Tewin Algonquin land development [Hwy 417/Boundary Rd] | Proposed

[rocketphish]

Massive Ottawa suburb planned by Algonquins of Ontario hinges on urban boundary expansion in east end

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Oct 01, 2020 • Last Updated 1 hour ago • 4 minute read

The Algonquins of Ontario and a local developer are pursuing the creation of a new suburb near Ottawa’s eastern border that showcases the spirt of Algonquin principles, but they need to convince city planners and politicians to include the massive tract of land inside an expanded urban boundary.

The swath of land, located southwest of the intersection of Highway 417 and Boundary Road, would be transformed into a community of 35,000-45,000 residents called Tewin, which means “home” in the Algonquin language.

“The purchase of these lands is an investment in our future and provides for invaluable opportunities for economic development and capacity-building for the Algonquins within a major city, within our traditional territories,” said Wendy Jocko, chief of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan, which is an Algonquins of Ontario community.

The future of the project hinges on a looming city decision establishing the lands that should be brought inside an expanded urban development boundary, satisfying population growth projections under a new official plan.

The Algonquins of Ontario selected Taggart Investments as its partner in a development vision for a new suburb.

“I’m personally passionate about this project because it’s basically what I have always dreamed of doing,” said Michelle Taggart, Taggart’s vice-president of land development. She called the partnership with the Algonquins of Ontario “much more than a land deal” because there’s an opportunity to build a sustainable community using values of the Algonquin people.

There is, however, an immediate challenge for the project.

Council in May approved adding between 1,350 and 1,650 hectares of development land inside an expanded urban boundary to accommodate 401,000 new residents over a 26-year period. Since then, city planners have been narrowing down which new properties should be brought inside the boundary, which is an extremely consequential decision for landowners with development plans.

The Tewin land is not inside the current urban boundary and would require approval to be brought into the expanded boundary.

Alain Miguelez, the city’s manager of policy planning in the planning department, said staff are targeting a date in early 2021 to bring a report on urban expansion to a joint meeting of council’s planning committee and agriculture and rural affairs committee.

The Algonquins of Ontario and Taggart believe they have a huge advantage, going as far to suggest their proposed suburb will be the best one designed and developed in all of Ottawa. The suburb would have a large mix of housing types and include employment land. The Amazon warehouse on Boundary Road is just east of the property.

The development partners believe Tewin lines up perfectly with the “five big moves” that the city has been promoting as part of the next official plan. They also think the prospect of Ottawa having two One Planet Living communities — the first one is Zibi on the Ottawa River — would give the Canada’s capital immense credibility on an international scale for encouraging sustainable urban planning.

The Tewin vision earmarks about 500 hectares for a dense, mixed-use community and another 600 hectares for a natural land trust.

There are plans to have training and procurement opportunities for Algonquins through the creation of Tewin, plus a scholarship program.

It could be hard for the city to reject the land as a candidate for urban expansion. Council in 2018 approved a reconciliation action plan aimed to strengthen the relationship between the municipal government and Indigenous communities.

“It is time for the Algonquins to be front and centre within the nation’s capital,” said Janet Stavinga, executive director of the Algonquins of Ontario. “They have thus far been precluded the opportunity due to the historical wrongs of the past and there’s a real opportunity for the City of Ottawa, for the citizens, to seize this chance for reconciliation to have the Algonquin presence recognized in the capital to be able to create a community that’s sustainable.”

At the same time, council has already approved criteria for new properties inside the urban boundary. The criteria include serviceability for sewer and water and distance to emergency services.

Proximity to transit, however, is the big point-getter in the evaluation criteria; specifically, the closeness to current and future rapid transit stations.

Tewin would struggle to collect points based on today’s transit blueprint.

“We will bring rapid transit to this site at no cost to the taxpayer,” Taggart said, pointing to one option of creating an area-specific development charge to fund transit infrastructure, much like what was done to extend the Trillium Line deeper into Riverside South.

Tewin would rely on bus routes to connect the community with Leitrim and Cyrville rail stations and use Highway 417 to run express bus service.

With so much work and so many approvals required before breaking ground, it’s hard to say when Tewin would become a reality if the land is allowed inside the urban boundary. Taggart said there would be “many years of planning” ahead.

There’s a the risk that the city won’t consider the land for inclusion and Stavinga has been managing those expectations with the Algonquins of Ontario communities.

The City of Ottawa will continue to grow, and at some point, even with aggressive intensification targets, council will probably consider another urban boundary expansion.

Algonquins are willing to wait at long as it takes to see the Tewin vision come to life.

