Open House: 114 Richmond Rd – Ashcroft Homes Convent Development & Phase IIA Site Plan Control

From Councillor Leiper:

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You may recall earlier this summer in June 2019, the Zoning approval was granted for the Ashcroft heritage convent development, which consists of converting the existing Sisters of the Visitation monastery into a mixed-use building with an addition to be used as an apartment building. The Site Plan Application for this development is now on circulation as well and can be further reviewed on DevApps. 

The proposed development will be connected to the first phase of development, where the archways along Richmond Road connect pedestrians with the remainder of the site.

The proposed development consists of one apartment building, as well as the conversion of the monastery into a mixed-use building. Although the development will involve subsequent buildings and potential amendments to performance standards related to the balance of the site to the south, the subject applications relate only to the northern portion and most specifically to the following proposed buildings:

• A nine-storey mid-rise apartment dwelling, to be connected to the existing monastery via a two storey glass link. Multiple amenity areas are proposed to be provided as part of the building, including a rooftop terrace, indoor communal amenity spaces located in the first two floors of the building, outdoor ground floor amenities, and private balconies. The proposed materiality of the building is intended to complement the heritage building. Strategies include using similar materials and colours (such as gray stone). The building also features extensive glazing.
• The heritage three storey monastery building will be converted into low-rise apartment dwelling and restaurant space in the original house and chapel portions of the building. The rest of the building will nits.

The majority of parking for the site is proposed to be located in an underground garage. Vehicular access and egress lanes are proposed to be provided from Leighton Terrace (at the northeast corner of the subject property).

Our office is hosting an open house to review this application on Tuesday, October 22 from 6:30-8:00pm at 89 Richmond Rd (the Monocle sales centre). Ashcroft and the lead planner with the City will be on hand to answer any questions and to take your feedback.

If you are not able to attend the open house, we would encourage you to send any feedback to our office via Jeff.Leiper@Ottawa.ca and / or Fiona.Mitchell@Ottawa.ca as well as to the lead planner on the file, Steve Gauthier via Steve.Gauthier@Ottawa.ca.

https://kitchissippiward.ca/content/114-richmond-rd-ashcroft-homes-convent-development-phase-iia-site-plan-control-open-house

Richmond Road construction partial detour to Byron

From the Office of Councillor Leiper:

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As I’ve been noting in the newsletter, there is urgent construction planned to repair the the water main on Richmond Road between Redwood and Fraser. This week, an open house was held at which the City made public its plan to divert eastbound traffic onto Byron for the project, which would likely take place from around the end of July to as late as November this year.

As shown in the attached display board (click the picture to embiggen), Richmond would become a westbound one-way, while eastbound traffic would be diverted to Byron (which would remain two-way).

Richmond cannot safely accomodate two-way traffic during the construction. While the width of the construction will actually be fairly narrow, the machinery needs room to work and two traffic lanes can’t be maintained through the corridor.

Eastbound buses will, as a consequence, be diverted as well (the 11 and 153).

My first concern is for pedestrian and cycling safety. I have taken the initial step of asking the City to consider crossing guards at the affected intersections to account for the higher level of traffic on Byron. Advisory cycling lanes were to be installed soon and those are being delayed until some time after the detour. While the MUP is available as a safe, segregated route for cyclists, I am evaluating whether or not there are additional measures we can request from the City and would be interested in hearing your suggestions and feedback.

 

http://kitchissippiward.ca/content/richmond-road-construction-partial-detour-byron

 

Open House: Highcroft Ave, Churchill Ave & Byron Place Proposed Development

From the Office of Councillor Jeff Leiper:

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433 & 435 Churchill Ave, 468, 470 & 472 Byron Place Development

Zoning By-Law Amendment Application & Site Plan Control + Open House

You may recall that for a while now, we’ve been in the early stages of discussing a proposed development at Churchill Ave and Byron Place. We held a community meeting for this conceptual development in October, the details of which can be found here. The applicants took the community feedback, made some revisions to their plans, and have now formally submitted a Zoning By-Law Amendment Application and Site Plan Control for this development project.

They are proposing a new six-storey mixed-use building with approximately 76 residential units and two at-grade commercial units facing Churchill Ave. The project fronts Churchill Ave, Byron Place as well as Highcroft Ave. The commercial units are designed for pedestrian access from Churchill. An underground parking garage is proposed to have 59 resident parking spaces, 6 visitor spaces and 45 bicycle parking spaces, and will be accessed via Highcroft. Stepbacks are proposed on the building at the fifth and sixth levels along Churchill, with stepbacks after the fourth storey along Byron and Highcroft. Waste collection is proposed to be internal and collected via Churchill.

The development proposal also includes three “parklette” concepts for a section of Byron Place.

