Ottawa city councillors approved the construction of a 30-storey residential tower on St. Laurent Boulevard after residents and community groups voiced their concerns over the continuing densification of the Overbrook neighbourhood.
The mixed-use highrise will include 401 residential units and underground parking spaces for 231 vehicles and space for 337 bicycles along with ground-floor retail space.
The plan calls for demolition of the Shore St. Automotive garage at 1064 St. Laurent, the Golden BBQ Grill Afro-Caribbean restaurant next door and a two-storey commercial building that is home to a pawn shop near the intersection of St. Laurent and Queen Mary Street.
Several residents of the neighbourhood just west of the proposed tower voiced concerns over the height of the building, the number of units and the relative shortage of parking spaces, which they fear will create traffic congestion and overburden limited parking spaces on nearby streets.
Francine Landry, who lives on Alesther Street, behind the proposed tower, said 14 highrise residential buildings had been built in recent years within a 1.5-kilometre radius.
“This would be the 15th high-rise,” she said. “We feel that is excessive.”
She echoed concerns raised by residents at a virtual meeting hosted by Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Rawlson King in July, when residents opposed to the tower said increased traffic flow into the residential neighbourhood could compromise safety around Queen Mary Street Public School, about one block west of the site.
City of Ottawa planning staff prepared a report for the planning and housing committee on Oct. 7 that recommended moving forward with the project.
Staff completed a transportation impact assessment submitted and concluded that the surrounding transportation network “can accommodate the traffic generated by the proposed development, and that no roadway modifications are required to support this proposal.”
Other residents objected to the building’s 30-storey height as the developer had sought an amendment to the zoning bylaw that previously limited buildings to 20 storeys.
The city’s planning staff said the building’s height was “generally appropriate” for areas designated as “mainstreet corridor” and “hub” under the city’s official plan.
Highrise buildings up to 40 storeys are generally permitted for those designations under the overhauled zoning bylaw.
The developer, represented at the committee meeting by Fotenn Consulting, removed the west-facing balconies from the proposal to address concerns about the “overlook” in areas transitioning from highrises to lowrise residential areas
Staff included a study of the shadow cast by the proposed tower and said “some shadowing of nearby residential properties will occur during morning hours,” but most of the shadowing would be directed toward a large commercial district east of St. Laurent Boulevard.
King said he was not opposed to intensification, but shared the same concerns raised by residents.
“This is a site where growth makes sense,” King said. “St. Laurent is a major arterial corridor surrounded by major shopping areas within a protected major transit station area.”
The site is about 900 metres north of the St-Laurent O-Train station and the St-Laurent Shopping Centre.
“Big buildings belong on big, priority transit corridors,” King said. “My concern, however, mirrors those concerns we’ve heard from residents: How does that growth happen?
“The scale and form of this development must fit with the established neighbourhood to the west and existing residents should not carry a disproportionate share of the impacts,” he said.
King asked city staff to monitor the “cumulative impacts” of increased traffic in the residential streets west of the proposed tower, the vehicles making U-turns and irregular turning movements and the vehicles cutting through residential streets west of St. Laurent.
“These concerns are not hypothetical,” King said after witnessing those driving behaviours during a site visit.
King also underscored the risk of construction vehicles using residential streets and concerns for pedestrian and cyclist safety around the school zones.
He urged the city’s traffic-calming planners to work in parallel with the application “so that permanent traffic-control measures can be put in place before new residents arrive.”
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