200,230,260 Steamline St | ?m | 6 x 10-30f | Proposed

[rocketphish]

1663321 Ontario Inc. is redeveloping the property at 200, 230 and 260 Steamline Street to accommodate six residential buildings ranging from 10 storeys to 30 storeys with underground parking. It is estimated there will be approximately 1,779 apartment units, 77 bachelor units, 333 one-bedroom units, 804 one-bedroom plus den units, 290 two bedroom units, 62 two bedroom plus den units and 213 three bedroom units over a total gross floor area of 1,711,462 square feet (159,003 square metres).

1663321 Ontario Inc. has filed an application under the BRCIP for the clean-up and redevelopment of 200, 230 and 260 Steamline Street, having a lot area of 3.5 hectares with 92 metres frontage on Terminal Avenue (see Documents 1, 2 and 8). The property is presently used as an office/warehouse building with past railroad line access.

The site, adjacent to the Ottawa Trainyards Shopping Mall, qualifies as an eligible brownfield priority area candidate due to its location within 600 metres of a proposed transit station.

Report to the Finance and Economic Development Committee, February 13, 2017
http://app05.ottawa.ca/sirepub/view....&fileid=428461


Location:




Siteplan:

[Athens]

Looks nice. I could see it doing well if they built a tunnel to Tremblay station.

[Uhuniau]

"Nice" is not quite the adjective I'd use.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

"Nice" is not quite the adjective I'd use.

You can't beat that access to Walmart. And the mail sorting plant.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by phil235

You can't beat that access to Walmart. And the mail sorting plant.

The heritage mail sorting plant and world-class Walmart, you mean?

[Uhuniau]

Like, seriously, can developers, and the city that rubber-stamps anything, start steering new projects away from having the street-level, street-fronting activity be bloody surface parking lots?

[Beedok]

I feel that part of town is enough of a lost cause that just some increased density is the best we can hope for.

[waterloowarrior]

1663321 Ontario Inc. is Controlex (the Trainyards developer)

[Harley613]

I didn't see this one coming. I thought that land was slated to be a large business park. This doesn't seem like a very attractive place for a large residential development.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Beedok

I feel that part of town is enough of a lost cause that just some increased density is the best we can hope for.

Or we could demand better?

[Lakeofthewood]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Like, seriously, can developers, and the city that rubber-stamps anything, start steering new projects away from having the street-level, street-fronting activity be bloody surface parking lots?

100% agree. At the VERY least, stick the parking in behind the buildings and at least TRY and make an attractive streetscape. I don't think the people at the Ottawa Automotive Service Centre south of the property will mind looking out at even more parking.

Also, from the City's very own TOD guidelines:

• For wider roads in suburban contexts, the road edge should be a minimum of 6 to 7m wide to accommodate a 2m wide clear pedestrian travel route, a 2 to 3m wide landscape buffer and a 2 to 3m wide inner boulevard.
• Separate the sidewalk from vehicle lanes by trees, landscape strips, light standards, utility poles, parking meters, signage, transit shelters, etc., to enhance the sense of security for pedestrians and to improve splash protection.

I'm not sure if this is technically "suburban" but can we at least get a boulevard or something here between the sidewalk and roadway? It looks like they're providing the absolute bare minimum for sidewalks. If the City actually wants people living around LRT stations they have to do it right, and this wouldn't be a good start.

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Like, seriously, can developers, and the city that rubber-stamps anything, start steering new projects away from having the street-level, street-fronting activity be bloody surface parking lots?

Well to be fair they haven't submitted a site plan application yet, it looks like it is just a concept sketch. I expect it will end up looking somewhat different.

FWIW I agree it needs work. The buildings should be better oriented to the street.

[Radster]

All the more reason, if this goes ahead, to open up that tunnel under the train station to the general public, to create a quick, and direct link to the LRT station.

[Beedok]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Or we could demand better?

