The Spire @ 87 Mann Ave | ~12 m | 4 fl | Completed
 

Black Iris Developments is proposing to convert the existing St. Clement Roman Catholic church at 87 Mann Avenue into a multi-unit residential building and to construct a four storey multi-unit residential addition on the southwest side of the lot. A total of 60 self-contained dwelling units are proposed.

Development Docs:
http://app01.ottawa.ca/postingplans/...appId=__9TXW6A

Streetview:
http://goo.gl/maps/4JT8r

Plan to turn church into 60 small apartments latest sign of student housing crunch in Sandy Hill

By David Reevely, OTTAWA CITIZEN September 5, 2013

OTTAWA — A real-estate company that’s made enemies of neighbours in the Glebe and Old Ottawa South has filed plans to turn a disused Sandy Hill church into 60 small apartments.

Black Iris Developments has been working for months on its plans for the former St. Clement’s church at 87 Mann Ave. The developer is also behind some smaller conversions of houses near Carleton University, the kind city council abruptly stopped earlier this year with an emergency bylaw. That intervention is allowing the city’s planning department time to devise new rules governing the redevelopment, which can turn one single-family house into several apartments with as many as 20 bedrooms among them.

The plan for St. Clement’s, which requires a zoning change because the special zone for the church no longer applies, is to keep the shape of the church but replace a garage behind the building with an addition, a four-storey flat-roofed structure that’s slightly shorter than the church’s peaked roof. “This will ensure that visually the existing church structure reads as the tallest structure on the site,” says Black Iris’s application for the rezoning.

The big deal, though, isn’t the height but the number of units slated to be packed into a lot about the size of three ordinary single-family properties in Sandy Hill. “Give the small units size (sic), the development is anticipated to target singles, young professionals, and students looking to live in proximity to school and work,” the application says. It is to include little parking because it is close to the University of Ottawa and a longish walk from the Lees transit station.

It will be nicely landscaped and constructed so residents aren’t peering into the neighbours’ backyards, the application promises.

Robert Martin, an architect who often works with Black Iris and whose firm, Robertson Martin, is part of the church conversion, acknowledged that the building consists largely of “microsuites,” studio apartments on a Vancouver model. But it won’t be crammed.

“The building is not small. It’s a quite substantial church and the addition itself also adds … thousands of square feet of additional space,” he said.

“I’m very skeptical of the outcome here,” said the area’s city councillor, Mathieu Fleury. “I don’t think it’s a slam-dunk by any means.”

He’s concerned that part of the addition will obscure the view of the church, making the development a whole lot less sensitive to the church’s history than Black Iris says.

There is an argument for keeping the institutional zoning that covered St. Clement’s: “There’s a community that wants a new mosque, and that was seen as a potential space,” Fleury said. The Muslim group couldn’t pay as much for the land as Black Iris offered, but it doesn’t follow that the land needs to be rezoned just because the new owner wants to do something different with it.

Most of all, Fleury said, the project would be the latest in a series of conversions of Sandy Hill buildings from other uses to what’s almost sure to be student housing. Single-family houses and a former retirement home have already gone that way, and the University of Ottawa is expected to formally request bids sometime soon to build and run an off-campus residence somewhere in Sandy Hill, which has longtime residents worried.

“The solution still remains the university building new buildings for residences,” Fleury said, ideally right on campus.

The areas near Carleton and the University of Ottawa have seen so many conversions for two major reasons: Both schools have a shortage of on-campus residence space, and the zoning in their surrounding neighbourhoods often allows taller, deeper, denser buildings than have actually been constructed in the past. In Sandy Hill, in particular, the dominant zoning allows low-rise apartments on most of the lots that have held single houses for decades. Neighbours object that companies like Black Iris are often indifferent to the impact such a building has on its street, via things like noise, garbage and parking.

Martin said that despite the fretting, Black Iris projects he’s worked on are turning out well. A family with three children has rented a unit in a very controversial conversion project on Aylmer Avenue in Old Ottawa South, he said, and foreign diplomats are interested in one on Fourth Avenue in the Glebe.

“A lot of the hoopla and song and dance about bunkhouses and student dorms is not being carried out by the sort of tenant that is moving in,” Martin said.

Black Iris’s application for the zoning change is freshly filed and there is no date yet set for city council’s planning committee to take it up.

dreevely@ottawacitizen.com

ottawacitizen.com/greaterottawa
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/busines...552/story.html

Should be fun to watch the debate unfold.....

Yes, this should add fuel to the weird anti-students/renters thing going on in Sandy Hill.

Like that was anything new...

I really like the proposal, and the renderings :yes:
Churches being re-purposed make me happy.

I like the renders and the idea of converting the church. If I were a student I'd rather live in a purpose designed apartment rather than some hasty house conversion.

