Westboro Station Phase 2 concept designs

… are now available here in PDF format.

the village meeting – looking for a summary?

Thank you to everyone who made it out to our village meeting about Westboro Station Phase 2. By all accounts it was a great success.

In case you missed it, there was a good writeup in the Citizen about it.

There are a few great quotes in there:

“When you have eight storeys, no matter how you step it back, that centre plaza in the middle is going to get sun for two or three hours a day,” said Glenn Kachkowski, an architectural lighting designer and area resident.

“The life of the street is going to be lost if it becomes Westboro canyon. This sets a precedent. The next developer comes along and says why can’t I do that? Development yes, overdevelopment, no. We have to think at this point what is the right amount?”

Were you at the meeting? We’d love to hear your impressions.

Intensify within reason

“Ottawa’s old west end is one of the incubators of the new urban movement. It has become a desirable neighbourhood but that very popularity could result in the area’s demise…”

Read the rest of this editorial at the Ottawa Citizen website.

Village meeting: Tuesday June 17th, 7-9 pm

Have your say about the development of Westboro Station Phase 2 at Roosevelt and Richmond Road. The meeting will be moderated by the WCA. Councillor Leadman has been invited to attend.

- Tuesday June 17th, 7-9 pm
- Churchill Seniors Centre (corner of Churchill and Richmond Rd.)

We are expecting a large turnout. Parking is very limited, so please consider using alternate transportation, thank you!

Westboro fights for community plan’s integrity

“This year, Kitchissippi Ward residents have been to the Ontario Municipal Board five times to challenge projects they think are too big…”

“… Phase 1 of the Bourk project is under construction. In 2006, the committee of adjustment approved an increase in the maximum building height on the western part of the Bourk site from six to nine storeys based on a concept that reduced the middle section to two storeys and would retain the six-storey limit in Phase 2…”

(Read the rest of the article on the Ottawa Citizen website.)

Zoning by-law amendment proposal re: Westboro Station 2 (the former Bourk site)

… a.k.a. the proposed development at the corner of Richmond and Roosevelt Ave.

We’ve just received a copy of a proposal being considered by the Planning, Transit and Enviroment Department. Here’s a snippet:

“The applicant is proposing to demolish the buildings currently on the property and replacing them with a new mixed-use building with commerical on the ground floor and residential uses above. The applicant is requesting amendments to zoning performance standards in order to allow the development. These include an increase in height to 28 metres [8-storeys], a reduction in the Corner Side Yard to 1.0 metre, a reduction in parking from 212 spaces to 180 and in the number of loading spaces from three to two.“

• Read the rest of the document in PDF format here.
• Here’s something interesting: check out the PDF of the “Planning Rationale” document, as posted on the City of Ottawa website.
• If you have anything to say about this issue, comments need to be received by Douglas James by July 4, 2008. Your emails are valuable feedback. Please take a moment to write or call and let the City of Ottawa know what you think.  
• Please consider coming out to our village meeting on June 17th.

401 Athlone

 

In March 2007 two applications were made for this commercial property. One was for cash-in-lieu of parking and the other was for a minor variance to permit a reduced southerly yard where the commercial property abutted a residential property. The minor variance application was dismissed but for some reason the cash-in-lieu was approved. Now a building permit was issued for this property on March 19, 2008 to create a two-storey office space. We understood this to mean that the new construction would take place in the existing envelope. Based on the pictures that is not the case. Stay tuned as we get additional information.

Gary Ludington

300 Richmond Road: WCA Response to OMB hearing

- We’re extremely disappointed both with the OMB’s decision and the City’s decision not to defend the earlier ruling of its own Committee of Adjustment and the provisions of the Richmond Road/Westboro Community Design Plan (CDP). As this is only the second OMB appeal since City Council approved the CDP in June 2007 (the other involves a proposal for 747 Richmond), this sets a dangerous precedent that could have a strong domino effect on the nature of all redevelopment and intenstification within the Westboro Village portion of Richmond Road and beyond.

- The WCA was not and is not opposed to redevelopment and intensification along Richmond Road in general, or this property in particular, provided that what is proposed respects the spirit and letter of the CDP. We opposed this proposal because its density (Floor Square Index) is almost four times the limit set within the CDP and twice what is allowed under the current zoning. Like the Committee of Adjustment, we felt that this proposal was not a “minor variance.”

- We feel this raises a very troubling question: why does the City’s planning department seem to be playing lip service to a process & plan that is the result of hundreds of hours of input from community volunteers and has been endorsed by City Council? It is Council that is elected to represent us yet planning staff are adopting position that clearly undermine its authority.

Wallace Beaton
Co-chair

some visuals re: 300 Richmond Road

This image below was copied directly from the renderings used by the applicant. Note that the houses on Eden are not visible.

Click image to enlarge.

(for background, read this previous post about this issue.)