A high-rise development on Gladstone Avenue beside the O-Train Corso Italia station appears set to proceed after the plan was approved by Ottawa’s planning committee.
The proposed development consists of three towers, standing at 34, 38 and 40 storeys. It will include 1,050 housing units, along with office and retail spaces. There will also be 526 parking spaces and 762 bicycle parking spaces to accommodate residents.
A zoning bylaw amendment was needed to allow the developers, lead by Fotenn Consultants Inc., to build the towers higher than the previously approved limit of 30, 33 and 35 storeys.
Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper, chair of the Planning and Housing Committee, described the height increase as “uncontentious” given Ottawa’s plan to encourage more housing density along transit corridors.
“This is Corso Italia station. This is exactly where we want this kind of height – it’s where we want this kind of density,” he said.
While the zoning bylaw amendment was passed unanimously, Lieper was one of two councillors to vote against a separate proposal to waive $2 million in contributions from the developer to the city.
The contributions, called Community Benefit Charges, are used to help built public facilities such as parks and libraries. According to a city report, the developers had agreed to a number of benefits including the $2 million, relocating existing artists located in the Standard Bread Building plus a secured affordable lease rate for 15 years for them, and construction of a multi-use pathway along the east side of site. City staff recommended that the developers be exempt from the $2 million contributions, which were intended to be put towards the construction of the Laurel Street pedestrian bridge and affordable housing in Ward 15 Kitchissippi.
Leiper said that $2 million is significant and could have been put towards helping the community.
“It’s not nothing,” said Lieper. “It does allow me to try to ensure that areas like Hintonburg are going to have at least some affordable housing in them as we gentrify.”
Other councillors expressed concern over the project’s prolonged development period. City Council approved a benefit exemption in November, 2022, nearly three and a half years ago.
“I know this is a really significant development [and] I know Councillor Leiper spent months — years — working with you and with the community on some of these proposed community developments,” said Somerset Coun. Ariel Troster during the meeting.
“It is frustrating to see the clock being turned back on agreements that were negotiated in good faith with the community,” she said. “It’s just a tremendous waste of the community’s time and energy … this seems like a violation of the social contract as far as I’m concerned.”
Still, members of the Planning and Housing Committee agreed that, given its proximity to the O-Train, the project should move ahead.
Following the committee’s approval, Ottawa councillors are set to vote on the proposal when they meet on April 8.