Why though? It's in the middle of parking lots and low density industria or office parks. No one is walking to get there. No one is walking from there to anywhere. It's a lost cause.

[Athens]

Originally Posted by Beedok

Why though? It's in the middle of parking lots and low density industria or office parks. No one is walking to get there. No one is walking from there to anywhere. It's a lost cause.

I walk from my home on Alta Vista to Trainyards quite frequently. That being said, it isn't the most pedestrian friendly experience...

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Beedok

Why though? It's in the middle of parking lots and low density industria or office parks. No one is walking to get there. No one is walking from there to anywhere. It's a lost cause.

No, it isn't. Even at that level of detail, we can and should expect better street-orientation of developments. In fact, it is GIVEN the relative isolation and context of the site, that there should be much more consideration given to eyes on the street and pedestrian comfort levels.

[Beedok]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

No, it isn't. Even at that level of detail, we can and should expect better street-orientation of developments. In fact, it is GIVEN the relative isolation and context of the site, that there should be much more consideration given to eyes on the street and pedestrian comfort levels.

Because people will feel so much more comfortable walking through a few blocks of industrial park and shipping wharehouses withe the knowledge that one block has some street oriented development on one side of the street?

It's too isolated for it to give any greater pedestrian comfort. If it were on the edge of an industrial zone with walkable areas nearby then that's pushing walkability into a new area, but it's smack dad in the middle of an unwalkable zone.

[AndyMEng]

Originally Posted by Beedok

Because people will feel so much more comfortable walking through a few blocks of industrial park and shipping wharehouses withe the knowledge that one block has some street oriented development on one side of the street?

It's too isolated for it to give any greater pedestrian comfort. If it were on the edge of an industrial zone with walkable areas nearby then that's pushing walkability into a new area, but it's smack dad in the middle of an unwalkable zone.

The industrial zone is not long for this world. Directly to the south are a bunch of shacks and parked canada post vehicles. These will be soon demolished for even more development. I like that the south sides of the buildings have walkways and what looks like gardens. This means that they can couple with whatever development will front onto Industrial, creating courtyards and landscaped amenity spaces in the 'backyards' of both developments. The north sides? Meh, its just visitor parking on the shaded side of the building, nobody is going to relax out there anyways. Put up the sidewalk with a 2m grass berm as usual, along the street, and be done with it. At the north end of that small curving side-street, the tunnel to the train station will be quite close. Guaranteed people will walk this way to commute, and then head across the monstrously large Walmart parking area to shop at Trainyards.

Canada Post will be moving out of their large sorting facility within the next couple years, in favour of smaller facilities, more neighborhood-based, to streamline their production. That having been said, this opens up a lot of free land right adjacent to the Tremblay station, zoned for extra-high density.

Like I said, it's only a matter of time before development pressure sees the end of any industrial warehouse type facilities between Walmart and Alta-Vista.

It's only a matter of time before this entire area becomes a new village portion of town, mixing with the Trainyards shopping centre.

[waterloowarrior]

The city has pre-zoned this whole area for transit oriented development. There is requirement for active streetfronts along Terminal and other TOD guidelines like Lakeofthewood referenced. Also the heights they are proposing exceed the secondary plan limits. So it sounds pretty conceptual at this point.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by Beedok

Because people will feel so much more comfortable walking through a few blocks of industrial park and shipping wharehouses withe the knowledge that one block has some street oriented development on one side of the street?

Eventually everything will get redeveloped. We can demand that it be redeveloped better, or we can continue to approve crap, and then wring our hands about how our urban planning and architecture is crap.

We have to start somewhere. This is a where.

It's too isolated for it to give any greater pedestrian comfort.

Why should pedestrian comfort depend on a site not being isolated? And your verb is in the present tense: there's also a long, long future to think about.

If it were on the edge of an industrial zone with walkable areas nearby then that's pushing walkability into a new area, but it's smack dad in the middle of an unwalkable zone.

You don't start making unwalkable zones more walkable by failing to make them more walkable when given the chance.