General Update/Rumour thread [Urban Ottawa]

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by ars

Don't wanna delve too deep into this but your religious rights =/= LGBTQ/minority rights, equating those two is what I would call a slippery slope.

The only other comment I have on this is that I agree with 1overcosc in that the government needs to take a good hard look at any group/charity that peddles an anti-LGBTQ or anti-minority message.

Back on topic, I think that the move to Vanier is a good move overall, but the shelter needs to bring more value to the community than just being a shelter. Vanier is already a vulnerable part of Ottawa, it would be good to have a stable community center in that neighbourhood.

The Sally Ann site in Vanier is a block from the Wabano Centre and about 10-15 minutes on foot from the Community Centre up on the "lollipop" loop of Pères-Blancs.

[Vanier]

Originally Posted by ars

Ah you're right, not too familiar with that area. Still, maybe the new shelter can offer something else to the community that the community does not yet have.

More vice, more drugs, more violence, more loitering, more poverty and the flight of business? Oh, we need more of that

Sorry, I don't mean to offend you but this proposal is insane. We have plenty of social agencies and advocates. We don't need any more, thank you.

[mykl]

I can't find the original discussion, but the other day I saw folks chatting about that ball/clock thing that travels along the rood of World Exchange Plaza. I took note and while I was out and about this week I determined that it is very much still on the move. The photos are from far away, but you get the point. Though perhaps the clock wasn't adjusted for the time change.

[kwoldtimer]

edit

[Harley613]

I don't think we have a thread for the new buildings going up on Maisonneuve in Gatineau, but they are going up fast!
[IMG]IMG_1368 by harley613[/IMG]

[Harley613]

The fire damage is FINALLY under serious repair at this government building in Gatineau.

[IMG]IMG_1374 by harley613[/IMG]

[Davis137]

Do you know how tall the buildings on Maisonneuve will be when complete?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Davis137

Do you know how tall the buildings on Maisonneuve will be when complete?

8-9 stories I think.

[kevinbottawa]

Any renderings for this one? Couldn't find anything on the Ville de Gatineau website.

[citydwlr]

Originally Posted by kevinbottawa

Any renderings for this one? Couldn't find anything on the Ville de Gatineau website.

Is that not the condo from Boulet Construction, "Le Vibe"?

http://levibe.ca/?lang=en

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by citydwlr

Is that not the condo from Boulet Construction, "Le Vibe"?

http://levibe.ca/?lang=en

Yes, that's it. At least it's the one I was referring to.

[rocketphish]

Originally Posted by kevinbottawa

Any renderings for this one? Couldn't find anything on the Ville de Gatineau website.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=101824&page=158

http://www.lrarch.ca/maisonneuve/

[rocketphish]

'It may be cheap housing, but it's not good housing': Council cracks down on 'bunkhouses'

Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: July 12, 2017 | Last Updated: July 12, 2017 3:48 PM EDT

Ottawa city council took the rare step Wednesday of passing a special bylaw to stop the proliferation of so-called “bunkhouses,” which the mayor says diminish the quality of life in a neighbourhood.

The interim control bylaw will apply for one year to Sandy Hill, Heron Park and parts of Old Ottawa East, Old Ottawa South, Centretown and Overbrook.

It will prevent new construction of any buildings containing more than four bedrooms in a single unit (with the exception of a single detached home) and put a cap on the total floor area of multi-unit buildings with up to six apartments.

The move comes as council and city officials struggle to effectively deal with the excessive garbage, noise and other irritations often associated with bunkhouses, which Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury has equated to unlicensed rooming houses.

While the bylaw is in place, the planning department will complete its study of the current zoning for inner urban residential communities to ensure it allows for infill development within established neighbourhoods that maintains and contributes to the fabric and character of these neighbourhoods.

Replacing a single-family home with a multi-unit building that has 20 bedrooms is not reasonable, the mayor said.

