Appeal of Glebe parkade plans dropped
David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: November 7, 2014, Last Updated: November 7, 2014 7:19 PM EST
A city plan to build a parking garage in the Glebe is going ahead after a neighbour gave up on appealing the project to the Ontario Municipal Board.
The four-storey garage, to replace a surface parking lot between Second and Third avenues near Bank Street, was originally supposed to be finished last month. Instead, the appeal of a rezoning the project needed has pushed the start of construction into next spring, with completion now expected in fall 2015.
The appeal never came to a hearing, which means the grounds for the appeal aren’t public. A planned hearing day in June was postponed and a new one in late October was cancelled.
Coun. David Chernushenko said John Kaczmarek, who owns a rental property next door, had sought a full redesign of the garage but was eventually satisfied with a city promise to erect a fence, re-arrange some ventilation, and let him or his tenants park on a corner of the city’s land.
“It’s all water on the bridge now and we’re delighted we can move forward,” Chernushenko said.
The $9.5-million, 150-space garage isn’t needed yet, according to a city parking study, but the city is building it anyway because it expects the Glebe to have a shortage of parking eventually. City staff had suggested charging different rates for parking on Glebe streets — which tend to be more crowded farther south, emptier at the north end of the neighbourhood — might spread cars out and eliminate the need for the garage, but city councillors rejected the idea.
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