[kevinbottawa]

Domtar lands sale could take year to finalize

By Elizabeth Payne, OTTAWA CITIZEN December 5, 2013 7:02 PM

OTTAWA — It could take more than a year for the sale of land on the Chaudière islands to be finalized — and depend, ultimately, on zoning approval from the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau.

Domtar confirmed ON Thursday that it has signed an agreement of purchase with Ottawa’s Windmill Development Group for the sale of its mothballed 37 acre property on islands in the Ottawa River and Quebec shoreline, an agreement Windmill announced a day earlier.

The sale is conditional on the developer’s ability to get the industrial land rezoned “to the satisfaction of the buyers,” said Stuart Lister, manager of corporate communications for Montreal-based Domtar. That could take until the first quarter of 2015 to complete, Lister said.

Windmill has said the sale is conditional on the ability to get the site re-zoned for a “mixed-use, community-scale development.”

The development company, which has ambitious, environmentally friendly plans for the historic site, is wasting little time attempting to move the project along.

It will hold a public consultation next week at the Museum of Civilization (Dec. 11, from 5-9 p.m.) and says it hopes to present a planning application to the cities of Gatineau and Ottawa in the spring for what it describes as a “world-class, sustainable, pedestrian-oriented mixed use community.”

The company’s proposal for the land has received a positive response from mayors of both cities as well as the National Capital Commission, which had a plan to develop the property itself. Windmill’s plan, said NCC’s acting chief executive Jean-François Trépanier, “is completely aligned with our aspirations for that space and the region.”

In fact Mark Brandt, the Ottawa architect who designed the NCC’s master plan for the Chaudière islands, and whose company is now working with Windmill on its proposed development, suggested Thursday that a privately funded development on the islands could be a catalyst for long-discussed public-sector development in the area.

At one time, the NCC had hoped to lead development of the historic Domtar property — which it has designation a land mass of national interest. The thinking was that the NCC would be the anchor in a public-private partnership to develop the land mass, said Brandt. Now, he said, that concept could be flipped on its head, with a private company anchoring the project and the public sector following.

One possibility for public involvement in the area is the construction of a national indigenous centre on Victoria Island. The centre, which was a vision of Algonquin elder William Commanda, has been designed by architect Douglas Cardinal, who also designed the Museum of Civilization across the river. The area around Chaudière Falls is considered a sacred and historic gathering spot by First Nations.

The NCC supports the concept of an indigenous initiative on that site, said Brandt, and it fits into the federal agency’s long-held plans for development of the islands. Chief Gilbert Whiteduck of the Algonquin Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg band, told the Citizen the project should not go ahead without construction of the centre.

The Domtar lands, he noted, “are part of an overall district. They aren’t the whole district.”

But Windmill’s development — which it is calling The Isles — would put pressure on the federal government to develop the lands it controls.

And Brandt said the kind of heritage eco district being proposed for the site is something that has been done in cities across North America. In Oregon, Portland’s Pearl District is a prime example, he said, as are Toronto’s Distillery District, Winnipeg’s The Forks, Vancouver’s Granville Island and other projects.

“It is pretty mainstream stuff these days to take old unused land, usually leftover transportation or industrial land in the centre of cities” and redevelop it, he said.

“Ottawa is just a little behind the times.”

Registration for the Dec. 11 public consultation at the Museum of Civilization and a preview the development principles can be found at www.the-isles.ca.

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