NCC seeking city approval for diplomatic precinct along SJAM Parkway in Mechanicsville
The development application says the countries haven't been identified for the embassies.
Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Dec 26, 2020 • Last Updated 3 hours ago • 3 minute read
The National Capital Commission is formally pitching the idea of a new diplomatic precinct west of downtown Ottawa, eating up a swath of green space in Mechanicsville along the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway.
The federal agency submitted its plans to city hall this month, asking for the city’s approval to amend the zoning rules for the grassy 3.7-hectare field west of the Innovation Centre at Bayview Yards to accommodate six new embassies.
The development application, which asks the city to allow diplomatic missions on the land identified as 1 and 19 Sir John A. Macdonald Pkwy., says the countries haven’t been identified for the embassies. The plan is still in the concept phase.
The embassy parcels would have lot sizes between 3,600 square metres and 6,000 square metres, with the westernmost parcel being the largest of the six. The parcels would be 20 metres from the southern edge of the parkway, but the buildings would be inset about 12 metres from the property lines.
According to the development application, the sizes of the proposed embassies are based on other embassies.
The NCC envisions the embassies to be three storeys in height.
The Mechanicsville street network, not the parkway, would provide the entrances and exits to and from the embassies. Driveways would connect to Burnside Avenue for four embassies and Hinchey Avenue and Forward Avenue for the other two embassies.
The NCC is saving a portion of the total land for a 3,600-square-metre federal park at the corner of the parkway and Sliddel Street, across from the Innovation Centre.
The western side of the land borders an existing diplomatic mission, the Indonesian Embassy. Adding six new embassies would create a diplomatic strip between Parkdale Avenue and Slidell Street.
Land-use plans developed by the NCC have called on the agency to scope out properties along the parkways for possible diplomatic missions.
The Capital Urban Lands Plan recommends studying the urbanized edge of the federal parkways for new diplomatic precincts, while making sure possible developments don’t detract from existing views of the landscape.
But specific to the NCC’s development application to create new embassies in Mechanicsville, the 2018 Ottawa River South Shore Riverfront Park Plan identifies the proposed development site as a future diplomatic mission that should come with “sufficient visual and security vegetative buffering between the site and parklands.”
On top of that, the NCC has a policy direction in its overarching Capital 2067 plan to maintain an inventory of lands for new embassies.
The city’s Scott Street community design plan also predicts a “capital function” development on the site and calls for pathways cutting through the property to connect Mechanicsville with the parkway land.
In supporting the development application, a planning rationale written by the NCC’s consultant firm, Fotenn, says the embassies would be compatible with the surrounding neighbourhood and would contribute to a “complete community,” with the area pedestrian network extended through the land.
A preliminary timeline has the city’s planning committee considering the NCC’s development application in March.
The embassy plan would be the latest vision for the transformation of public land west of LeBreton Flats.
The Innovation Centre on city-owned land was one of the first steps, but there’s a larger plan to expand the facility and create a community between the building and the Bayview O-Train station, stitching into whatever becomes of the western portion of LeBreton Flats.
The city’s 6.3-acre Laroche Park across from the Innovation Centre is being eyed for a redesign project that will include a new community building and other amenities.
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