The grade of the triangular-shaped property, just west of downtown near the Bayview Transitway station, drops significantly from the Albert Street bridge, towards the City Centre office building.
The site is criss-crossed by city easements above critical underground sewer and water lines, restricting where buildings can be constructed.
The landowner, developer DCR Phoenix, has a plan to build residential condos and office space around the easements.
But in doing so, planned development will be concentrated in irregularly shaped areas of the site. City staff compare the design to an office park and say the “extensive” surface parking reduces opportunities for walking, cycling and transit use in an area envisioned to be a rapid-transit transfer station, accessible by foot to residents of the surrounding neighbourhoods of Chinatown, Hintonburg and Little Italy.
“It’s laid out in a way that is completely suburban,” says city planner Alain Miguelez.
“It is completely cut off from anything that surrounds it.”
DCR Phoenix officials say they want to resolve outstanding design concerns.
But they add they've been stonewalled in attempts to meet with city staff over the past few months, before the matter reached councillors on Ottawa’s planning committee.
“We’re frustrated,” says DCR Phoenix planning manager Bill Buchanan.
“(We’re willing to) sit down in a room and sort this thing out, no matter how long it takes ... (but) they are still trying to find roadblocks and delays.”
City officials acknowledge they want development of the site delayed. In April, area councillor Diane Holmes said it was premature to look at DCR Phoenix’s rezoning request, which would increase the allowable density of the site to permit the envisioned 24-storey residential tower, 17-storey office building and a four-storey mixed-use building.
City staff say they may want to relocate the underground infrastructure at a later date, to encourage development in the area once a community design plan has been completed. Started several years ago but shelved when the north-south light rail plan was scuttled, that planning document is now expected within a year.
But lawyer Janet Bradley of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP doubts the city would be willing to pay to move all those major pipes for the benefit of “this one relatively small corner of the city.”
In a letter sent in April to the city on behalf of her client, DCR Phoenix, Ms. Bradley argued the delay “cannot be justified” and suggested the city rezone the property, subject to a holding provision preventing development until design-related issues are addressed in a site plan.
But even as the city’s planning committee dealt with the rezoning application, city staff had opposed the project on its urban design characteristics. A parking garage within the podium means blank concrete walls that create “harsh and undesirable” conditions along the streets.
Staff also say that so much surface parking, so close to rapid transit, runs counter to the city’s development principles and policies.
All told, the proposal fails to create an interconnected, pedestrian-focused development with “dynamic, active and animated open space,” staff say in a report.
“We need this to be top-of-the-line in terms of design, architecture and how it relates to the pedestrian realm,” adds Mr. Miguelez.
“We’re not there.”
He says he is “surprised” to hear DCR Phoenix’s complaints about meeting with city staff.
“We’re here and we’re available. We’re more than prepared to sit down and have talks.”
As it stands, Mr. Buchanan says he’s instructed his lawyers to file an appeal with the Ontario Municipal Board for the site plan and hopes it can be dealt with at the same hearing over the zoning, scheduled for November.
“This city is crying for development, crying for taxes, crying for assessment. I’ve got a $30-million housing development that I’m four months behind on,” says Mr. Buchanan.
“At some point in time, this council needs to step back and say, ‘We’re going to the (OMB) on a lot of these issues. Is it really necessary?
“Do we really want to spend another $150,000 or $200,000 of taxpayer’s money for nothing?’”
TIMELINE
2004: Developer DCR Phoenix acquires 801 Albert St. (then known as 801 Wellington St.) from the National Capital Commission, reportedly for $800,000. The property was previously owned by the city, which had sold it to the NCC.
2004: The first rezoning application is filed, along with a plan of subdivision, to accommodate an 18-storey, 147-unit residential tower, 32 stacked townhouses and 24 townhouses between existing infrastructure easements. The application was never deemed complete.
2005: DCR Phoenix submitted an unsolicited proposal to develop the land with some residential units and a new main Ottawa Public Library branch. The proposal involved building over the O-Train tracks to integrate with the then-proposed north-south light rail line, as well as a portion of the city-owned Tom Brown Arena west of the train tracks. The plan dies when council cancels the LRT project.
August 2007: Application is revised to propose two 19-storey residential buildings with surface and underground parking.
January 2009: Application is again revised, this time to propose two 31-storey residential towers and a four-storey office building. This application, as well as the previous proposal, called for construction over existing water and wastewater infrastructure. The city said this would not be acceptable without a master servicing study involving relocation of the infrastructure. Because the study was never submitted, the application was never deemed complete and never went before council.
March 2010: A modified application, not involving development over existing infrastructure, is submitted. Plans now call for a 17-storey office tower, a 24-storey residential tower and a four-storey residential tower.
April 27, 2010: The city’s planning and environment committee agrees with a staff recommendation to reject DCR Phoenix’s zoning amendment. The next day, city council sends the application back to committee so it can give “further consideration” to density and parking issues.
April 29, 2010: DCR Phoenix officials say they sent the first of seven e-mailed requests to senior city staff requesting a meeting to discuss outstanding issues with the application.
June 28, 2010: DCR Phoenix officials secure a meeting with city staff a week before the issue returns to committee. However, the developer says an updated staff report, recommending against the proposal, was published prior to the meeting, rendering it moot.
July 5, 2010: Councillors on the planning and environment committee agree to defer the application.
