It certainly isn’t as simple as Councillors or the Planning Department being “in the pocket of the developer.” There seems to be a combination of things that lead to constant conflict, major buildings in inappropriate locations, and a nearly complete lack of predictability in Ottawa planning.

First is the utter failure of Planning and Council to be able to craft an Official Plan and Community Design Plans that actually hold up and aren’t riddled with loopholes. Each new OP or CDP, we are told, will fix the problem, but it never does. Second is that, because virtually all significant new developments proceed by spot rezoning, the important decisions are all made behind closed doors in the Planning Department before the public even hear about it. Third is that the Ontario Municipal Board makes it difficult to actually plan, since they override local decisions routinely–exacerbated by the fact that Ottawa lacks an Official Plan that is clear and enforceable.

Finally, the perception of collusion between developers and the City is not helped by the fact that many Councillors get so much of their campaign funding from the development industry. At least one councillor on Planning Committee received up to nearly 70% of their itemized 2010 campaign funding from development-related corporations or people related to that industry.

The Mayor is fond of saying you can’t buy a Councillor with a few hundred dollars. But when two-thirds of their funding comes from an industry they directly regulate, the perception, at least, will be that they are not able to act completely independently of influence.