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What’s New

fotennplan

Fotenn is an award-winning planning, urban design and landscape architecture firm with offices in Ottawa, Kingston, and Toronto.

Fotenn recently hosted an open house for the Town Fotenn recently hosted an open house for the Town of Hawkesbury draft Official Plan. The Official Plan will guide Hawkesbury’s growth and development over a 20-year timeline. 

According to The Review Community Newspaper, Hawkesbury Mayor Robert Lefebvre noted that the event was a success, citing strong attendance and active engagement in the planning process.

The Official Plan is anticipated to be presented to Council for approval in Spring 2026.

Thank you to everyone who attended the open house to review the materials and share their feedback. We look forward to the next steps in this project!
The City of Ottawa is updating its existing Urban The City of Ottawa is updating its existing Urban Design Guidelines for Low-Rise Infill Housing and developing new Urban Design Guidelines for Mid-Rise Buildings. For the Low-Rise Guidelines, the first draft has been released, and development of the second draft is ongoing through to February. The final draft is currently anticipated in April. The Draft Mid-Rise Guidelines were released in November 2025, and a final draft is anticipated to be released later in January for public and stakeholder feedback. 

Fotenn's Thiago Santos (Associate, Urban Design), along with other firms and organizations, was invited by the City of Ottawa to provide feedback on the proposed guidelines. We look forward to seeing the final drafts and continuing to provide our feedback as these projects unfold.

Image credits: City of Ottawa
On January 12th 2026, Miguel Tremblay, Partner joi On January 12th 2026, Miguel Tremblay, Partner joined the Ottawa Board of Trade, in collaboration with lead sponsor Alto, for a timely luncheon discussion on Canada’s first high-speed rail network and what it means for the National Capital Region and the broader Canadian economy. This event marks the official launch of Alto’s public engagement process and offers an early opportunity for Ottawa’s business community to better understand the project’s scope, anticipated timeline, and potential impacts. 

Alto’s High-Speed Rail project is poised to be one of the most significant infrastructure investments in Canada in decades. The first segment, connecting Ottawa and Montréal, is expected to deliver early economic and mobility benefits, support job creation, and strengthen regional competitiveness, with construction anticipated to begin in 2029. Beginning in early 2026, Alto will undertake a comprehensive consultation process to inform corridor alignment, station locations, and community benefits, while advancing reconciliation and sustainability objectives.

The program included include opening remarks from Sueling Ching, President and CEO of @ottawabot , and Martin Imbleau, President and CEO of Alto, followed by a moderated panel discussion.
Yesterday, Fotenners visited a modular constructio Yesterday, Fotenners visited a modular construction project for a low-rise apartment building. It was exciting seeing the module get lowered into place. During the site visit, Fotenners learned about the benefits of modular construction, which include:

•	Speed: A traditional apartment building of this size would take about 12 months for construction, whereas modular housing fabrication takes closer to four (4) months. 
•	Cost: carrying costs are lower due to the speedier construction timeline
•	Neighbourhood construction benefits: A crane lowering a module in one at a time is quieter than typical construction methods, which may involve weeks to months of construction noises. Since so much of the module is constructed off site, it is less noisy and a great fit for urban infill projects
•	Less disruptive: A road closure was required only for a week compared to a many-month road occupancy permit for urban sites.
•	Quieter units: Sound travels less between units in the apartment building because each module has a fully enclosed floor and ceiling, and when these units are stacked on top of each other, they add to the sound insulation.

Thank you to the team at @guildcrest_homes / @groupeprofab and Jeremy Silburt, Director of Acquisitions, Planning and Development of Theberge Homes, for having us!

This was a great learning opportunity for everyone who attended.
On December 4, a group of Fotenn Planners particip On December 4, a group of Fotenn Planners participated in a Mock Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) Hearing with the University of Ottawa’s Municipal and Planning Law Class. 

Nico, Jillian, Genessa, Patricia, and Ashleigh-Ann (not pictured) were assigned roles as expert planning witnesses for either the Applicant or the Municipality in the Mock Hearing. They practiced providing examination in chief and responding to cross examination. 

This was a great learning opportunity for our team and an excellent collaboration between the University of Ottawa; the course instructors from @gowlingwlg and City of Ottawa; and Fotenn.
Yesterday morning, Miguel Tremblay, Brian Casagran Yesterday morning, Miguel Tremblay, Brian Casagrande, Paul Black, Matt McElligott, and Tim Beed attended @gohba_ottawa's Mayor's Breakfast. The event brought together industry leaders, community members, and stakeholders to discuss housing delivery, affordability, and the City’s goal of making Ottawa the most housing-friendly city in Canada.
 
At the event, GOHBA Executive Director Jason Burggraaf spoke on the changes to housing policy in Ottawa over the past year. It was at the 2025 Mayor’s Breakfast where Mayor Sutcliffe announced the creation of the Housing Innovation Task Force, of which Miguel is a member. Over the past year, the Housing Acceleration Plan has been announced and implemented, with 53 actions and 5 key objectives to reshape the City’s approach to housing. 

Fotenn was pleased to attend this event and share the space other leaders in the housing and planning industry in Ottawa.
Wishing everyone a happy and healthy holiday seaso Wishing everyone a happy and healthy holiday season from our team at Fotenn!⛄ 🎄 

Our offices will be closed from December 24th at 12pm and returning on January 2nd.

