Semi-detached homes OK’d as replacement for smaller heritage home in Rockcliffe

The Ontario Land Tribunal has given a developer the green light to build two semi-detached homes — larger than the original building — on a property where a century-old heritage home once stood in Rockcliffe Park.

The land tribunal’s recent decision ends a years-long battle over the property, which has two addresses: 1 Maple Lane and 112 Lisgar Rd.

It sits across the road from Rideau Hall, official residence of Canada’s governor general, and within the Rockcliffe Park Heritage Conservation District.

The Rockcliffe Park Residents Association opposed the variance sought by the developer, Roca Investment Holdings, to enlarge the building’s footprint.

Granting such a variance, the association said, would reward the property owner for allowing “one of the most important heritage buildings in Rockcliffe Park” to fall into such a state of disrepair that it had to be demolished.

“Approving a significantly larger building creates a precedent which amounts to an assault on the heritage of this national historic site,” the RRRA argued in a written submission.

The tribunal, however, rejected the association’s argument, calling it a criticism of the property owner’s past conduct rather than a valid argument about the development plan.

What happens elsewhere in Rockcliffe Park, the tribunal noted, “has no bearing on the present application.”

The RRRA also complained that the proposed development meant local residents “will be staring at a much larger building buffered by correspondingly less greenspace.”

The side-yard and rear-yard setbacks are significantly reduced because of the new building’s enlarged footprint, the association argued, while the overall mass is increased.

But the tribunal also rejected those concerns, saying the new, enlarged design closely resembled that of the previous building and would have a similar impact on the neighbourhood.

It concluded: “The tribunal finds that the scale of the proposed enlargement falls well short of causing unacceptably adverse impacts on the surrounding properties and neighbourhood.”

The property’s original English cottage-style home was built it 1925. The two-and-a-half-storey building was designed to look like a single detached house, with one half of the duplex facing Maple Lane and the other facing Lisgar Road.

The property was legally non-conforming because semi-detached dwellings are not permitted in the area.

Among other things, the land tribunal also had to decide if the property maintained its status as legally non-conforming since it had been uninhabited and unused for so long.

The tribunal ruled the building, since it was structurally intact and looked from the outside much like it had for 100 years, should maintain its legally non-conforming status.

“The proposal to rebuild the same type of dwellings on the subject lands will not be unacceptably jarring or otherwise abruptly reintroduce a non-conforming building within the community,” the tribunal said, adding: “The tribunal finds that the proposal will not unacceptably disrupt the community’s sense of character in terms of fit and compatibility.”

Now a national historic site, Rockcliffe Park was designated a heritage conservation district under the Ontario Heritage Act in 1997.

The accompanying Rockcliffe Park Heritage Plan imposes restrictions on homeowners and requires city approval to demolish a house, change its exterior, sever a property, build a new house or add new outbuildings.

Demolition of houses with high heritage value is only permitted “in extraordinary circumstances such as fire or natural disaster.”

The City of Ottawa approved the Maple Lane building’s demolition in November 2023 because of its advanced state of disrepair, which included foundation cracks, collapsed ceilings, buckled floors, rotten roof timbers, mould and asbestos.

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