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Briefly summarized, the five themes are: intensification, transportation, “sophistication” in urban and community design, environmental and public health, and economic development.

Corresponding to the five themes, this newspaper has identified five points of interest from among the many policy directions released Monday.

1. Encouraging more sustainable commutes: In 2016, 41.5 per cent of commuters listed a sustainable mode of transportation — cycling, transit, walking or carpool — as their main way to get around. The city wants to push this even further by ensuring that, by 2046, most trips in Ottawa are sustainable. They recommend new developments be built near existing transit infrastructure like O-Train stations, and that the focus on light rail should continue even after Stage 2 and a possible Stage 3 are completed.

There’s no policy direction calling for an overhaul in the city’s approach to cycling, though a lot of the other directions include bullet points recommending things like a focus on cyclist connections to transit hubs and including cycling infrastructure in new streets.

2. Building up instead of out: Rather than directing population growth to new suburban developments further and further into green space, the city wants to concentrate on “intensifying” already built-up areas. City staff say this would mean less impact to outlying agricultural lands, more access to services and businesses that already exist in those neighbourhoods, and shorter commute times for residents — what they refer to as “walkable 15-minute neighbourhoods.”