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The City of Ottawa is headed to court to fight for its right to limit the height of buildings throughout the capital.

Saying its ability to bring predictable growth to Ottawa neighbourhoods is at stake, the city said Tuesday it will be challenging a recent decree from the Ontario Municipal Board, seeking leave to appeal it to the divisional court.

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The board is an appointed body with the power to overrule planning decisions made by elected municipal councils.

In late April, the OMB ruled the city could not alter its official plan — the municipality’s master planning document — to limit the height of certain buildings in Centretown.

Even though the city, residents and developers spent years in discussions to come up with a neighbourhood development strategy for Centretown (known as a community design plan or CDP), and councillors voted to enshrine that strategy in the official plan, the OMB sided with the owners of 267 O’Connor St., who argued that setting height limits in the official plan shouldn’t be allowed.