By Hugo Rodrigues
While the National Capital Commission, regional and municipal governments are happy an agreement has been reached on ownership of LeBreton Flats, developers won’t be submitting bids on the land any time soon.
“The signing of the agreement was a really important step,” says Somerset city Coun. Elisabeth Arnold. The deal has given the NCC control over 100 per cent of the land, which gives it greater freedom when it goes to market the land to developers. But two of the larger residential developers with offices in Centretown don’t share the same eagerness.
“I’m not focusing on (LeBreton Flats) until they get on with the show,” says Domicile Developments’ president John Doran. He supports any move that will bring the Flats closer to development but questions when the NCC will release a call for tenders on the land.
Minto spokesperson Robert Greenberg is hesitant to say if his company will respond to any pitches by the NCC for the same reason. “If they send out a proposal call, we’ll respond,” he says, echoing Doran in his question of how long it will take the NCC to move on developing the Flats.
Until a deal was reached Nov. 8, the city, the region and the NCC each owned different sections of LeBreton Flats. The NCC owned 80 per cent of the land, consisting mostly of undeveloped fields. The region and the city owned portions of the Flats corresponding to where streets used to be or were planned on being built.
Somerset regional Coun. Diane Holmes goes as far as to offer her opinion as to what type of development the NCC should seek out.
“I’m hoping the NCC will go ahead and get residential development,” she says.
Holmes says she’s basing this on preliminary reports that the NCC will start marketing 2,500 housing units. The three levels of government agreed to this when an official plan for the site was drawn up in 1997.
Arnold agrees, saying, “We need more people to live in the downtown area, and this is a great location for residential development.”
Any company that wants to build on LeBreton Flats must still consult the region and the city and obtain the necessary permits from both governments. The process of issuing these permits would be subject to the regular public consultation process, which was the one condition for the land transfer, says Arnold.
But before any construction can begin, someone needs to clean a section of the site that has been contaminated during its use as a temporary snow dump. Runoff from the dump site contains high proportions of road salt, as well as garbage collected during the snow removal process.
Both councillors say the NCC owns all the land and it can either do the cleanup itself or split the cost with any of the developers who buy the right to build houses on the land.
Area developers also need to know the details behind who will be responsible for the cleanup.
“These challenges affect one’s haste to put the foot to the accelerator (of development),” says Doran.
He would need to know if his company would be responsible for cleaning up the contaminated land before building houses on LeBreton Flats. If not, then he would need a time frame for when the cleanup would be completed.
“I’ll become focused when they have a clear plan,” says Doran. The earliest time-line offered by the NCC at the Nov. 8 meeting was development within five years.