More details on this development, including the three “parkelette” concepts can be found on DevApps:

Zoning By-Law Amendment

Site Plan Control 

Now that the applications have been formally submitted, we encourage you to send feedback both to our office (via Jeff.Leiper@Ottawa.ca and/or Fiona.Mitchell@Ottawa.ca) as well as to the lead planner on the file (via Andrew.McCreight@Ottawa.ca). The lead planner has the previously-submitted community comments and they will be taken into consideration, but please review the proposal with the details and consider submitting your comments again. If you want to be on the notification list for this development, you’ll have to resubmit your old comments or send revised comments to Andrew (Andrew.McCreight@Ottawa.ca).

Our office is also hosting another public information session for this development:

Tuesday, June 4 

6:30-8:30pm

Presentation begins at 7:00pm

Churchill Senior’s Centre (Main Hall – gym)

The applicant’s team will be on hand to run through the applications, and the lead planner will be available to field process questions. Jeff will also facilitate a Q + A.

Thank you and don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions.

https://kitchissippiward.ca/content/433-435-churchill-ave-468-470-472-byron-place-development-zoning-law-amendment-application

 

70 Richmond Rd (Champlain Oil) future development – Public Consultation to review 3 options

From Councillor Leiper’s newsletter, which can be found here.

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Some of you may recall that in 2015, Built Heritage Sub-Committee, Planning Committee and Council gave a heritage designation for the old cottage gas station at the corner of Richmond Road and Island Park Drive. Since the designation, the property has changed hands and is now owned by the Trinity Group who are now ready to move forward with re-developing the property.

The subject site is zoned Traditional Mainstreet, TM [83] H(15), which permits up to 6-storeys in height. Trinity is proposing that to keep the height of a future development more in line with the permitted zoning, they would need to remove the heritage gas station. However, they are open to keeping the heritage gas station, but would need to build a taller building.

The Trinity Group has prepared three re-development options that they would like to consult the public on:

7-storey with no retention of the heritage gas station

This option would see the demolition of the heritage gas station, and a 7-storey mixed-used development, with retail at grade and residential on the above floors.

 

8-storey with no retention of the heritage gas station with greater step-backs

This option would also see the demolition of the heritage gas station, and an 8-storey mixed-used development, with retail at grade and residential on the above floors, with greater step-backs provided at the fifth and eighth storeys.

 

9-storey with the retention of the heritage gas station with greater step-backs

This option would see the retention of the heritage gas station, which would then be moved to the front of the property as part of a 9-storey, mixed-use development with retail at grade (within the heritage gas station) and residential on the above floors, with step-backs at the fifth and eighth storeys.

We have attached rendering packages of each option below. Please let us know if you have any issues opening the documents. In addition, our office is also hosting a public consultation to review these options on. At the consultation, the applicant’s team will be on hand to run through the concepts, and the lead planner will be available to field process questions. Jeff will also facilitate a Q + A.

Wednesday, May 29 

6:30-8:30pm

Presentation begins at 7:00pm

Van Lang Field House

We encourage you to send feedback both to our office (via Jeff.Leiper@Ottawa.ca and/or Fiona.Mitchell@Ottawa.ca) as well as to the lead planner on the file (via Jennifer.Kluke@Ottawa.ca).

Please note that once a formal application is filed, the application will be subject to an additional round of public feedback. We will review those details in the future.

Thank you and we are looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the three options!

70 Richmond – 9 floors Presentation 70 Richmond – 8 floors Presentation 70 Richmond – 7 floors Presentation

 

Kitchissippi Ward Forum! Monday, April 15 at 6:00pm

From the Office of Councillor Leiper:

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We are excited to announce our first Kitchissippi Ward Forum for Jeff’s second term of Council is coming up in a few weeks.

As always, this is an opportunity to the community to come together to discuss key issues within the Ward, collaborate, and get updates from our various community stakeholders, as well as from our office.

This time, we are focusing on temporary traffic calming. In Kitchissippi Ward, we hear often from our residents about traffic concerns. Temporary traffic calming is a tool we can use to mitigate those concerns. City staff will be making a special presentation on what temporary traffic calming is and how it works.

Monday, April 15

6:00-8:00pm

Van Lang Field House (29 Van Lang Pvt)

Feel free to join the Facebook event group! We looking forward to connecting and chatting with you further.

Victories and questions about projects in Westboro: Triplexes, long semis and a meeting

Victories and questions about projects in Westboro

A big thank you to the community for rallying around neighbours on Roosevelt and Cole who were concerned about the latest applications for long semis, these large, overwhelming projects that continue to proliferate in our Ward. At the Committee of Adjustment (CoA) meetings on March 6 and March 20, over a hundred people turned out between the two meetings to express their misgivings about long semis proposed at 508,514 Roosevelt and 582 Churchill. The meeting on March 20 for 694 Roosevelt was for a pair of triplexes to replace a single family home. Also, we need to mention all those who wrote and emailed the City expressing their concern. The result was the CoA accepted the Churchill project but rejected the Roosevelt ones.

