As construction on a third set of condos gets underway at LeBreton Flats, a spokesperson for current residents of the area is concerned that the development of green spaces is being forgotten.
Eric Darwin, vice-president of the Dalhousie Community Association, says there is not enough park infrastructure included in this major redevelopment property west of Parliament Hill.
“If they went out and planted that now, the trees would be 20 years bigger by the time the buildings come along and it would be a very attractive neighbourhood,” says Darwin. “Instead, it looks like you’re buying the building with downtown urban prices, but there’s no downtown urban neighbourhood to go with it.”
In 1963, the National Capital Commission expropriated LeBreton Flats, one of Ottawa’s first residential and industrial areas, in order to redevelop the land into an urban centre. However, struggles to address soil contamination from the industries that used to occupy the Flats left the land unused until 2004.
It was then that the NCC began accepting building proposals from developers – one of which was proposed by Claridge Homes. The company won the rights after the other two contenders dropped out, saying the NCC had introduced new conditions that made the project uneconomical.
Fusion, the name of the latest project by Claridge Homes, will introduce a six-storey condo on Fleet Street and an eight-story tower on Lett Street, with stacked, boutique-style townhomes in between the two.
Darwin says he doesn’t understand why people would spend $254,000 to $690,000 to move into the area.
“You’ve got a museum that sits there in a sort of splendid isolation, we have a park that is great for a couple of festivals a year but the rest of the year it’s just a barren nothing, and then the rest of the Flats is just rubble and weeds."
But Mario Tremblay, an NCC media relations officer, referred to the park in an email as an example that park infrastructure has been included in the redevelopment process. Tremblay also indicated Riverfront park near the Canadian War Museum as another green space and wrote that 40 per cent of the LeBreton Flats neighbourhood will be parks and green spaces when redevelopment is completed.
The Fusion condos are expected to be completed in 2014.