By Erin Boucher
Despite significant public opposition to a proposal for a 20-storey building on Gilmour Street, the developer has purchased a second downtown site and plans are in the works for a similar highrise.
Ashcroft Homes recently purchased the Canadian National Institute for the Blind building at 320 McLeod St.
Dennis Gratton, a planner for Ashcroft Homes, says the plans for the McLeod Street site are similar to the proposed construction of a highrise on the site of the former Ottawa School Board building on Gilmour Street. The second proposal will be more residential, unlike the plan for the Gilmour building, which would combine retail space and commercial office space with 16 floors of apartments.
Many Centretown residents say they are angry about the proposal and have spoken to Somerset ward city Coun. Elisabeth Arnold about their concerns.
“My constituents are more than upset about it, they are flat out opposed to the proposal and to the idea of a second,” says Arnold.
Arnold says the main concern is the height of the buildings.
Brian McGarry, director general of Hulse, Playfair and McGarry Funeral Homes, which is located across the street from the CNIB building, says he does not want to see the street eclipsed by highrises.
“I don’t want Ottawa to become a city where the street level doesn’t see the sun,” he says.
Gratton says he is not surprised about the public concern over the application of the second building because there was a lot of negative feedback about the Gilmour proposal.
“We anticipate a similar response from the community about the 320 McLeod site,” says Gratton. Ashcroft Homes is working with the city to address the concerns of the community.
Gratton says the public notification process is underway. Signs are now posted on the CNIB site and within the next three weeks Ashcroft Homes plans to hold a public consultation.
Arnold says she is willing to schedule a public meeting but not until she sees some concrete plans from the developer.
“We haven’t even seen a proposal from them yet,” she says.
McGarry says his family owns a house beside the CNIB building as well as the funeral home directly across the street from the building. He says he is unhappy about the application.
“We’ll be opposing it since we are directly affected on two sides of the building,” he says. “The idea of having a neighbour who is 20-storeys in your face doesn’t sit well at all.”
McGarry says he will be opposing the project from the point of view of a business. He is upset because his company was very respectful of city bylaws when they were expanding the funeral home in 1999.
“And then to have an application on our doorstep that ignores all this is appalling.”