The Dale [99 & 121 Parkdale Ave) | 91+105m | 29+33f | U/C
 

every time this building is mentioned in a thread people discuss how Tega could never pull it off. what's the real story there?

Well there was this: http://www.openfile.ca/ottawa/file-u...building-sinks Granted, all builders - even the best - will run into construction problems from time to time, but it doesn't inspire confidence to say the least.

Others find it odd that Tega has never built a building out of concrete, and yet this is the second time now that they've proposed to build what would be the tallest residential building in the Ottawa region.

Then in the hearsay column: the company's principals have a (checkered?) reputation, as do the two low-rise condo buildings that they built on both sides of Churchill near Carling; but I have no direct knowledge of any of these rumours.

For reference, cross-posting the previous discussion of this proposal from the Rumour Thread:

something odd with SSP's internal clock today. "He who was first shall be last in the end" or something like that.

The Dale [99 & 121 Parkdale Ave) | 91+105m | 28+33f | U/C
 

We didn't have a thread for this one yet.

Particulars:
Tega Homes proposes a 32-storey, 220 unit, 100+ metre condo tower, to be called "the Rhombus," at 111 Parkdale Ave (northeast corner of Parkdale and Burnside, immediately to the south of Urbandale's approved 28-storey, 84 metre tower at 99 Parkdale). Proposal includes 7 levels of underground parkade for about 200 parking spaces (resident and shared visitor/commercial combined).

Application docs are posted here: http://app01.ottawa.ca/postingplans/...appId=__808D7V

Developer's website:
http://111parkdale.com/

Mechanicsville Community Association public meeting with the developer, Councillor, staff, etc. will be at the Laroche Park Fieldhouse on Tuesday November 20, at 7:00pm.

I'm sure it won't end up looking like this, but here's the current proposal anyway:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8478/8...b38203c8ab.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8197/8...271c0d03_b.jpg

Based on the render, my first reaction is that the tower would need at least 10 more stories to avoid looking stunted.

So...what exactly goes on at these community meetings? I've never been to one, but I'd love to go. I'd like to voice my support for this cool design (and height..).

...in response to McC's post about the Mechanicsville Community Association meeting....

If I've read Ottawa media reports correctly, ritualistic sacrifice of small children.

Based on my experience at these kinds of meetings, it will just be you, the developer and his team of consultants who will be nodding in agreement with you. At times, they get really off topic as residents rant and complain to the local councillor about noise in the neighbourhood, property standards issues, traffic, etc etc.

I think this is one of the few condos to be proposed that has a defined top and doesn't look like it was chopped off.

I've been to a few now, you can expect that the Councillor will welcome everyone to the meeting, the developer (or, rather, FoTenn on behalf of the developer) will present their plans, you'll also usually hear from the architect and traffic consultant, and maybe the City Planner will talk briefly about the official process for reviewing and approving the project (sic).

As Proof Sheet says, people do often get off topic, complaining about other developments, the kinds of people that will move in ("only the rich!" no, "it'll be a vertical slum filled with sex workers and drug pushers!"), because it's their BIG CHANCE to speak when the Councilor and someone from the city are in the room. How much there is of this will of course depend on how strong the chair of the meeting is at moderating participation. (I think that leaving a little room for venting is good and important, and that it's best to err on the side of letting people speak, but at the same time it's easy to lose control!) The relatively on-topic discussion will be largely negative: concerns about traffic, parking, safety, noise and shadows, fear of tall buildings, dislike of "profiteering developers" a "corrupt" city and "broken policies/processes", notes on style, etc.

As a resident of the neighbourhood, I can assure you that all perspectives are welcome to be voiced and heard.

Good rule of thumb: Community Associations are run by those who show up.