“It may not be the ones that are here now, but it will be those in the future,” Stavinga said.

jwilling@postmedia.com
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https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...on-in-east-end

[CityTech]

Intriguing development concept but way too far out. There's absolutely no urban transportation infrastructure at all. The highway is only 2 lanes per direction out there, all 2 lane rural roads, no rapid transit anywhere even remotely nearby and it would cost billions to change that.

This would be the disastrous mistake that Finlay Creek was, on steroids.

[J.OT13]

I would love to see more, such as a map showcasing the land we're discussing, what parts would be developed and what sections would remain naturalized. Some concepts showing the types of housing and layout.

The development seems far, but really it's closer than Stittsville, Barrhaven and parts of Kanata. The 417 east is under utilized at the moment and could stand to accommodate more volume. Amazon is a huge employer and this would give more opportunities for employees to live near by, not to mention build a business case for transit to the distribution centre (and larger community).

We've let the big developers dictate the crappy suburbs for far too long. I'm very interested to see what the Algonquins of Ontario could bring to the table and what would a One Planet suburb look like.

[CityTech]

I know it's geographically close but what I mean is it has very little urban infrastructure in the area, so the cost of building it out will be very high compared to incremental growth in the existing suburbs.

I'm not sure 417 can absorb a new suburb of 40,000 without widening to 6 lanes. There's also no practical way to get rapid transit out there without spending an enormous amount of money.

It's also dangerously close to the city limit - the Russell border is just a few kilometers away - so there's a real risk of spillover sprawl in the Russell area.

[Aylmer]

As interesting as this sounds, I'd have a hard time swallowing this without rapid transit from day -1. No matter how many solar panels are slapped on the place, spawning a new suburb of 50k along a highway is just a bad thing for our region.

The only way I could see this being a good thing is if they work with VIA and OC to get an O-Train Line 3 running between Tremblay and the site, then build no more than 1 km walking distance from the stations. But it'd have to be rapid transit. No peak-only nonsense, but a train every 20 minutes or less, 6 am to midnight, every day of the week.

[J.OT13]

Taggart is apparently ready to bring transit to the site at no cost. How that would be done, I don't know, but I would be interested to know what their solution would be.

Bringing a bare-bones O-Train Line, similar to the original pilot, could be an option, but I think the development is on the wrong side of the highway.

[Multi-modal]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Taggart is apparently ready to bring transit to the site at no cost. How that would be done, I don't know, but I would be interested to know what their solution would be.

Bringing a bare-bones O-Train Line, similar to the original pilot, could be an option, but I think the development is on the wrong side of the highway.

I would say they could use the former New York and Ottawa Railway corridor, but that corridor is fragmented and no longer owned by a public entity (until you get to Russell and Embrun). It would also require quite a few grade separations.

*Edit - if Ottawa allows the minor roads to be at-grade, I guess the only real grade separation would be the Highway.

*Edit 2 - it actually turns out the development land is so big that they own all the rail corridor from the Greenbelt southwards up to Mitch Owens Road - so they would just have to receive permission from the NCC to re-build the rail corridor through the Greenbelt and across the highway.

[CityTech]

Yeah it's across the highway from the VIA tracks.

Alternatively, the long abandoned (but still mostly intact it seems, judging by Google maps) New York Central railway RoW passes directly through the area and could possibly be revived.

[CityTech]

Originally Posted by Multi-modal

I would say they could use the former New York and Ottawa Railway corridor, but that corridor is fragmented and no longer owned by a public entity (until you get to Russell and Embrun). It would also require quite a few grade separations.

^ Ha!

It seems to still exist between Russell and Ramseyville, minus where the highway seems to have been built over it (I think the railway was abandoned before the 417 was built although I'm not sure). I wonder who owns it.

[Multi-modal]

Originally Posted by Multi-modal

I would say they could use the former New York and Ottawa Railway corridor, but that corridor is fragmented and no longer owned by a public entity (until you get to Russell and Embrun). It would also require quite a few grade separations.

*Edit - if Ottawa allows the minor roads to be at-grade, I guess the only real grade separation would be the Highway.

*Edit 2 - it actually turns out the development land is so big that they own all the rail corridor from the Greenbelt southwards up to Mitch Owens Road - so they would just have to receive permission from the NCC to re-build the rail corridor through the Greenbelt and across the highway.

Here it is on the aerial image of the development. The only major obstacles are the Highway and the Hunt Club ramp on the east side of the highway. The ramp could easily be avoided.


