and Pedestrian Environment Orléans
Map A8-8: Access to Services and Amenities, and Pedestrian Environment Villages
