Farm Business Zoning

Statistic card: 1 hectare. Ottawa's cap on on-farm business activity, whatever the size of the farm, and under one percent of the average property.

Rural Ottawa / farm business zoning

The limit is set by area, not by the size of the farm.

Sixty-six percent of Ottawa’s farms report less than $100,000 a year in revenue. The average farm in this city is 259 acres. At that scale, most operations carry secondary business activity: snow clearing, excavating, trucking, storage, equipment repair, a market stand.

Ottawa’s zoning by-law caps the combined area of all agriculture-related and on-farm diversified uses at one hectare per lot. That hectare must accommodate the buildings, structures, outdoor storage, parking areas, and the well and septic systems associated with the use. Any increase requires a zoning by-law amendment.

One hectare is 2.47 acres. On the average Ottawa farm that is under one percent of the property.

The cap
1 hectare
Ottawa’s fixed limit on on-farm business area, no matter the size of the farm.
Provincial test
2%
Of the property, under provincial guidance for prime agricultural areas.
Average farm
259 acres
66 percent of Ottawa farms report under $100,000 a year in revenue.
One rezoning
$300K+
One Manotick family’s costs in consultants, applications, and legal representation.

More restrictive than the province requires

Provincial guidance for prime agricultural areas applies a two percent of the property size test for on-farm diversified uses, measured as the land area rendered unavailable for agricultural production, and requires that the use remain secondary to the principal agricultural use. Ottawa’s fixed cap is more restrictive than the provincial test on any farm larger than approximately 123 acres, which describes the majority of farms in this city.

The practical effect is that a common operating arrangement requires a rezoning. In one Manotick case, an application to permit established secondary businesses on fewer than ten acres of a 480-acre farm was refused by council in November 2025 and subsequently resolved through mediation. The applicant’s costs exceeded $300,000 in consultants, applications, and legal representation.

Scaling the limit to the size of the property keeps secondary activity on low-capability ground and reduces the number of farms that reach a point where the operation is no longer viable. Prime agricultural land remains protected under the Official Plan and provincial policy; nothing in this plan changes that designation.

The commitments
01
Replace the fixed one-hectare cap with the provincial percentage test.
Bring forward a zoning by-law amendment scaling the permitted area for on-farm diversified and agriculture-related uses to a percentage of the lot, consistent with provincial guidance for prime agricultural areas, retaining one hectare as a floor so that no smaller property loses permitted area it holds today.
02
Permit low-capability siting as of right.
Applications that locate the use on lower-capability soil, an existing farmyard, or previously disturbed ground are permitted as of right within the size test, without a zoning by-law amendment. Applications that would displace prime agricultural land continue to require an amendment.
03
Establish a rural business permitting stream with a service standard.
A single rural business stream within the permitting system, with a published turnaround standard, one point of contact, and delegated approval authority at the staff level for applications that meet the size and siting tests.
The part of the farm that earns carries the part that matters. The city shouldn’t make that harder than the province does.
Alex Lawson
Builder, not politician

This is one part of the Lawson plan for rural Ottawa.

We’ve got a lot of work to do.

Ottawa deserves better.

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