Squeezing as many students as possible into these buildings may be appealing to developers, but, Watson said, “it diminishes the quality of life in a neighbourhood and, quite frankly, it’s not a very pleasant environment for students.”

“It may be cheap housing, but it’s not good housing,” Watson said.

The bylaw will not apply to a proposed development at 70 Russell Ave., which the planning committee discussed on Tuesday. The applicant wants to remove an existing red-brick building and replace it with a new low-rise apartment building, consisting of four units and a total of 21 bedrooms — a plan the current zoning allows for.

Council is also taking aim at short-term housing rentals facilitated by online platforms, such as Airbnb.

Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Diane Deans asked the planning department to look at what regulatory tools the city has under its current zoning bylaw to address complaints about noise, parking, garbage and other disruptions in residential areas.

If there aren’t sufficient powers at the city’s fingertips, Deans said council may want to consider regulation, as it did last year when it approved a vehicle-for-hire bylaw that allowed ride-hailing companies, such as Uber, to acquire private transportation licences.

The report is due by the end of the year.

Council briefs

• Staff will spend the summer reviewing the areas affected by spring flooding and will develop a simpler process for granting permits for the reconstruction of existing buildings and structures without the need for minor variances. More than 275 properties along the Ottawa River were affected by flooding in May.
• OC Transpo’s new low-income EquiPass won’t be ready to go for Jan. 1. Adding the new fare category involves a series of “back-end changes” OC Transpo staff say can’t be completed before the start of 2018. Council wants the EquiPass ready as soon as possible and gave OC Transpo a deadline of Canada Day 2018.
• The Wellington Diner at 1385 Wellington St. W. has been granted permission to build a patio outside the restaurant, along the corner of Western Avenue. The diner needed council to sign off because the zoning bylaw doesn’t allow a commercial patio within 30 metres of a residential area and the proposed patio would be about 19 metres from homes.
• The owner of Kristy’s Restaurant at 809 Richmond Rd. got the green light to build a 24-storey mixed-use complex. The site is about 200 metres west of the future Cleary light-rail station. The current Kristy’s building would be demolished, but the owner plans to reopen the restaurant in the new development.
• Somerset Street West between Bronson Avenue and Arthur Street will be closed to vehicle traffic from 8 a.m. July 28 to 8 a.m. July 30 for Ottawa Asian Fest’s Chinatown Night Market. The outdoor festival promotes Asian culture and heritage in the heart of Ottawa’s Chinatown.

[email protected]
twitter.com/mpearson78

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news...ousing-council-cracks-down-on-bunkhouses

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

[B]'It may be cheap housing, but it's not good housing': Council cracks down on 'bunkhouses'

Ottawa city council took the rare step Wednesday of passing a special bylaw to stop the proliferation of so-called “bunkhouses,” which the mayor says diminish the quality of life in a neighbourhood.

The interim control bylaw will apply for one year to Sandy Hill, Heron Park and parts of Old Ottawa East, Old Ottawa South, Centretown and Overbrook.

It will prevent new construction of any buildings containing more than four bedrooms in a single unit (with the exception of a single detached home) and put a cap on the total floor area of multi-unit buildings with up to six apartments.

The move comes as council and city officials struggle to effectively deal with the excessive garbage, noise and other irritations often associated with bunkhouses, which Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury has equated to unlicensed rooming houses.

While the bylaw is in place, the planning department will complete its study of the current zoning for inner urban residential communities to ensure it allows for infill development within established neighbourhoods that maintains and contributes to the fabric and character of these neighbourhoods.

Replacing a single-family home with a multi-unit building that has 20 bedrooms is not reasonable, the mayor said.

Hmm.. Tuesday Fleury realizes that a proposed development in his ward meets all of the zoning requirements, OP requirements, Secondary Plan requirements..but he and/or the community association and residents don't like it but they have no legal leg to stand on...and then he realizes that he can't win at an OMB hearing etc so he pulls the item from the Planning Committee agenda and most people think what is done is done

Wednesday morning..magically an interim control by-law appears, not on the agenda, with no room for public input or discussion and magically it is in effect to give the Planning Department a gentle nudge to come up with some regulations or to find a way to stop 'bunkhouses' as the community just doesn't like them...

