By Janice Manchee
If a big-time developer turns one of Centretown’s smallest blocks into a 15-storey apartment complex, the precedent for development will likely destroy Centretown’s strong sense of community.
There is general agreement Centretown needs a higher population density. Many people work there and wish to live downtown, near the Market, museums, the canal and other amenities. But in recent years, vacancy rates have sunk to record lows. New residential buildings would let more people live there, reduce traffic, boost small business and revitalize the neighbourhood.
But the Ashcroft Homes tower is the wrong way to do it.
Ashcroft originally proposed a 20-storey building for a site on Gilmour Street between Metcalfe and O’Connor. This violated the Centretown development plan that was developed by the community and city staff in 1974. The plan envisions a vibrant, growing community and is partly based on maximum heights for buildings.
Ashcroft also ignored the land’s zoning – general commercial – which restricts building height to 18 metres or about six to seven storeys. In addition, this part of town has a heritage overlay, which asks developers to consider the heights of surrounding buildings.
After overwhelmingly negative community response, Ashcroft made four alternate proposals and now intends to go forward with a slightly reduced version of the original.
The height and mass of the building would completely change the nature of this area.
Stand on top of a building at Gloucester and look north. There’s a forest of high-rise office and apartment buildings that are over 12 storeys. Look south and things drop off quickly to four to six storeys. There are a few taller buildings, such as the YM-YWCA, but those are exceptions that snuck in before the Centretown development plan.
If the Ashcroft tower goes ahead, Gilmour Street would take a big step towards Toronto.
Ashcroft recently bought the CNIB building on McLeod Street and, according to Dennis Gratton of Ashcroft Homes, they are actively looking for other sites
in Centretown.
But what do large-scale buildings mean for community?
Community activists say the new building would increase traffic and parking because of the large number of new residents and visitors. They are also concerned it would put the street and their homes in shadow and create wind tunnels.
Others involved in housing, such as the Centretown Citizens’ Ottawa Corporation, a non-profit housing corporation and one of Centretown’s largest renters, have stayed within the average height of each neighbourhood.
Glenn Allen, the acting co-ordinator, says 12 storeys is “about as high as you need to be anywhere in the city.”
Lucy Fontaine, assistant professor of architecture at Carleton University, says residents still feel and act connected to the ground at eight storeys. They can call down to a friend who’s walking by. This can’t be done at 15 storeys, she says.
Think about Paris or parts of London, where buildings stand six or seven storeys high, with balconies. Cafés and small shops on the ground floor invite foot traffic and the casual fraternization that builds a sense of community. Residents don’t drive into the building, take an elevator up and up and up, and stay shut
inside.
They are able to open their windows or go on the balconies and hear, see, smell and be part of the street life.
This is what makes a vibrant community.
The Paris model also incorporates the terracing of rooftops, angling them back so that walls don’t go straight up. Sun floods the streets and when you walk down them, it doesn’t feel like a canyon.
Take smaller buildings like those in Paris, stir in some underground parking, put them in those empty parking lots peppering Centretown and you have a recipe for increasing population density without destroying a humane and human neighbourhood.
Why doesn’t Ashcroft have a proposal for development that conforms to the zoning, the plan and the heritage requirements? What happened to development in good faith?
“We’ve come back with four proposals,” said David Choo, president of Ashcroft Homes
before a public meeting on March 5.
“If none of these are acceptable, I guess some people are never satisfied.”
You want to satisfy people, Mr. Choo?
Propose something akin to the Paris model above. It won’t get the 200 units you say you need to break even, but you knew the risks going in. It’ll meet the current standards.
Most importantly, it’ll help keep Centretown a vital community.