How big are those micro-suites though? 60 is a lot to cram into that building.

Don't students need a room the size of a ping pong table (5ft by 9ft) or sheet of gyprock (4ft by 8 ft) as they use their room only to sleep.

That brings to mind something like these:

http://www.amusingplanet.com/2011/08...-in-japan.html

http://lh6.ggpht.com/-HB2qNBv4d6c/Tl...jpg?imgmax=800

That would sure cut down on the number of student room parties.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa...ours-1.1857295

This was an interesting meeting last night.

You hit the nail on the head in the comments section (assuming you are the same Proof Sheet...). There seems to be a widely held belief that everything outside of Centretown and the Market should be a quiet, suburban neighbourhood.

Ottawa: the world's largest small-town.

Are there any pics of 167 Aylmer Ave on line? Is it a project with an apartment addition to a house or a house rented by students, or what?

A quick Google turned up this:

http://i.cbc.ca/1.1601313.1379061161...n-homes852.jpg

from:
Conversion of homes into packed dorms alarms neighbours, CBC News: Jun 26, 2013
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa...ours-1.1371027

Thank goodness kwoldtimer has you to Google for them! ;)

Now, now - I looked, but not in the right place. You need to be patient with us pre-computer age oldsters! :help:

:cheers:

recommended for approval
http://app05.ottawa.ca/sirepub/mtgvi...&itemid=318317

Church conversion into residence recommended, despite opposition

Carys Mills, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: June 3, 2014, Last Updated: June 3, 2014 8:05 PM EDT

The conversion of an old Sandy Hill church into a private residence, which requires a bylaw amendment, should be allowed according to city staff.

This is despite opposition from residents and “major concerns” from the local councillor, which are mentioned in a staff report going to the city’s planning committee next Tuesday about 87 Mann Ave.

In all, 60 public letters were written to the city about the rezoning, all of them against the development because of perceived issues, including proposed density, size of units, possibility of student tenants because of proximity to the University of Ottawa, demolition of the rectory, parking, nuisance impacts and a rooftop patio.

City planning staff are recommending rezoning for the four-storey development at the site to a residential zone because it’s “considered an appropriate form of redevelopment for the site.” The site is zoned as institutional and residential now.

The church conversion would also maintain a distinct identity in Sandy Hill, staff wrote, adding that the steeple will remain as the predominant feature of the development.

The plan for the residence, with 58 bachelor units, also fits within the area’s plans for low-density residential, staff note.

The St. Clement Parish, a Catholic church, was sold to a private developer in 2013 when the congregation moved.

Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury said he’s happy to see the church maintained and there have been some improvements in overall design but he continues to have “major concerns,” including with the application’s patio space and “insufficient” parking. Right now 10 spots are planned for vehicles and 66 for bikes.

cmills@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/CarysMills

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-...ite-opposition

Community prays council nixes church apartments

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Sun
First posted: Wednesday, June 04, 2014 05:45 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, June 04, 2014 05:49 PM EDT

A developer wants to turn a former Sandy Hill church into an apartment building with a four-storey addition, but the community thinks it would be a holy nightmare.

Council’s planning committee will be asked to approve the necessary rezoning Tuesday.

The church was sold in 2013 when St. Clement Roman Catholic parish moved to another church.

The public has voiced concerns with the density and design of the proposed building. The city received 60 letters in opposition when the rezoning application was circulated.

The complex would have 58 bachelor units. The developer is eyeing singles, young professionals and students as potential occupants. The University of Ottawa is only a few blocks west of the property.

The Sandy Hill community has been nervous with past development proposals about companies targeting the student market with intensified buildings.

Where people are concerned with a plan for a rooftop patio, the city says it would be 17 metres from the closest property line and the patio would have screen.

“The converted church will create its own sense of place within the neighbourhood distinct from the existing forms of residential development, while retaining a community landmark,” planning staff say in a report to the committee. “Retention of the existing church for conversion to residential use also provides for the development to integrate well with the fabric of the community.”

Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury’s comments in the report say he has “major concerns” with the proposal, especially when it comes to the rooftop patio, parking and projections from the roof.

Twitter: @JonathanWilling

http://storage.ottawasun.com/v1/dyna...=100&size=680x

http://www.ottawasun.com/2014/06/04/...rch-apartments

There's something very similar proposed in Kingston: http://www.bpedevelopment.com/for-sa...lergy-on-queen (although its having a lot of trouble selling because its WAY too expensive for the Kingston market)

These are very good projects. With our secularizing society, churches are dropping like flies, and if we don't repurpose them, we'll have hundreds of empty buildings literally doing nothing. An unbelievable waste of space. This kind of thing allows us to repurpose that empty land while still retaining their heritage.