Wow...I think you and I have been to the exact same meetings.:tup:..you summed them up so well. When you know where that new building is that will be only populated by sex workers and drug pushers...let us all know when the grand opening will be for that:banana:

Great summary. Keep in mind that I do find that many people have busy lives and they don't get involved in the inner machinations of City Hall, so when there is a meeting in their neighbourhood they can go overboard as this is an actual chance that somebody at City Hall is listening.

precisely, although I might put "listening" in scare quotes ;-)

Ha! I can't wait...thanks for the heads up, everyone!...I'll probably be sitting quietly in the back soaking it all in. Looking forward to the "losing the plot" off topic conversations...I can picture the developers biting heir tongues and politely nodding their heads listening to "...you know..there was this one time I was walking down Scott street and blah blah blah...".

That building looks fantastic! As others mentione, if it were approved, and built looking at all like that, it would certainly set itself aprt from all of the other proposed condo towers along Parkdale.

I was at the meeting last night - some of the questions were interesting, particularly about the laneway between Parkdale and Forward. I'd love to figure out how that little laneway will be able to accommodate the increase in vehicle traffic, especially two-way traffic.

On the plus side, there will be retail space - at the meeting there was talk of a cafe or food store.

The biggest question on my mind...why is the city cramming Parkdale with giant condos, and letting Bayview Road sit empty? The city will get rid of that old Public Works building and put in some sort of theatre or event venue (supposedly), but what about the rest of the stretch? I've heard rumours that they will put condos there, but have seen nothing to date.

Glad you could make it (welcome to the Forum, btw!). It was a pretty good meeting, discussion stayed pretty on-topic -- relatively speaking ;-) and there were some important points for the Planners to hear. Too bad the actual city planner on the file couldn't be there (illness), especially wrt some of the problematic requirements that City policies impose:
- no lay-up spaces for moving and service vehicles for one;
- that tall towers must be 20 metres from other new towers but only 9 (IIRC) from old existing towers is another;
- arterial roads are being targeted for development, but access for development is deemed not to be a function for arterial roads;
- that City Planners completed the LRT-TOD plans for the parts of town with NO development pressure first, meanwhile dealing with these proposals in Mechanicsville and along the O-Train Corridor one at a time with no community-specific plans in place to guide them;
- and personal rant: that City Planners don't really do much "planning" at all, no consideration seems to be given to what sort of services these new residents will need: day care spaces, school spaces, park spaces, health and social services; the study of "adequacy of services" seems to be limited to the token look at traffic capacity, which in Mechanicsville means saying "well Parkdale Ave already has a failing level of service, and since there's nothing worse than a failing grade, a few more cars won't have an unacceptable impact, right?" UPDATE: to be fair they do have the engineering consultants look at all the utilities, too; but these are barely the minimum of services that are needed to be assessed for adequacy.

I also note that reps from TEGA themselves were conspicuously absent. I still think TEGA's intention is to get the re-zoning and flip the property. I don't expect that we will ever see "The Rhombus" built as shown -- but do any of our optimists want to take that bet? ;-)

The City's concept for the Bayview yards from the O-Train CDP process can be seen in the second video here: http://ottawa.ca/en/city_hall/planni..._oh/index.html (they're mostly from the 2006 plan based on NSLRT, so expect them to change a bit.

As for 7 Bayview (the old City workshop and associated lands), Councillor Hobbs' vision/concept is here: http://ourkitchissippi.ca/news/on-tr...for-7-bayview/ You can bet that this area will be a big part of the CDP discussions in the neighbourhood when these get going in the New Year. Because of the size of the vacant lot around/behind the now-heritage-designated public works building and its location at the northeast end of the neighbourhood (and to the north of anything that will ever be built at LeBreton), the proximity to Bayview Station and the high capacity of Bayview Rd, I think that a couple of VERY tall towers could be built behind with minimal negative impacts, and that the associated development charges (writ large) would support some brilliant repurposing of the the old building as a centre for the community facing on to a revitalized Laroche Park. I'll be saying so when the time comes; we'll see what others think.

Planning Rationale has finally been posted on the City Site:
http://webcast.ottawa.ca/plan/All_Im...0Rationale.PDF