26 storeys at Bronson and Carling. A mistake by the lake?
Kelly Egan, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Oct 01, 2021 • 1 hour ago • 4 minute read
You wonder some days if city hall would approve a highrise in a graveyard, as long as it had ground-floor retail and a transit stop.
I mean, is there ever a wrong place for a tower anymore?
There’s an application with the planning department for a 26-storey highrise at the corner of Bronson and Carling, an intersection so busy it constantly roars, day and night, with a grinding, motorized anger.
The tower is high enough (82 metres) that a study indicates, on fall afternoons, a good part of the playing field at Glebe Collegiate would be in shadow. And it’s across the street.
As for battered old Bronson, “traffic sewer”, “pedestrian nightmare”, “dangerous and hazardous” — “a highway and parking lot, all at the same time” — are descriptions of its asphalt ambience.
And this is before adding 328 units (in two phases) and 174 parking spots in two underground levels at one of its busiest corners, with some 26,000 vehicles crossing it daily. Really, where does it end?
So, not surprisingly, the residents in the Dow’s Lake area are worried the building is too big, out of scale and character with its surroundings and designed to spill traffic into a quite lovely, established neighbourhood that slopes towards the lake.
“We’re not opposed to development,” says Duncan Ault, a lawyer who lives with wife Margot and a toddler a few door away.
“We’re opposed to bad development. This site is ripe for development. It ought to be developed, but this high-rise is egregiously out of place.”
It is at least the third proposal at the corner and residents say they supported a 12-storey condo plan that would have stepped down the heights to about six stories at the Cambridge South side toward the lake.
Robert Bell, a high-tech entrepreneur who lives nearby, said he shocked the planning committee in 2017, when he spoke in favour of the failed 12-storey plan, which would finally have put a weed-strewn lot to better use. (Oldtimers will remember a gas station at the corner. Real oldtimers will remember a lumber yard a few steps away.)
“(The developers) purchased the property knowing what the zoning was and presumably they’re prepared to build within the zoning,” Bell said. “I mean, wouldn’t you think?”
This is a point underlined by Sue Stefko, a public servant who lives in the Glebe Annex. On a chilly fall morning, she put her finger on an issue that has driven residents crazy across the city: that negotiated zoning restrictions shatter from intensification zeal, especially near transit.
It’s the new Ottawa math: 12 storeys, inside the Greenbelt, equals 26.
“Development within the zoning guidelines. It does happen. It should happen. That’s how we trust what’s in the zoning, that’s how we trust what’s in the plan. Otherwise, it’s so difficult to have faith in the system.”
Capital Ward Coun. Shawn Menard, a member of the city’s planning committee, this month held a public meeting on the proposal. He doesn’t support its current form. “There needs to be some big changes here.”
Density and height are issues, he said, but the main one is integrating the build into the established neighbourhood, one bordered by a chaotic thoroughfare. “Adding density there needs to come with safety improvements” to the streetscape, he said.
“I’m really urging the developer, the community and city staff to come up with a negotiated solution here that better suits the needs of everyone.”
The first phase is for 224 units, including 73 intended for students on the first few floors. The main vehicle entrance would be on Bronson, just south of Carling, with an exit west on Cambridge. The site plan shows little green or public realm space.
Adding intrigue is the applicant Katasa, a Gatineau-based builder now busily expanding in the capital. It is a central figure in a coroner’s inquest in Dorval, Que., looking at the terrible conditions at a Katasa-owned long-term care home in which 47 people died during the pandemic.
The tragedies set reporters looking into the history of the Katasa Groupe, only to discover its president, Samir Chowieri, had a criminal history (mostly related to drug-trafficking) from which he has since been pardoned.
Daughter Tanya told the public meeting on the tower project the company is very sad about the Dorval situation, but added: “Honestly, one has nothing to do with the other.”
It is unclear if the company is willing to negotiate on the 26 floors.
“As you may already know, we’re working with the Ottawa-based urban planning firm Fotenn to align this project with zoning bylaws, the city’s density objectives and local input,” Chowieri replied.
“…. We’ve asked our urban planning consultants to continue to work closely with residents, the councillor and city officials to develop the best proposal for everyone.”
Fewer trees around Dow’s Lake, but a forest of glass and concrete growing on Carling’s hillside — all, weirdly, according to plan.
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-291-6265 or email
[email protected]
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...ronson-and-carling-a-mistake-by-the-lake
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