And you wonder why people get cynical about politics/politicians and developers often build first and beg forgiveness later.

Meanwhile, the application that caused all of the hand wringing (and was supported by the planners) and likely triggered this last minute interim control by-law (that to be my knowledge isn't really available to view) can proceed as per the latest plans.

[waterloowarrior]

Council temporarily halts approval for bunkhouses
Politicians invoke rarely used interim control bylaw for six Ottawa neighbourhoods
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/council-halts-approval-bunkhouses-one-year-1.4201336
By Joanne Chianello, CBC News Posted: Jul 12, 2017 3:42 PM ET Last Updated: Jul 12, 2017 6:34 PM ET

City council invoked a rarely used power to put a one-year freeze on the multiple-bedroom residences — usually aimed at students — that are causing headaches for a number of communities.

At its last meeting before a six-week summer break, council unanimously approved an interim control by-law that would temporarily prohibit any new construction or renovations of a building with a large number of bedrooms. The maximum number of bedrooms depends on the size of the building, but the aim of the bylaw is to prevent the situation where a building with a few units contains as many as 20 bedrooms.

Councillor wields new power to put 'bunkhouse' developers on the spot

Sandy Hill residents sound off over crowded student houses after latest charges

The freeze on this sort of student rooming house applies only to six student-centric communities: Sandy Hill, Heron Park, Old Ottawa South, parts of Old Ottawa East, Centretown and Overbrook.

Political win for Fleury

There has been growing concern over reported problems caused by cramming so many students into a building that was not designed for so many people.

No community has been more vocal about this issue than Sandy Hill, which has seen an influx of all sorts of intensification developments, as well as high-density student housing projects.

The halt on bunkhouses is a political win for Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury, who has been lobbying his council colleagues for years about the need to take action against this type of housing.

"Years ago, it was a much tougher battle because it was seen as anti-development," said Fleury about his campaign to change the rules around the number of bedrooms in a single dwelling.

Coun. David Chernushenko, who represents Old Ottawa South near Carleton University, said that a single home that in the past may have housed a large family of five or six is now housing double that many people. Sometimes a residential building may have a number of smaller apartments, but each of those units may have four or five bedrooms.

"Because these people are rarely related, they didn't sign the lease together, they may not have even known each other, they're not typically working together on garbage and recycling and green bin," said Chernushenko. "So you get 18, 20 garbage bags, out on the front lawn, often on the wrong week, so they're there for a long time. Then if urban creatures get into them, that's a mess."

In addition to garbage, residents also complain about the noise and general traffic that these sorts of bunkhouses create. And those complaints must be handled by the city's by-law officers.

"Creating these bunkhouses is something I don't support at all," said Mayor Jim Watson. "I think it diminishes the quality of life in a neighbourhood. And frankly it's not a very pleasant environment for students. It may be cheap housing, but it's not good housing.

"If someone wants to build an apartment, that's one thing … but to build these bunkhouses so that they can exploit the opportunity to get as many students in a house is not acceptable in a residentially zoned neighbhourhood."

Move came as a surprise

There are actually no zoning rules prohibiting bunkhouses. Often the buildings are constructed or renovated under the current zoning — which often allows a single-family home to be split into a few flats, or even a small, low-rise apartment building — and those units are divided into multiple bedrooms with a shared bathroom and kitchen.

But there are no rules about how many bedrooms can be in a single home.

The city is trying to come up with some restrictions and is currently reviewing the zoning for multi-unit dwellings in residential neighbourhoods. The interim bylaw buys council and city staff more time for that review.

The interim control bylaw was worked on behind the scenes for the last week. City officials didn't want word of the development freeze to get out because they didn't want builders rushing to have their building permits approved.