 

It just goes to show that working together has an effect! We want to thank everyone who made their views known, especially the immediate neighbours who went to great efforts, and Eric Milligan for rallying the troops through his savewestboro@icloud.com email.  Of course, the developers Falsetto Homes and Kenwood Homes are filing appeals for the decisions for 508 and 514 Roosevelt with the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT), so it is likely we will to fight this battle over again.  And again and again . . . there is no sign of this type of application stopping anytime soon.  Stay tuned!

 

Next: triplexes up for rezoning so they can add a fourth dwelling in the basement. Unlike previous projects (Byron/Ravenshill) that were requesting a change from R3 to R4 to allow the fourth unit (making it a low rise apartment building) , these properties already have an R4 designation, meaning a low rise apartment building is permitted. The developer has been upfront about adding the fourth dwelling from the start. But he/she still needs zoning changes to accommodate reduced interior side yard, lot area, lot width and amenity areas. In other words – it will be built out to the very limits of the lot. But the question in our minds is: why do this in a two-step process? Why not just present a low-rise apartment concept to the City and go forward from there?

Let’s attend the meeting hosted by Councillor Leiper and find out:

 

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 6-8 p.m.

CHURCHILL SENIORS CENTRE

345 RICHMOND ROAD

From the Office of Councillor Jeff Leiper: Pre-Budget Consultation on January 10

From the Office of Councillor Jeff Leiper:

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January 10 pre-budget consultation

Councillor Kavanagh and I will be co-hosting a pre-budget consultation meeting on January 10 at the Ron Kolbus Centre (102 Greenview Avenue) at Brittania. I’ll be there to hear what you’d like to see in the budget and along with staff look at how the budget will be crafted.

Neighbourhood Meeting: Ashcroft – Phase 2A application (entry & egress concerns)

From the Office of Councillor Jeff Leiper:

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I hope this finds you all well after the holidays and happy new year! As you know, we have held meetings separately with the residents of Shannon and Leighton, discussing concerns with Ashcroft’s current application (Phase 2A), as well as entry and egress concerns related to the entire site (Phase 2A & Phase 2B).

During those meetings, we indicated that in the future we wanted to hold a meeting with both the residents of Shannon and Leighton together, alongside members of the Hampton Iona Community Association and the Westboro Community Association.

We will also have in attendance City of Ottawa staff representing the Planning department, Transportation Services, Parks, and Infrastructure.

Meeting details:

Wednesday, February 20 at 6:00pm

Van Lang Field House (29 Van Lang Pvt)

Please invite your neighbours on Shannon and Leighton. Don’t hesitate to reach out to our office in the meantime with any questions or comments.

Byron Place / Churchill / Highcroft potential development update – community meeting

Community Meeting Reminder and Update from the Developer

From Councillor Leiper’s Office:

Byron Place / Churchill potential development update – community meeting

You may recall that in February, there was a lot of discussion surrounding a potential development at the corner of Churchill Ave and Byron Place. At the time, a community meeting had been organized to discuss this further, but it came out that the developer was not ready to move forward with their project. However, they are now ready to do so.

We are hosting a community open house to discuss this proposed development on October 30, 2018 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the Real Canadian Superstore PC Cooking School. Please encourage your neighbours to attend. At this meeting, the developer will review the details of what they are proposing and what they will be requesting from the City.

It’s important to note that the developer has not formally submitted their application yet, nor has our office been approached to review the proposed development in detail yet. From speaking with Novatech, the urban planning consultant working on behalf of the developer, they want to hear the community feedback at the open house, review the comments and make any changes before submitting formally to the City.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to Jeff.Leiper@Ottawa.ca and Fiona.Mitchell@Ottawa.ca with any questions, comments or concerns in the meantime. Jeff’s newsletter is unavailable until October 23 (due to the election black-out period), but if you aren’t already signed up to receive it, please consider signing up (by letting me know). When it’s resumed, it will include significant development updates.

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From the Developer:

Byron Place / Churchill potential development update – community meeting

From Councillor Leiper’s Office:

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Byron Place / Churchill potential development update – community meeting

You may recall that in February, there was a lot of discussion surrounding a potential development at the corner of Churchill Ave and Byron Place. At the time, a community meeting had been organized to discuss this further, but it came out that the developer was not ready to move forward with their project. However, they are now ready to do so.

We are hosting a community open house to discuss this proposed development on October 30, 2018 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the Real Canadian Superstore PC Cooking School. Please encourage your neighbours to attend. At this meeting, the developer will review the details of what they are proposing and what they will be requesting from the City.

It’s important to note that the developer has not formally submitted their application yet, nor has our office been approached to review the proposed development in detail yet. From speaking with Novatech, the urban planning consultant working on behalf of the developer, they want to hear the community feedback at the open house, review the comments and make any changes before submitting formally to the City.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to Jeff.Leiper@Ottawa.ca and Fiona.Mitchell@Ottawa.ca with any questions, comments or concerns in the meantime. Jeff’s newsletter is unavailable until October 23 (due to the election black-out period), but if you aren’t already signed up to receive it, please consider signing up (by letting me know). When it’s resumed, it will include significant development updates.