By Bill Curry
Somerset Regional Coun. Diane Holmes and the Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation are appealing a City of Ottawa bylaw which they say limits future affordable housing developments near downtown.
The bylaw, which affects areas in Hintonburg, Dalhousie and Sandy Hill was passed by the city May 20. It rezones the areas to prevent small apartment buildings from developing any further.
But Holmes argues the new bylaw simply puts up another barrier to the building of low-income housing in central Ottawa.
“There’s little rental housing being built, so why are they worried? I don’t understand the community fear,” she says.
Statistics put out by the region show that only 20 new private residential units were completed in 1998, whereas 16,000 households are waiting for social housing.
Although regional staff have advised council that the issue isn’t worth fighting for since Ottawa-Carleton can still achieve its vision for core development despite the city’s new bylaw, Holmes disagrees.
She says the change in zoning would be harmful to the Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation, which builds, rents and manages affordable housing. That’s why the the corporation is appealing the bylaw to the Ontario Municipal Board.
“The bylaw limits the areas where we can build affordable housing,” says Denis Carr, the development co-ordinator for the corporation. He says regional support is very important to his cause because it will give credibility, as well as money, to their fight.
But the appeal is being slammed by other regional councillors as a waste of taxpayer money. Sandy Hill Regional Coun. Madeleine Meilleur is against changing the new bylaw and has introduced a motion to take away regional funding for the municipal board challenge. The motion has been referred to the planning and development committee.
Meilleur says the issue has been blown out of proportion.
“It’s a tempest in a teapot. All the community associations in my ward are all for it,” she says, pointing out the change in zoning only affects four streets in her ward.
Meilleur says the properties in her riding are expensive and reversing the bylaw would bring down the quality of the neighbourhood. She says her main concern is that a return to the old zoning would open the door to high-rise development in her ward.
However, Bob Vanasse, a zoning official for the City of Ottawa, says the old zoning typically limits apartments to four floors in height and that taller structures such as high-rises would not be approved.