Some Ottawa developers say privately they are stunned by the bylaw. There are sure to be applicants who have already spent thousands of dollars developing a multi-bedroom housing complex, only to find that they cannot move ahead with their projects for a year. And when the freeze is lifted, the rules for these sorts of developments may very well have changed.

The bylaw can be appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board, but the freeze would remain in force during the process.

70 Russell is still a go

Just this week, Fleury used another rarely used and new political power to force a site-plan application for a high-occupancy project at 70 Russell Ave. in Sandy Hill to go to planning committee.

But after about an hour of public delegations and discussion at Tuesday's planning meeting, Fleury withdrew the item and returned the authority for approving the project back to city staff. After all, the project didn't break any planning policies and would have been approved by staff under usual circumstances.

In recognition that the approval for this application was delayed because Fleury took the issue to committee — a very unusual move — the redevelopment for 70 Russell was explicitly exempted from the new bylaw by staff and council.

Lots going on behind the scenes...

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

Lots going on behind the scenes...

The optics of the whole thing stink. The community associations will be happy as previously they had no way to stop a legally permitted use.

Has this phantom interim control by-law actually surfaced anywhere online. OttaWatch doesn't seem to have it.

[rocketphish]

Repair plan for fire-damaged DND building in Gatineau expected by end of summer

David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: July 21, 2017 | Last Updated: July 21, 2017 11:09 AM EDT



The federal government expects a plan in place by the end of the summer for repairs to the fire-damaged Louis St. Laurent building in Gatineau.

But in the meantime, the Department of National Defence has developed its own strategy to place its 1,700 employees, who had worked at that building, at three locations in Ottawa and Gatineau.

The fire broke out in the Louis St. Laurent building at 555 Boul. de la Carrière on Apr. 21, 2016 forcing the shutdown of the facility.

The Louis St. Laurent building was home to the DND’s procurement branch. Defence officials have said that the upheaval from the fire has not affected the management of procurement projects for the military.

Employees have been shifted to various locations around Ottawa and Gatineau and are now settled in at 10 different office buildings.

But DND spokeswoman Ashley Lemire said the department has now developed an interim strategy to consolidate those employees in three locations.

Those sites are an office building at 975 Boul. Saint-Joseph, in Gatineau, a building at 400 Cumberland St. in downtown Ottawa, and the National Printing Bureau at 45 Boul. Sacré-Coeur, Gatineau. Those sites are already home to some of the employees who were forced out of the Louis St. Laurent building.

By the end of the year almost half of the workers — some 800 — will be operating out of the Cumberland Street location, Lemire noted.

No specific dates have been set for the other building moves but those will be done in the near term, according to the DND.

The fire started on the sixth floor of the Louis St. Laurent building and part of the roof of the building caved in because of the blaze.

Pierre-Alain Bujold, a spokesman for Public Services and Procurement Canada, said over the last year the debris from the collapsed roof has been removed. A wall has been built to seal off the damaged area.

Metal posts have been installed on various floors and in the parking garage to stabilized the structure. Two cranes were also brought in to help with removal of debris.

A temporary roof has also been installed, Bujold said.

“The plans and specs for the repair and restoration of the building are expected to be received during summer 2017,” he said. “No move-in date has been determined.”

No cause of the fire has been released.

But the blaze came amid a proposed $5-million renovation of the facility. In March 2016, a notice went out on the federal government’s contracting site for firms interested in working on what was being called an “extensive rehabilitation” of the building.

The work, which was to have been completed by June 30, 2016 included improvements to the sprinkler and fire alarm system as well as fireproofing.

In the fall of 2009, the Conservative government announced that upgrades were to be done on the building’s sprinkler system and metal fire doors.

The facility was built in 1985 and contains 40,000 square metres of office space, according to the federal government.

[email protected]
Twitter.com/davidpugliese

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news...ng-in-gatineau-expected-by-end-of-summer

[harls]

It doesn't look like that, and it hasn't for months.

Boo Ottawa citizen photo finding intern.

