City planners have proposed measures to ready LeBreton Flats for extensive residential and commercial development around the planned Pimisi LRT station near Booth and Albert streets.
A Jan. 28 planning committee report recommended that city council approve a new “risk-based” policy that would lessen restrictions for building over city infrastructure in order to promote development. The recommendation was approved.
Because of construction of the light rail transit system, new commercial and residential developments are expected to spring up in areas that surround LRT stations.
Plans to develop LeBreton Flats as a “core-city” site remained unrealized for decades after the bustling area with hundreds of homes was expropriated in 1962 by the federal government as part of a controversial urban redevelopment scheme. Once the land was cleared, it lay idle for 40 years. Conflicting development plans placed renewal of the area at a standstill.
Although a few condominiums have been built and the Canadian War Museum also now occupies LeBreton Flats, the construction of the LRT, expected to be complete by 2018, is being referred to as a “catalyst” that will help drive development in the area and integrate it with the rest of the downtown core.
The National Capital Commission owns the land that surrounds the planned Pimisi station. LeBreton Flats and adjacent areas of the Ottawa River shore were traditionally gathering places for First Nations. The name “Pimisi” is the Algonquin word for “eel.”
Redevelopment will reflect the city’s and the NCC’s goals for the space, states the staff report, which identifies LeBreton Flats as “a unique site that is a key component in the future of the Nation’s Capital and the core area of the City,” the staff report states.
At the same time as the LRT is being built, the City of Ottawa is constructing a combined sewer storage tunnel in the same area, as well as a new Albert Street storm sewer. Once completed, those projects will reduce sewer overflows into the Ottawa River.
“The commencement of construction of the new LRT line and the introduction of important storm and sewer infrastructure upgrades by the City of Ottawa position this area well for exciting options in the near future,” says NCC spokesman Mario Tremblay.
The two upgraded sewer and storm water systems will be located under Pimisi station in the area that the NCC and the city want developed. Building over this infrastructure will maximize development potential but it would run against current city policies that prohibit major building projects above key city infrastructure.
Ottawa has maintained a strict policy against building on top of infrastructure corridors in the past, but the planning committee voted in favour of the more flexible, risk-based approach at LeBreton Flats that was recommended by city staff.
The proposed risk-based policy would grant “build-over” requests if the benefits of building over city infrastructure outweighed the risks.
Planning committee chairman Peter Hume says the NCC must agree to use the report as the “primary policy in determining appropriateness of build-over.”
In the future, this policy would be used to monitor construction built over top infrastructure such as pipes, tunnels and sewers, and as a blueprint in granting requests to developers when they apply to build atop such infrastructure.
“This new policy recognizes the importance of enabling the transit-oriented development that is foreseen within the city’s own planning framework,” says Tremblay. “By acknowledging the appropriateness of considering proposals for building over municipal infrastructure, the City of Ottawa is moving towards unlocking the true potential for vibrant, connected communities in the capital.”