Student residence slated for Bronson
By Rupert Nuttle
Textbook Suites, a real-estate developer that specializes in purpose-built student housing, has been given the green light for a high-rise development at 774 Bronson Ave., just south of Carling Avenue.
The proposed 12-storey building, located about one kilometre north of Carleton University, will consist of 172 units, providing bachelor, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments to more than 350 students.
In addition to being an off-campus hub, it’s hoped the development will bring new street-level life to a notoriously traffic-heavy intersection.
The key, said Capital Coun. David Chernushenko, is cooperation with the community.
“You’ve got an area that needs a revival and is in a great location for increased density, but we want it to be done well,” he said. “Done the wrong way, it’s a much larger (number of) people all sharing the same park space and community centre and already-crowded rush hour buses. The two have to go hand in hand.”
Textbook’s proposal includes retail space on the building’s ground floor — potentially a coffee shop — and there’s talk of introducing a small grocery store.
“Buildings and new developments that can add more of a street presence and bring people to the street are all good things,” said Carolyn Mackenzie, chair of the Glebe Community Association’s planning committee. “Right now (the street is) not particularly safe, and it’s not particularly interesting either.”
With major infrastructure upgrades expected on Bronson Avenue in the next two or three years, Mackenzie said there’s an opportunity to make the street more accessible to pedestrians and cyclists, “as opposed to everyone being in their cars and ripping along as if it’s a highway.”
Yet, she concedes, “it’s never going to be a slow-moving two-lane road.”
The 3,549-square-metre lot faces onto both Bronson Avenue and Cambridge Street South.
It was initially rezoned for condos by Samcon, a Montreal developer, but construction was scrapped after Ottawa’s condo market slumped.
Samcon then sold the rights to Textbook Suites.
Consultations between Textbook, the GCA and the Dows Lake Residents Association began in the fall of 2015.
The developer submitted a zoning application to the city in early 2016, which was revised in May based on feedback from the community.
Aside from what Chernushenko called “standard concerns about students” such as noise and “rowdy behaviour,” community members had three main concerns about the building.
The first two — a proposed entrance on Cambridge Street, and the “shadowing” caused by a 12-storey building — were resolved through changes in the architectural design.
“They did pretty much exactly what we asked them to do there,” said Mackenzie, “so that was a big relief.”
But the third and most contested issue was the matter of parking, which was still under discussion on Jan. 24, when the project came before the city’s planning committee for approval.
The building will have a total of 38 parking spaces — 17 for tenants and 21 for visitors — fewer than would usually be required of a 172-unit building.
Instead of the standard supply of parking spots, there will be indoor parking for bicycles — one spot per unit.
“We’re removing parking to provide additional bike parking,” said Carl Furney, a member of the planning and design firm FoTenn, who spoke on behalf of Textbook Suites at city hall. He noted that parking demand is low among students, and gave the example of the new student development at 49 Mann Ave., where students use only five out of 49 parking spots.
Off-campus student high-rises with little or no parking are part of a trend in the city. Last year, Textbook Suites was given approval for two 26-storey towers near the University of Ottawa, which will provide only 14 parking spots for visitors and zero for residents. In Little Italy, just a stone’s throw west of 774 Bronson Ave., the new 28-storey Envie Student building features 550 “student condos” and no parking at all.
Chernushenko doesn’t see minimal parking as an issue. It creates an incentive to improve cycling routes, he said, and “a positive case for more frequent bus service, which benefits everyone.”
In the end, Mackenzie said the community was mostly satisfied with the process. “I mean, no one is ever going to be 100-per-cent happy with everything,” she said, “but I think in the end they were pretty good outcomes.”
Construction at 774 Bronson Ave. will begin sometime this spring, according to Fraser Smith, Textbook’s vice-president of development. An official timeline for building has not been announced.