Back in December 2010, FoTenn consultants came to the Centretown Citizens Community Association's Planning & Development Review Committee to seek community input on a 27-storey building their client, Claridge, wants to build at 89-91 Nepean Street. Here's a map of the site:

Here's 89 and 91 Nepean Street, looking North-Westish (assuming Nepean runs East-West on Ottawa's skewed grid), in April 2010. The grassy lot is 89 Nepean, and there is a gravel parking lot at 91 Nepean next to it. They're pretty small sites. One of them has a "for sale" sign, though I can't tell for sure which:
89 Nepean is still fenced, though it's been de-landscaped. 91 Nepean has been converted from a 26-car parking lot to the sales centre for Tribeca, the two 27-storey condo non-portrait gallery half a block away (which is its own long story).
Looking south from Gloucester, we see that there isn't much happening. Some mid-rise apartment buildings, and the South side of Nepean is mostly parking lots ripe for development. 89-91 Nepean will set the tone for how the rest of Nepean Street fills out.
They also submitted a site plan which showed that they wanted either a retail store or a community space on the Nepean side (rather than ground floor townhouse entrances, to provide more consistent interaction with the street from residents), as well as a concrete ramp that encroached into the City's right-of-way, which presumably the City would have to maintain.




Melanie Knight, the City's planner handling the file, came with Councillor Diane Holmes and me to Toronto for an urban planning tour from George Dark in the morning (yes, I got photos), and to learn about how Toronto handles Section 37 of the Ontario Planning Act to seek community benefits in exchange for zoning height and density increases. Catherine Boucher, retired former Executive Director of the CCOC and current DCA Board member, wrote up a report on the Section 37 presentation, which is available on the DCA's website. In other cities, it's standard practice for new developments to include community benefits, but Ottawa is just beginning to catch on.
The City's apparently been negotiating with Claridge for some section 37-type arrangement for the extra storeys on this building (though not a Section 37 per se), though the CCCA still thinks the building is too tall and too big for the site.
The report to tomorrow's Planning Committee meeting show many significant changes to the proposal. For one, there is a very convoluted plan that makes the coning conditional on the neighbouring site (which Claridge bought) also being developed ("don't like one giant building on one tiny site? How about two giant buildings on two tiny sites?"), and in the Site Plan process they'd slap on the community benefits requirements. On the plus side, they've added ground floor townhouse units, though it's unclear how tall the townhouse section will be since that wasn't in the original site plan. I've highlighted in red the outlines of the two towers, one at 89-91 Nepean, and one at 70 Gloucester (which extends all the way to Nepean in a key-shaped site).

The some of the changes are listed in the report to Planning Committee, but it's still hard to understand. This report is solely for the zoning, but there are conditions that need to be met in the Site Plan (which would be approved separately), as well as for the zoning and site plan for 70 Gloucester. It seems designed to say "part 1 is only being approved conditional on part 2 being approved" but I can see them saying later on "we have to approve part 2 because it is within the zoning of part 1," except that part 2 won't have the restrictions we're now being told they'll have, and we'll have no other recourse. Most of the changes in the site plan aren't detailed anywhere because this is only the zoning stage.
While I've spent much time familiarizing myself with the file over the last few months, Councillors on Tuesday will likely be seeing it for the first time and will have to wrap their heads around. The report states:
With respect to the holding provision, the Department is recommending the holding provision as the applicant has been in discussions with the Ward Councillor and staff with respect to off-site community benefits. The purpose of the holding provision is to ensure that a Site Plan Control application is approved which reflects this proposed development and that the monies intended for the community benefits are secured prior to the lifting of the holding provision.The benefits in question are yet to be confirmed, but at the CCCA's Board meeting last week Councillor Holmes said that it may include streetscaping improvements to Nepean Street and Cooper Street, plus money for affordable housing and for improvements to Jack Purcell Park.
With the City's own planners saying it's OK to build 27-storey buildings all the way to the lot line on this site, we'd have next to no chance to win a lower height at the OMB, so the community benefits are the most we can hope to get from this. Hopefully the City will come to an agreement with Claridge, and Claridge won't pull a fast one on us again by using a loophole to bail out of their side of the deal (like they did with the "portrait gallery" site).
Tuesday will no doubt give us an interesting meeting, but it's just the first of many. There are over a half dozen more rezoning applications for new buildings already in the pipe. One of the many reasons to join your community association is making sure there is strong community input to the planning process as our neighbourhood continues to develop. Download the CCCA membership form (PDF) today and join!
thanks for reporting this one. seems really foolish to build something on such a small lot!! this city is out of control. they need to smarten up and start saying NO. If they build that on that small land, it'll look ridiculous and cause nothing but trouble.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Place Bell is grotesque, but that's on account of its dreadful street presence.
ReplyDeleteWhat's grotesque about its height?
Is the city "out of control" or is it really that the city does not have the power to say no. Claridge also seems to be the slowest builder around. If these go up at the rate Lebreton is it will be years and years before completion.
ReplyDeleteYou can't have to both ways you can say no to urban sprawl and no to building downtown its has to be one or the others.With that said could this project be better sure but work has to be done on both sides saying no will help no one.
ReplyDeleteJayme
Jayme - we're not saying no buildings downtown. We want the parking lots to be developed. The Centretown Plan encourages it. But the plan, as well as the zoning, encourages buildings that aren't so large that streetscapes become block-to-block walls of concrete and brick. If every site on this block were developed with this kind of building, you'd no longer get sunlight at the street level for most of the year, because they're so tall and so close to the lotlines.
ReplyDeleteAt least Charlesfort argues that he was redistributing the density of the existing zoning (though I'm skeptical of the math), so that there is still space for life to happen at the ground level.
Remember that we don't go back home to some place in the suburbs at the end of the day. We live here, and we need parks, schools, daycares, grocery stores, and all the other amenities of daily life in our neighbourhood. We also need sunlight, fresh air, and streets that aren't wind tunnels.
The existing zoning has more than enough room to meet and exceed the intensification goals of the City's Official Plan through development of vacant lots. The existing zoning, as well as the Centretown Plan, were also conducted with much more public input than any individual building application. Applications dismiss the zoning and the various community-supported plans to drop buildings in without any planning context like so many concrete middle fingers.