By Philip Trippenbach
Soon, the fields and woods around the Corel Centre will be growing houses instead of trees – but this isn’t your typical urban sprawl.
The planned Kanata West business park is the first development to incorporate planning principles from Ottawa 2020, the proposed development plan for an amalgamated Ottawa. It will have denser, mixed-use neighbourhoods with fewer cars, more public transit and protected green spaces.
Residents and planners are giving the plan mixed reviews.
Ottawa-area firm FoTenn Consulting, which is advising the city on use of the land, proposes to turn the 725 hectares of field (an area bigger than Centretown) into Canada’s largest urban development project.
It will also be a glimpse of what development in Ottawa might look like under Ottawa 2020.
Development services planner Judy Flavin describes the planned neighbourhoods as “walkable, green communities. Housing [would be] of sufficient density to support public transit, with transit stations incorporated into the neighborhood.”
Retail and housing would share the same buildings to increase neighbourhood appeal and reduce the need for driving. A reduced amount of parking would also discourage cars, says Flavin. These features effectively resurrect the pre-suburban neighbourhoods of 60 years ago.
It’s a far cry from the bedroom communities, trunk roads and industrial parks of the suburbs.
The Kanata plan follows the multi-use principle. Though it is called a business park, the Kanata development will mix residential and commercial development. “It’ll be a place where people can work, live and play,” says Kanata Coun. Alex Munter. “We don’t want to see another sterile, car-focused industrial park.”
Five thousand houses will share the neighbourhood with offices, shops and light industry, all expected to provide up to 25,000 jobs, says Fobert.
Overall, the land will be zoned 40 per cent residential and 60 per cent commercial. Having more houses near workplaces should reduce car dependency and encourage walking and cycling.
Zoning changes may be in the future for bedroom communities throughout Ottawa. Ottawa 2020 prohibits any construction on land not already zoned for development. Since Ottawa’s population is expected to double over the next two decades, this will mean much denser development – in established neighbourhoods as well as new ones.
There is “some skepticism” that the city will be able to accommodate its projected growth without urban boundary expansions, says Ian Cross, program manager in the city’s research and projections department. Nevertheless, council is consistently denying developers’ applications for zoning changes.
The prospect doesn’t worry Munter. “We have enough vacant land designated for development for the next 20 years. The Kanata West business park is part of that land,” says Munter. LeBreton Flats and the former Rockcliffe Air Force base are other potential locations for mixed-use development.
The Ottawa 2020 also plans to develop “in harmony with the natural features of the area.”
The Kanata plan, for example, protects the Carp River, whose headwaters flow through the site. The river and two small streams will flow in wooded corridors 70 to 100 metres wide. The corridors should reduce seasonal flooding as well as provide habitat for wildlife, says David Spence, founder and director of Friends of the Carp, a local environmental group.
The Carp River has been degraded by development and agriculture in the past, says Spence. Spence’s group worked with consultants on an environmental assessment before the development plan was drafted. Assessment of the watershed was a foundation of the Kanata plan, says Flavin.
Spence is “cautiously optimistic” about the business park’s impact on the Carp River. “I have to believe the consultants know what they’re doing.”