By Laura Drake
More high-density housing may soon be popping up in Centretown to accommodate a projected population increase of 10,000 by 2015.
“It’s a good thing,” says Alain Miguelez, a planner with the City of Ottawa, of the condominiums.
“The land downtown is too expensive for a single house, so what can you do? Centretown has a rich heritage of old homes and they are protected. At the same time, there are places where growth is okay.”
The city has already identified where it prefers that growth to take place.
“Where there’s empty parking lots along main streets like Bank, Elgin and Somerset — those are the obvious places,” says Bob Spicer, the city planner in charge of downtown initiatives.
“We’d like to see intensification go up there.”
Main streets, such as Bank, Elgin, Somerset, Preston and Carling are a large part of the city’s plan to shift population downtown and away from the suburbs. It wants buildings to go up in gaps on these streets with stores on the bottom with a residential floors above.
The latest population estimate for Centretown comes from the Ottawa Ward Boundary Review Background Report, released in December.
Compiled by consultants Gary Davidson and Beate Bowron, the report contains the most “well-considered and accurate [population] projection available at this time.”
“We had the census from 2001, but we also had additional numbers for 2002, 2003 and 2004 which showed us trends by traffic zone,” says Bowron.
The report’s figures show Centretown could jump from roughly 38,800 residents to 48,900 over the next decade.
The city is aware of the increasing population, and has taken steps to make sure it will be accommodated. Miguelez authored a report called “Where Will We Live?” in order to address the issue.
For Centretown, the answer to this question appears to be condominiums.
While these structures are a sore spot for many Centretown residents, Louis Facchini, co-president of the Centretown Community Citizens’ Association, says high-density development is not necessarily a bad thing.
“We’re all for people living where they want to live,” Facchini says. “If the master plan for this area has certain areas that are high-density, it’s always better to have more people closer together rather than urban sprawl.”
The city is encouraging downtown development as part of the Official Plan. In a section specifically relating to Centretown, the plan says population could potentially increase by 50 per cent by 2021 — or 19,400 new people — if redevelopment occurs the way the city wants.
“The direction the city has taken now is a bold step. We’re saying we want to grow like a real city and repopulate downtown,” says Miguelez.
He adds the city has offered incentives such as waiving some development fees in order to get high-density structures in place.
Spicer points to developments such as Claridge’s Pinnacle, Ashcroft’s Opus and Domicile’s Everett already underway in Centretown.
Neil Malhotra, vice-president of Claridge Homes, says from a developer’s point of view Centretown is a profitable place to build, since people are eager to live near workplaces, restaurants and museums. However, he adds the city is making it a lot easier to develop condominium complexes.
“The financial incentives from the city do make the ones downtown more feasible,” he says. “In Centretown right now the biggest difficulty is finding areas that are zoned properly.”
Malhotra says Claridge will be looking to potentially rezone some areas in order to build more high-density structures. Rezoning is another issue that Centretown residents rarely take lightly.
“This is where the services are, so I don’t see this as an issue. We already know that you can’t build 20 story high-rises everywhere,” Spicer says.
Somerset ward Coun. Diane Holmes says she thinks the growth is welcomed by Centretown residents, so long as new housing is fair to everyone.
“I think most constituents want residential developments as long as they’re for many income levels. That’s the history of this area. There’s a lot of interest in affordable housing, not just luxury condominiums,” she says.
Facchini says any new developments will not be a problem, so long as residents are consulted.
“We take a very democratic approach with these things. The most important is the people who live next to these developments to see what they think. The guy that’s living next door is the one whose opinions really matter,” he says.
“The people that live downtown they live downtown because they like people. I can’t say we’d like 100 people living over our heads but I can’t say we’d like a secluded life like the Unabomber. We want the best of both worlds. We certainly don’t want to keep anyone out.”