That said, this is still a terrible place for urban expansion. Check out this map, there is a reason why the Ottawa hasn't expanded to the southeast and its called Leda Clay: http://bulgaripaving.ca/so-whats-the-deal-with-clay/

[J.OT13]

Fascinating. We can follow the former railway all the way to Cornwall on Google Maps. It might be fairly simple and cheap to rebuild, grade separations aside, up to just past Walkley, but then it goes through some industrial land, a strip of the OC Transpo facility (which might not be a major issues) and then Train Yards where several buildings would need to be demolished. Alternatively, they could hook-up to the VIA tracks at Walkley, but that might conflict with HFR.

Thanks for posting the map. I didn't realize it was the land we were talking about was almost the size of Orleans. The Leda Clay could be problematic, but that hasn't stopped the City from approving development in, well, Orleans.

[phil235]

Call me cynical, but my first thought was to wonder whether Tamarack had partnered with the Algonquins as a way to get around the urban boundary issue.

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by phil235

Call me cynical, but my first thought was to wonder whether Tamarack had partnered with the Algonquins as a way to get around the urban boundary issue.

My thoughts exactly. You can call me cynical as well.

[J.OT13]

I hope that's not the case, but I can certainly understand the suspicions.

As per the article:

"The Algonquins of Ontario selected Taggart Investments as its partner in a development vision for a new suburb."

Hopefully this means the Algonquins of Ontario thoroughly reviewed possible partners and chose a developer with good intentions that best shares their vision.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

My thoughts exactly. You can call me cynical as well.

It’s not cynical it’s obvious. This is not Algonquin land but they being are brought in to develop land that is otherwise extremely unlikely to be included in the medium term. It’s a smart play by Taggart but if we want to give money to First Nations we should probably just do it I suppose not these continual sweetheart deals. How much of the millions in increased land value will they even get?

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

I hope that's not the case, but I can certainly understand the suspicions.

As per the article:

"The Algonquins of Ontario selected Taggart Investments as its partner in a development vision for a new suburb."

Hopefully this means the Algonquins of Ontario thoroughly reviewed possible partners and chose a developer with good intentions that best shares their vision.

When I'm thinking of vision in a brand new suburb, the proponents aren't who I immediately think of.

[Tesladom]

This makes a lot of sense to me, there is already excess transportation capacity with 417, it could handle a community of up to 50k residents easily based on its current format.
We are out of room and capacity in Orleans and need to balance out the traffic flows
Public transit could be accommodated easily by Bus lanes for the first 20 years.

Sure people will cry foul at expanding suburban development but we don't have too much choice, the other option is to continue seeing unaffordable housing in the urban core, not many families have $1M+ for a townhouse.

Communities outside the City of Ottawa are continuing to boom (Limoges, Embrun etc..)

The other option is to selectively develop parts of the Greenbelt... but that's another can of worms

[Marshsparrow]

Originally Posted by Tesladom

This makes a lot of sense to me, there is already excess transportation capacity with 417, it could handle a community of up to 50k residents easily based on its current format.
We are out of room and capacity in Orleans and need to balance out the traffic flows
Public transit could be accommodated easily by Bus lanes for the first 20 years.

Sure people will cry foul at expanding suburban development but we don't have too much choice, the other option is to continue seeing unaffordable housing in the urban core, not many families have $1M+ for a townhouse.

Communities outside the City of Ottawa are continuing to boom (Limoges, Embrun etc..)

The other option is to selectively develop parts of the Greenbelt... but that's another can of worms

We do have a choice - Greenbelt, Experimental Farm, Lebreton, Hurdman and countless other sites throughout the city that just sit there...

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by Marshsparrow

We do have a choice - Greenbelt, Experimental Farm, Lebreton, Hurdman and countless other sites throughout the city that just sit there...

Good luck with the 1st two suggested location

[RuralCitizen]

I keep seeing people proposing we build on the greenbelt, or over the experimental farm in multiple threads, or building along the 417 East because it is "under capacity".

How about we also ask ourselves the question: "then, what/where after?"

Yes, building over readily/easily available land might fix our current problem of small inexpensive housing supply. But then, what to we do after? where do we build after?

The city won't stop growing and demand will also increase. So once these areas are built on, where do we build? once both the 174 and the 417 East are at capacity, what do we do? The commute will be horrible for everybody.

Do we really need another suburb? Maybe for the near future it is an easy fix. But isn't it just another band-aid solution that will reoccur down the road? At the cost of loosing natural ecosytem, and farm land?

I'm not saying we should'nt, maybe we need a balance. I'm simply bringing the question.