A new grocery store proposed as part of a condo development at 187 Metcalfe Street may create more problems than it will solve, critics say.
Somerset Ward Coun. Diane Holmes and Capital Ward Coun. Clive Doucet voted against the developer’s plans at a meeting of the planning and environment committee on May 11, citing traffic problems the store’s loading bay would create on Nepean Street.
Despite their opposition, the committee approved the plan.
The Claridge Homes development plan includes the construction of two 27-storey condo towers, one seven-storey building, a six level parking garage and a 25,000 sq.-ft. grocery store.
Council initially approved the condo-complex design when it included space for the now-defunct National Portrait Gallery. Holmes says that it is unlikely it would have been approved otherwise.
Holmes and Doucet’s opposition has sparked fierce criticism among downtown residents because the neighbourhood is currently only serviced by one major grocery store, Hartmann’s, where a three-litre bag of milk can cost as much $5.99.
The development site lies across Nepean Street from the Place Bell Building which has a 1,000-car parking garage and a loading bay which already keeps the north side of the Street filled with large trucks for most of the day.
Holmes says in order for the trucks to turn right onto Nepean from Metcalfe they need to cross three lanes of traffic and will effectively stop traffic on Nepean Street while they back into the loading zone.
“This development shouldn’t be jeopardizing its neighbours’ ability to use the street. The developer’s transportation study recommends that truck drivers meet on the street and decide who uses the street first, it won’t work,” says Holmes.
As a resident of Centretown, Holmes recognizes the need for another grocery store but says the community needs a store that won’t burden residents with new problems.
As an alternative, Holmes says another developer is currently looking to include a grocery store at its development on Bank Street and Gladstone Avenue area, a site where a store would not create the same kind of congestion.
Claridge Homes vice-president Neil Malhotra says that overall the development’s pros outweigh its cons.
“What we’re really talking about here is adding 10 trucks a day. The need for more and better retail in the community outweighs the congestion issues that come along with it,” says Malhotra.
He says that to mitigate the traffic issues the company will pay for the installation of a new set of traffic lights for the Metcalfe-Nepean intersection.
If council does not approve the plan, he says his company will appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board which already gave them increased height and density allowances.
However, it’s not just politicians who oppose the development.
The Centretown Citizens’ Community association has come out against the plan saying that while Centretown does need another grocery store, the Claridge Homes development is not the best way to get one.
The association’s president, Sean Menard, says that because the project was associated with the National Portrait Gallery that it was approved without the customary community consultation.
He says he is also worried that the scale of the development will have negative consequences for Centretown.
Menard says he is specifically concerned that the project will turn out like the Claridge development at LeBreton Flats which he likens to a monolithic, overbearing, featureless box."
City council will vote on the development plan on May 26.