A condo fight with a twist in Wellington West
By Joanne Chianello, Ottawa Citizen May 6, 2014
Coun. Katherine Hobbs failed in what she called a “last-ditch attempt” to help a developer build a controversial condo at the northeast corner of Wellington Street West and Island Park Drive at council’s finance committee.
The fact that her colleagues wouldn’t support her suggestion that the city pick up the entire tab for the contaminated site’s clean up — instead of the usual 50 per cent — isn’t too surprising. Granting an exemption for one particular developer is just not on. It took Mayor Jim Watson to point out the obvious: “We’re going to be having other companies asking for the same.”
What may seem surprising is that a councillor is trying to help a developer bend the rules. That’s especially true for the first-time Kitchissippi councillor, who is sometimes accused of being too “development friendly” (meaning she sometimes supports tall buildings). Given it’s an election year, you’d think Hobbs would be loath to be seen supporting Toronto-based Mizrahi put up a 12-storey condo where only nine-storeys is allowed.
But from the start, almost everything about this project has been different and it’s producing some unexpected results.
Developer Sam Mizrahi started by consulting extensively with the community. Now, he didn’t engage with neighbours, businesses and community associations out of the goodness of his heart. Mizrahi says he needs the property rezoned because, among other things, the province has changed regulations regarding the level of remediation required for residential construction, resulting in additional cleanup costs. And the developer has hired some high-priced local help to argue his position, from private planners to lobbyists.
Still, by actually acting upon community feedback in designing a beautiful building and promising to expand and maintain an existing parkette, Mizrahi appears to have won many to his side. Except for two key parties: the city’s planning department and the chair of the planning committee, Coun. Peter Hume.
“It undermines everything we’ve been talking about, about certainty, about predictability, about the speed of development,” Hume fumed to the Citizen’s David Reevely. (It’s a little rich, by the way, for Hume to complain this story “has all been done through the newspaper” considering he unilaterally approached the Citizen with those line-in-the-sand comments.)
So the planning officials want to stick with the Community Design Plan, a fairly fresh planning document that calls for a max of nine storeys at the corner. And good for them — usually we’re complaining that the city planners are ignoring official planning documents and granting all kinds of exemptions.
Ironically, though, it’s those other exemptions that are the issue. Why, wonder residents, would the city grant additional height in cases where neighbours are against it, but are denying one that many residents want?
The conundrum here is that every argument is somewhat compelling.
Mizrahi is paying just under $6 million for the property — is it someone else’s fault if he overpaid? As Watson said, it’s a “buyer beware” situation. However, a number of developers have walked away from the site because they say they couldn’t make it work financially at nine storeys. Hobbs worries that the corner will simply remain “a derelict lot” for many years to come.
On the one hand, using planning mechanisms — in this case, extra height — isn’t an appropriate way to deal with contamination issues. A rezoning approval should be based on planning principles only.
On the other hand, “planning principles” have resulted in rezonings that, well, suck. Take, for example, the looming nine-storey building at the former convent site in Westboro, just a few blocks west of the property in question. No setbacks, a too-narrow sidewalk, banal design at best. It’s no wonder some residents in the Wellington West area are willing to accept Mizrahi’s request for additional height — at least they’re being promised an attractive building.
A stalemate? Hardly.
Mizrahi’s application is expected on the agenda for the May 13 planning committee meeting, even though the planning staff is recommending against its approval. This is highly unusual. Most of the time, if the city’s planners are not willing to approve a project, it’s simply withdrawn. The fact that Mizrahi is moving ahead suggests he thinks a majority of councillors are on his side.
We’ll see. But it will be interesting — indeed, bizarre — to see residents come out to argue in favour of extra height, and against city planners.
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