Kitchissippi, River ward residents get close look at Westgate redevelopment plans
Bruce Deachman, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: January 22, 2019
Kitchissippi and River ward residents got their first look at detailed plans for the first phase of the redevelopment of Westgate shopping centre Tuesday night, with opinions mixed.
An open house at the Alexander Community Centre attracted about 100 people, who looked at site plans and elevation drawings for the proposal, and peppered councillors Jeff Leiper and Riley Brockington, as well as RioCan development vice-president Stuart Craig, with questions and concerns.
Phase 1 of the redevelopment will see a 24-storey mixed-use building erected at the corner of Carling Avenue and Merivale Road, where Monkey Joe’s restaurant currently sits. The design plan calls for 216 residential units — all apartments rather than condominiums — and 20,000 square feet of retail space.
According to Craig, negotiations are already ongoing to potentially see the Shoppers Drug Mart presently at the mall move into the first phase. RioCan, he added, would also like to see a grocery store move into the property, as well as restaurants, a coffee shop, LCBO or beer store, and other service retailers.
The first phase will include 192 underground parking spots, and 32 surface spots, as well as parking for nearly 200 bicycles. There is also a privately owned public park included in the plans.
Zoning approval, which designated how big the building will be and where on the site it sits and how much parking it requires, was granted by the city in June 2017. RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust, which owns the property, now needs its site plan control application approved, a process that, according to Leiper, could take six to nine months.
“These are more technical considerations,” said Leiper, “like where the garbage door is, and some of the materials they’re going to use, and landscaping.”
If the site plan is approved this year, says Craig, excavation could begin as early as this fall, or perhaps the spring of 2020. He estimates it would take two years from then before the first phase is completed. The overall project, which will see four more mixed-use buildings — two at 36 storeys and two at 22 storeys — may take 15 to 20 years to complete.
“People accuse me of being against everything,” said Leiper, “but I support this. Approving it was a relatively smooth process.
“We’re seeing all these really tall buildings going up on Scott Street, right next to single-family homes. But this is a relatively isolated site — you’re right on the arterial main street. This is a much better use than a big surface parking lot.”
Leiper added that OC Transpo is expected to up its game in the area with improved service on the No. 85 route on Carling Avenue. According to Brockington, the second phase of LRT in Ottawa, in 2021, will be accompanied by buses-only lanes along much of Carling Avenue, from Broadview to Bronson avenues.
Additionally, Leiper noted that the RioCan development will help ease the residential rental market in Ottawa. Recent figures, he said, showed Ottawa’s vacancy rate at a scant 1.6 per cent, about one-third of what is considered ideal.
And while community associations such as Carlington’s and the Civic Hospital Neighbourhood Association lent their support to the plan Tuesday, not all residents were won over. Some, including those in the Vets Neighbourhood across Carling Avenue, worried that construction and post-construction would see their tiny streets filled with parked cars. One person asked Craig if RioCan would consider including affordable housing in its plans (They would consider it, he said, but not promise anything right now), while another earned some applause when he criticized the proposed building as “uninspired design.”
bdeachman@postmedia.com
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...elopment-plans
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