By Peter Kovessy
More affordable housing could be built above stores along Bank and Elgin streets if the city bargained with developers on zoning issues, says Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes.
“In order to get affordable rentals, there has to be something that the city has to trade or give in order to get that benefit,” she says.
Construction is about to begin on 61 affordable housing units above the Hartman’s Your Independent Grocer on Bank Street. The store itself is also expanding, spilling into a city-owned alleyway and encroaching on a residential area. In exchange for allowing the Ottawa Community Housing Corporation (OCHC) to build the affordable housing, the grocery store expansion received the green light.
“The city was quite clear that they wanted the city as a whole to benefit from this in a broader fashion than just getting a bigger grocery store,” says Stéphane Émard-Chabot, chair of the OCHC.
The concept of selling air rights is being touted as a solution to Ottawa’s intensification goals. In this model, the property owner maintains control of the initial structure on the ground floor while allowing a new structure to be built on top by another developer.
In the case of the Hartman’s expansion, the developer approached OCHC, says Émard-Chabot.
However, others say that while it has been a good example of how developers can sell the air rights above existing structures in order to further their interests, the city should be more active in zoning arrangements.
“It could become a very powerful bargaining chip if the city becomes aggressive with it,” says Dennis Carr, development co-ordinator for the Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corp., a non-profit group that owns and operates 1275 affordable housing units in Ottawa.
But these joint projects – where there is one owner for the first storey and another for the units above – become complicated because provincial legislation does not define responsibility for common areas, says Émard-Chabot.
As an example, he points to the question of repairs and other unexpected costs, such as if the soil was later found to be contaminated.
The official city plan on affordable housing also calls for more use of municipal property and the development of air rights over transit stations.
While there are some units around the Scott Street Transitway stations, Holmes says she is not aware of any plans to pursue the idea of building affordable housing on top of the stations. She adds there are several attractive locations – notably the Baseline station – but says there simply isn’t enough money available for affordable housing in Ottawa.
Holmes says the next step is to lobby the provincial and federal governments to become more active in affordable housing. However, Carr says the city should draft a new zoning bylaw to facilitate projects such as Hartman’s.
“This is a really good example of how the three sectors of society – private, public, and non-profit – can work together to create something that is very beneficial to everyone involved,” says Carr. “This is a project that I think when built will be an excellent model for other groups and other cities.”