We will see you in the New Year! 🎉
Well, today’s the day: the last day of #FotennWrap Well, today’s the day: the last day of #FotennWrapped, in fact! Today, we’re remembering all of the fun activities we got up to this year! 

And by fun, we mean the super competitive Bike Month competition, where we took back the crown after two years of back-to-back @hobinarchitecture wins! 😤 In fact, everyone this year got to Outcycle, Outplay, and Outlast; and collectively, we cycled 2,804 kilometres more compared to 2024 – whoah! 🫨 Thank you so much to our friends at Hobin Architecture, @dselengineering, @egis_canada, @csvarchitects, and @rawdesignto, who joined us for yet another round of Bike Month!

Fotenners participated in two Women in Land Development (WiLD) events this year: some made their way to the links to golf and enjoy the sun, while others enjoyed a ski and spa day in Mont Tremblant. Clients and colleagues visited our new Ottawa office for the long-awaited return of our client party. For our annual staff retreat, Fotenners met up in Toronto where we explored The Well, dined at the CN Tower and caught up with collegues well into the night. We celebrated Halloween with an incredible show of costumes, skated, laser tagged, curled, and partied – holiday style – together.

Thank you to everyone who made 2025 such a memorable year. We’re grateful to be supported by our incredible staff, to work with our amazing clients, and to collaborate with team members and partners across disciplines and industries. To everyone who’s worked with us this year: thank you! We look forward to everything that 2026 brings.
Community and collaboration are at the core of our Community and collaboration are at the core of our work. Through donations, fundraising and volunteering, we’re pleased to be able to support so many organizations doing incredible work in the three cities in which we work: Ottawa, Kingston and Toronto.

2025 took Fotenners to many conferences, where they attended sessions, participated in cycling and walking tours, and connected with professionals across their industries. In addition, Fotenners participated in a number of fun engagements sharing our expertise and experience at local institutions.

This year, we also received an award for our work on the Pinecrest and Queensview Stations Secondary Plan from OPPI (@ontarioplanners). As well, the Economic Development Council of Ontario (EDCO) has nominated the Municipality of Chatham-Kent and the Wheatley Task Force for their Healing the Heart of Wheatley: A Post Disaster Community Action Plan. Fotenn was pleased to support this work, contributing to Wheatley's Urban Visioning Plan.

Work took us across Canada, and we’ve highlighted a few of our projects in the Northwest Territories; Alberton, PEI; Smith’s Falls, ON; St. John’s, NL; Bracebridge, ON; Fall River, NS; and more!

We’ve got one more day of #FotennWrapped, so check back tomorrow!
As 2025 comes to a close, we’re looking back at th As 2025 comes to a close, we’re looking back at the year so far – and what a year it’s been! 

Fotenn added a fourth discipline this year, welcoming Alex Zeller (Principal, Natural Environment) to lead our newest practice: Natural Environment. We’re so happy to have Alex join us, and he’s hit the ground running, enhancing a number of our projects! Alex is a friendly face who can help you navigate natural heritage policy, legislation, and approvals.

This year, we saw three promotions: Jaime Posen was promoted to Principal, Planning; Brianne Donaldson was promoted to Marketing and Business Development Manager; and Tyler Yakichuk was promoted to Senior Planner. 

Further congratulations are in order for our Planners who were accredited as Registered Professional Planners (RPP) this year: Tamara Nahal, Evan Saunders, Gabi Scollon, and Tyler Hamilton. Emily McKenna and Sydney Truesdale also deserve our applause for completing their accreditations as OALAs. Congratulations, team!

Two Fotenners celebrated their 10-year anniversaries: Youko Leclerc-Desjardins and Laura Maillet. Thank you, Youko and Laura for your years of hard work and support! Both are instrumental in their respective offices of Kingston and Ottawa. As we celebrated anniversaries, we also welcomed six new staff members to Fotenn. Welcome, welcome!

Lastly, the Ottawa office moved to a new home at 420 O’Connor Street, and we celebrated with clients and colleagues by relaunching our client party (photos coming tomorrow). The Ottawa office also installed two planter boxes full of native flowers and plants. We can’t wait to see what the new year and new, native plants bring!

Stay tuned for day 2 of #FotennWrapped!
St. Patrick’s Home approached Fotenn with the goal St. Patrick’s Home approached Fotenn with the goal of expanding their facility. Our Landscape Architecture team prepared a design for the renovation of their outdoor amenity area to make it more functional. Changes included: constructing an accessible pathway around the storm water management pond, increasing the amount of shade with additional trees and a shade structure, and updating the planting for full-season interest and to attract more birds. 

St. Patrick's Home is a long-term 24-hour care facility providing assisted living and respite care.

Fotenn participated in a fundraising event, where we purchased a table. We were happy to be joined by our friends at @rmasharchitects, @lrl.engineering / @englobecorp, and 2B Developments. We are so excited to see how the project unfolds!

@stpatsfoundationottawa
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the 2025 Mov Thanks to everyone who contributed to the 2025 Movember campaign; whether you grew a moustache, got up and moving, donated, or whatever else. Fotenn is proud to share that we nearly doubled our original goal of $1,500 with an astonishing total of $2,850!

A special congratulations to Mark, who led our team in donations (by a lot) with $790. These funds will go a long way in supporting research and awareness relating to men's mental health and cancers. 

How did Fotenners feel about their mustachio’d journey? 

“November is when you build the foundation, and December is when you can really hone your ‘stache” – Tim
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General Contact
613.730.5709
info@fotenn.com