Front yard parking permits are on hold. The Zoning By-law (No. 2026-50) permissions for creating new front yard parking spaces are not in effect until the Ontario Land Tribunal declares those regulations in effect. The City anticipated that happening by the end of September 2026. Until it does, the City cannot process a permit application to install or widen an access serving a new front yard parking space.
If that is your project, the sensible move is to get the design and quote settled now and file the moment the hold lifts — which also puts you in the queue for spring rather than at the back of it.
Start with what your lot actually allows
Ottawa regulates driveways in two places at once, which is why so much advice you'll read is half right. The Zoning By-law (No. 2026-50) governs the part of the driveway on your own property. The Access By-law (No. 2026-139) governs the strip that continues past your property line into the City right of way — the City calls that a vehicular access. Get one right and the other wrong and the project stops.
| Where your property is | Maximum driveway width |
|---|---|
| Downtown core and urban areas | Generally 6 m |
| Urban lots with less than 6 m of frontage | No individual driveway permitted — the driveway must be shared with an abutting lot |
| All other areas, including the rural and village areas | 50% of the lot width |
| Every property, as a separate cap | All accesses together — driveway and walkway — cannot exceed 50% of the frontage they sit on |
If your frontage is tight, that second cap is the one that bites: every access on the property counts toward the same 50%, so a generous walkway can quietly cost you driveway width. We work through the arithmetic here.
What we do
Why the permit part matters more than people expect
The City's rules on the right of way are not decoration. They exist to keep greenspace for street trees, preserve drainage and somewhere to put snow, protect on-street parking, keep hydrants and buried utilities reachable, and keep sightlines safe. That is also why an access permit is a design and location approval rather than a formality: the Access Design Requirements set the total width, the minimum distance from your neighbour's property line, the distance from an intersection, the slope and the construction standard.
Two practical consequences. First, the application fee is payable when you apply and is not refundable, so a refused design costs real money — read the rules before you file. Second, the access permit is only half of it: once it is approved you still need a road cut permit before anyone breaks ground in the right of way.
Any business that installs, alters or paves hard landscaping in Ottawa — including a driveway or walkway access — must hold a City of Ottawa hardscaping contractor licence. It is a straight question worth asking every company that quotes you, alongside proof of insurance. A crew that cannot answer it is telling you something.
Honest notes on cost and timing
Interlock in Ottawa generally runs $18–30 per square foot installed, with basic work at the bottom of that band and natural stone well above it. A driveway is commonly $6,000–12,000 or more. A widening is usually cheaper than a full replacement but not proportionally, because the base work, the excavation and the disposal do not scale down neatly.
The season runs roughly April to mid-November. Base and paver work can continue into the first half of November, but polymeric sand stops curing reliably in cold damp weather, and once the subgrade freezes proper compaction is not possible. Expect 6–10 weeks from a signed quote to a crew on site, and know that August onward is usually spoken for by July. If you are reading this in the autumn, you are planning a spring project — which is the right time to sort the permit.
Full cost breakdown for widening →
Tell us your address and we'll tell you what's allowed
No obligation and no panel of contractors calling you. We check your frontage against the by-law, flag the permits, and send one written price.