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Claridge seeks approval for 39-storey condo on Somerset at O-Train tracks
By David Reevely, OTTAWA CITIZEN July 4, 2013
OTTAWA — Claridge Homes is seeking permission to build a 39-storey condo tower on Somerset Street just west of the O-Train tracks.
It’s the second time Claridge has taken advantage of a gap in the city’s urban planning, which has left a sliver of land next to the train tracks without a current neighbourhood plan — the site at 1040 Somerset St. W. is on the edge of a “community design plan” centred on the Bayview transit station and about a block away from the area covered by a similar plan for Wellington Street West, but neither applies. Next door, at 1050 Somerset, Claridge has permission for a 23-storey building tucked into the same little piece of no man’s land.
The zoning on the property allows a building of 15 metres, or about five storeys; Claridge wants to build a tower that tops out at 125 metres. The company’s planning application says that obeys the general principles of both nearby neighbourhood plans, even if neither strictly applies.
It would be the tallest thing in the neighbourhood — taller than the 30-storey buildings the city expects to approve on the other side of the O-Train tracks as part of redevelopment around the Bayview transit station. But, says Claridge’s application, “this property is unique.” It’s within walking distance of both the Bayview station and a new O-Train station expected to be built eventually at Gladstone Avenue, and it overlooks the track, two attributes that usually mean greater height is OK.
“The site is located at the edge of the community where the additional density and height will not negatively impact on the surrounding community,” the application says. Similar logic has been used for a 45-storey building Claridge already has approved for the south end of Preston Street near the Carling O-Train station, and for an application from Richcraft for two 48-storey buildings that city council hasn’t yet voted on, also at the southern edge of Little Italy.
This tower, designed by renowned Toronto firm architectsAlliance, features layer after layer of offset balconies on top of a four-storey podium, giving the effect of the world’s biggest (and most geometrically precise) Dagwood sandwich. “The high architectural quality of the proposed building creates a new landmark at Somerset Street punctuating the city’s skyline,” the application says. There’d be a small space for retail at ground level; the architectural renderings in the application show a patio with tables, suggesting a restaurant or coffee shop.
Besides changing the zoning rules to allow a much taller building that fills in more of the relatively small lot than would ordinarily be allowed, Claridge wants permission to provide less parking than the regular rules require. A seven-level underground garage would have 152 spaces for residents’ cars (and 174 for bikes), which is the minimum allowed under the usual law, but only another 10 spots for visitors. The law ordinarily demands 65.
Between all the transit and the street parking in the area, the application says, there should be plenty of room. “Given these circumstances, the reduction in commercial and visitor parking spaces is appropriate and is not anticipated to result in spillover parking in residential streets or to the broader community.”
With the application in its early stages, there’s no date set for city council’s planning committee to consider it.
dreevely@ottawacitizen.com
ottawacitizen.com/greaterottawa
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