Hotel-inspired condos near Ottawa’s Little Italy will have ‘negative effect,’ Leadman says
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Hotel+i...225/story.html
BY DAVE ROGERS, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN MAY 4, 2010 12:02 AM
OTTAWA — A proposed 20- and 24-storey condominium development just west of Ottawa’s Little Italy would dwarf the surrounding community, Kitchissippi ward Councillor Christine Leadman told a neighbourhood meeting on Monday.
Leadman said the “hotel-inspired” condominium and townhouse development planned at 125 Hickory St. is out of scale with the rest of the neighbourhood and could overtax the capacity of residential streets and water and sewer services.
“It’s very much out of scale for the area,” said Leadman, adding that she’s heard from both nearby residents and business owners who share the same concerns.
The site was rezoned in 2002 for 12 storeys, but the developer, Mastercraft Starwood, says higher buildings with a smaller footprint would mean more sunlight at ground level.
The developer behind what it calls the SOHO Champagne project, now plans 334 units in two condominium towers, one 20 storeys high, and the other 24 storeys plus 31 townhouses. The buildings would be connected in a single complex at the intersection of Hickory Street and Champagne Avenue, just west of Preston Street and north of Carling Avenue.
Both towers would sit on a three-floor base or podium, which would also include the town houses. City planners say this design allows more sunlight to pass through the buildings than a wider 12-storey building while accommodating the same number of people.
“There is no infrastructure here to support this,” Leadman said. “There are three other developments planned in this area.
“When you look at the cumulative impact of all the projects there is a significant negative effect for the area.”
Leadman said Sherwood Drive and other residential streets are not designed to carry the traffic the development would produce. She said plans for the development more than triple the city’s housing density target for the area.
“There are no amenities or shopping here to support that number of people,” Leadman said. “If people want to go grocery shopping they would have to get in their cars because there is nowhere else to go.
“If all this does is increase traffic congestion and put pressure on parks and green spaces, it doesn’t add value to the community.”
Some residents who attended a meeting at the Civic campus of The Ottawa Hospital complained the buildings would cast long shadows onto a nearby park.
Leadman said the condominium towers would be taller than other structures in the area. There is a 14-storey building on Breezehill Avenue, less than a block away and a 19-storey condominium under construction on nearby Adeline Street.
O-Train service is part of discussions regarding this project because the city’s intensification plan calls for more development near train stations. Some residents at the meeting argued the east-west rapid transit service won’t be ready for years and existing bus service won’t be adequate.
The end result, they said, would be that residents of the development would drive instead of using public transit.
Intensification plans call not only for more residential units, but also amenities for the increased number of residents, the idea being that all necessary goods and services are within walking distance. The design for 125 Hickory St. calls for three levels of underground parking. Leadman said that much parking would not get cars off the road.
Shirley Rayes said the development proposal is a reckless. “Intensification is probably a good thing, but it has to be balanced. What they would be doing is destroying an existing community.”
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However, in all of the push on this forum about density and non-suburban living, we need to remember that there is a market out there that would find living steps from Sprawlmart and a pad mounted restaurant to be a plus.
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