City council approved today the long-in-the-works Centretown Community Design Plan, which outlines a 20-year vision for future growth and development in Ottawa’s core.
The report, penned by the Toronto-based Urban Strategies Inc., builds on and amends the existing Centretown Secondary Plan, originally approved in 1976. The new plan, aimed at responding to today’s urban issues, includes recommendations for building height, green space, transportation, heritage and mixed-use development.
Though the plan was completed over three years, with the final draft delivered this February, the report saw some last-minute tweaking just days before it reached council.
The Centretown Citizens Community Association did not approve of an arrangement that would have allowed for extremely tall buildings along select downtown streets, as long as these structures included public amenities. The city has since established a height cap of 27 storeys – the same maximum allowed for the tallest Centretown buildings.
The CDP originally did not define the maximum height for these “landmark buildings,” but they still had to respect NCC guidelines. “Because that has created concern in the community that there was not a defined maximum, staff felt it prudent to establish such a maximum to remove uncertainty,” said city planner Robert Spicer in an email.
Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes thanked city staff at today’s meeting of council. “It’s been a long process. It’s been a good process,” she said. “There have been a lot of public consultations.”
Holmes also thanked Urban Strategies’ George Dark, the design consultant in charge of the CDP.
Holmes brought forth three motions at council – two of which were approved.
The first was an omnibus motion to implement a variety of city staff recommendations introduced at a public meeting while the second called for study into city-wide application of an alternative to the rejected “landmark buildings” proposal. This new idea, dubbed “small moments,” will allow for some extra height in exchange for amenities such as green space.
Though council approved this motion, the CCCA, as stated in an email to city councillors prior to the meeting, wants height limits in the mixed-use, mid-rise area limited to nine storeys with no exceptions.
Holmes introduced a third motion to restrict commercial spaces in small buildings in Centretown’s core. Holmes wants the area to remain strictly residential, as it has been for the past 30 years. But council shot down that idea.
City staff said a hybrid of commercial and residential use means tenants can shop and be near their places of work, allowing them to “live, work, and play” in the same neighbourhood.
Alta Vista Coun. Peter Hume, chair of the city’s planning committee, echoed the opinions of city staff, and said segregating commercial and residential space doesn’t reflect “the reality of a modern, urban city.”
“You don’t want to have to go out of your building and walk 10 blocks to the coffee shop,” he said.
Still, the plan as a whole carried unanimously.
The CCCA, in its email to councillors, said it wanted council give the plan a green light. Still, the association’s board members urged for the CDP’s “serious shortcomings” to be addressed.
The community association called on the city to, in part, scale back potential building height in certain areas. It also wanted council to direct staff to prepare a “real funded plan” to improve community benefits in Centretown. The association also wanted a regularly scheduled forum, composed of residents, developers and city officials, to discuss issues arising from urban planning and intensification.