[J.OT13]

Ottawa office vacancy rate falls to 11.7%

OBJ staff
PUBLISHED:
Jul 24, 2017 2:57pm EDT



Ottawa’s office vacancy rate fell by half a percentage point in the second quarter as tenants snatched up class-A space downtown and in Kanata, recently released figures show.

Colliers International’s most recent office market report said the citywide office vacancy rate was 11.7 per cent at the midyear mark, down from 12.2 per cent at the end of the first quarter.

One of the big drivers of the decline was the high end of the downtown submarket, Colliers said.

“Class-A assets continue to dominate the interest of tenants looking in the market, a trend that is starting to spill into upper class-B offerings,” the real estate services firm said in a report.

“Millennial businesses find downtown spaces to be the most attractive in terms of amenities and transportation. Smaller companies in Kanata are starting to see this appeal and have begun to pursue downtown options as well,” Colliers added.

The firm says interest is also picking up in areas just outside the downtown core, with pockets of space between 2,000 and 6,000 square feet near the future light-rail line being highly sought-after by office tenants, particularly those in the professional services sectors.

In a developing trend, Colliers says parking is becoming less of a requirement for some tenants, particularly those staffed by younger employees. In buildings without abundant parking, many tenants are happy with on-site bike racks and showers.

Investment market

In a move that’s been rumoured for several months, Oxford Properties – the real estate arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System pension fund, better known as OMERS – is looking to sell its three-building Constitution Square office complex.

Its eventual sale will give a major boost to this year’s Ottawa investment levels, already buoyed by the Investors Group’s purchase of a 50 per cent stake in the three office towers at Minto Place in downtown Ottawa.

“At a low five per cent cap rate, it represents the largest transaction of record for the first part of the year,” Colliers said of the Minto Place purchase.

http://obj.ca/article/ottawa-office-vacancy-rate-falls-117

Surprised Oxford is looking to sell Constitution Square (CS). I doubt it will happen, but I'd like to see Brookfield purchase it and connect CS to the Place de Ville concourse. Direct access to the Confederation Line would be huge in marketing buildings that are mostly filled by the private sector corporations (and a few international missions).

They would also be able to connect CS to John Edmonds, though the Government nature of those towers might not be worth the investment.

[rocketphish]

Abandoned school site frustrating neighbours
School board promises project will move ahead soon.

By: Ryan Tumilty, Metro
Published on Tue Aug 15 2017



A long-abandoned school site will be better secured and construction will move ahead, officials are promising, after neighbours raised concerns about break-ins and vandalism on the site.

The Grant Alternative school was closed in 2007 and transferred to the Centre multiservices francophone de l’Ouest d’Ottawa (CMFO) in 2011.

The idea was to repurpose the school building into more of a community hub, with French language health and education services on the site.

Since then, however, the buildings on the site have remained empty and neighbours said this week the buildings have been a magnet for vandalism and other crime.

Coun. Mark Taylor, said the city is working with the Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario, which is now taking the lead on the project to make sure it’s more secure.

A smaller annex building on the site is also going to be coming down all together.

“The small annex has been the one that has been more problematic and the city is issuing a demolition permit to allow the board to take it down,” he said. “It’s on our property and it’s technically our building, but they’re going to take it down.”

Stephane Vachon, the board’s superintendent, said they became more involved in the process last year and hope to move the project forward.

He said they’re going to step up security patrols as a first step: “We will replace the plywood. We will solidify the fence and if we need to add more locks we will.”

He confirmed they’re working on the demolition of the annex building hopefully within a few weeks and that the board hopes to host a community meeting within a few weeks to share information on the plan for moving the project ahead.

While the project did stall for a number of years, Vachon said, he’s confident they’re on the right tracks.

“Looking forward I think this is still a feasible project,” he said. “Everybody wants this to work.

http://www.metronews.ca/news/ottawa/2017/08/15/abandoned-school-site-frustrating-neighbours.html