[Lloyd]

[QUOTE=MountainView;5290464]This quote by Holmes bothers me "The old zoning was 12 (storeys), and we would probably want to increase that. But more than doubling that in height is problematic.”

Article:

Builder offers city $1M payment for Gloucester Street tower — and a deadline

By Joanne Chianello, The Ottawa Citizen May 24, 2011

OTTAWA — The developers of a 27-storey tower proposed for Gloucester Street in Centretown have agreed to contribute more than $1 million for a “community benefit” as long as the site plan for the project is approved by July 29.

Council’s planning committee Tuesday approved the rezoning for 70 Gloucester St., paving the way for Claridge Homes to build a 229-unit residential tower at more than twice the currently permitted heights of 12 storeys.

The issue is to go to full council for approval on Wednesday, so that the detailed site-plan process can be finished by the end of July. That’s the deadline for developers to submit site plans to the city without paying any development charges for building in the downtown area.

Two years ago, council decided to waive the development charges that builders pay to the city for any project in downtown Ottawa. The idea was to encourage condo and other residential construction in the core of the city. It worked — possibly too well.

“That was a mistake on our part,” said Alta Vista Councillor Peter Hume of the development-fee exemption.

The construction came to the downtown, but the absence of development charges meant the city ended up with “no money to provide any amenities,” said Hume, who is also chair of the planning committee. “We have no (community) projects in the downtown core, and even if we have projects, we have no development charges to pay for them.”

That development charge exemption expires at the end of July, which is why Claridge — and other developers — are racing to get their “executed site plan agreements” officially filed with the city by July 29.

Here’s an additional hitch: Somerset Councillor Diane Holmes has negotiated a “community benefit” with Claridge, whereby the developer would contribute just over $1 million to something that would help all residents as a whole, such as a daycare or a basketball court at Jack Purcell Park. What exactly the community benefit is will be decided during the site-plan process. But if the site plan isn’t filed by July 29, and Claridge ends up having to pay the city’s development charges, some worry that the developer will withdraw its offer of providing that $1-million benefit.

The development at 70 Gloucester — which is connected to another 27-storey project to the south of the site at 89-91 Nepean St. — has a complicated and politically charged past. Claridge originally won support from council years ago for two residential buildings on a site between Gloucester and Nepean streets, just west of Metcalfe Street. The developer extracted an agreement from council for 20- and 24-storey heights, when the builder partnered with the city to bid for the national portrait gallery. The gallery project was eventually cancelled. But even before the Conservative government nixed the project altogether, Claridge had already appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board to build the towers at 27 storeys each. Claridge won.

Now, some worry that 27 storeys will become the new norm in Centretown.

“First there was the one building on Nepean Street, and one building can fit (into the area) if it’s the only building of that height,” said Charles Akben-Marchand, president of the Centretown Citizens Community Assoc. “But then there was another building of that height on a very narrow lot. We’re starting to set a trend of the entire block turning into 27 storeys the entire way across.”

Holmes is also concerned, calling the new heights “a problem if it spreads. The old zoning was 12 (storeys), and we would probably want to increase that. But more than doubling that in height is problematic.”

The buildings on Gloucester are supposed to be a transition zone, giving way to to lower structures in the southern part of Centretown, but these new buildings will be among the tallest in the downtown core.
QUOTE]



Am I not looking hard enough? Does the 70 Gloucester proposal have its own thread yet?