A leisurely stroll through Little Italy for an afternoon cannoli and cappuccino is an undeniable pleasure for many – unless you’re a local resident seeing customers and delivery trucks vying for parking spots along your residential street.
Critics of the city’s newly released rezoning blueprints believe this could soon become a reality for Ottawa neighbourhoods, including Centretown areas such as Preston Street, Gladstone Avenue and Somerset Street.
The city’s planning committee tabled a preliminary approval to the recent 2014 zoning review, which would put into motion the goals for “Building a Livable Ottawa” – included in the city’s official plan last fall – that set out how the city will handle its continuing growth.
The zoning changes for Centretown include more than 850 properties on, and abutting, those three major streets.
The changes call for extending traditional main street zoning into what is currently zoned as residential and would allow for the properties to be designated for mixed use.
This would range in purpose from small businesses and restaurants to residential homes.
The changes also include amendments to raise current building height limits.
City planner Emily Davies says the city believes the changes will also alleviate the costly “spot rezoning” – where developers ask to change zoning rules for one particular building – should someone want to open up a business in these areas in future.
Lori Mellor, executive director of the Preston Street BIA, says her concern is that the mixed-use designation may “water down” zoning for Centretown main streets, leading to empty storefronts on commercial strips.
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Both Mellor and Eric Darwin, vice-president of the Dalhousie Community Association, say Little Italy already has numerous areas for businesses, including parts of Preston Street, Booth Street and Rochester Street.
Darwin says these changes add to his feeling that the city is taking away the neighbourhood’s last bits of residential space for more commercial use.
“We are starting to feel like we are in a war on housing or a war on viable neighbourhoods,” he says.
Darwin says he worries that the zoning changes will create a fragmented neighbourhood if businesses begin to mix in with residential areas.
“What happens when you have shared courtyard driveways with homes that face Preston Street? You see kids playing in these courtyards all the time. So what happens when delivery trucks start using this space to drop something off to the business or restaurants,” he says.
“Or what if, you know, someone decided to build a gym in the middle of a group of town homes,” he adds. “I just don’t think it makes sense to disrupt and fragment the community this way.”
Darrell Eisenhour – a rental property owner in the Preston Street area – says he feels quite differently.
Eisenhour said he feels that rezoning is a necessary step that “has to happen if the city is going to continue to grow and prosper.”
He says he believes the zoning changes will allow for the building of small condominiums with local coffee shops and restaurants on the ground floors where people will have the ability to “live, work and play all within the span of a regular day”.
“I think it’s sad to see the old go,” he says. “But I think we have to look forward. It really has the potential to be a walk-friendly area with a lot of pedestrian traffic.”
Alain Miguelez, the city’s program manager for zoning, says the changes won’t occur overnight but that “the streets will evolve as people find opportunities,” according to ottawacommunitynews.com.
The city’s planning committee says they will work with councilors and make use of community feedback to propose an amended plan in February 2015.