Category: Bayview-Carling CDP

Bayview-Carling CDP1 Comment

More Embarrassment for Bayview-Carling CDP (part i)

Westsideaction

The problem-plagued Bayview-Carling CDP has been stumbling along for years. The City turns it on, then off again, then on, but starves it of staff. Then it imports an outsider (has anyone see the terms of engagement??) to produce a report in a hurry, and fast-tracks their implementation. Residents are up in arms, developers are in an unseemly riot to snap up redevelopment rights, the study boundaries show flexibility that would make Gumby look petrified. And now comes some more embarrassing developments. The study boundary presently ends at Rochester Street. The community has repeatedly suggested it should go to at least Bell … Continue reading More Embarrassment for Bayview-Carling CDP (part i)

Bayview-Carling CDP4 Comments

We’re Listening, now shuddup

Westsideaction

On Tuesday evening, the City held a public event on the planning staff’s suggestions for the Carling end of the Bayview-Carling CDP. It was a bureaucrat’s ambush: announce loudly that the City is listening, then do everything possible to make the people shut up. Recall that the planning recommendations were ghost written by the City’s favourite strategic planner, George Dark. They include a new district of the highest high rises in the city, along Carling Avenue. They confirm the high rise monoculture along the west side of the OTrain corridor. And most contentiously, they recommend a row of mid-rises along … Continue reading We’re Listening, now shuddup

95 Norman, Bayview-Carling CDP, Ottawa, planning7 Comments

Why Gerrymander a CDP?

Westsideaction

The Bayview-Carling CDP has been going on for six years now. Or is it seven? It lurches forward just enough to permit some significant upzonings, then subsides back into limbo. The latest attempt by the city to resolve its indecision at the Carling-Preston end of the study zone saw them import their favourite big gun Toronto planner George Dark, and divide the study zone into 3 smaller study zones (the Bayview end, the Gladstone middle, and the Carling end). Gerrymandering, as mentioned in the title of this story,  is the political art of redrawing boundaries so as to achieve a … Continue reading Why Gerrymander a CDP?

Bayview-Carling CDP, intensificatioin, planning, roads, walkways4 Comments

Building a liveable Ottawa

Westsideaction

So, on Tuesday night I trotted off to the City’s launch of its OP (official plan) and TMP (Transportation master plan) tweaks. My, so many fine words. So many nice drawings. Lots of display boards. Mind you, there are some pretty fine words in the last plan too, like the promise that public spaces would be designed for pedestrians first, cyclists, transit, then motorists. To those fine words, every neighbourhood has their own response. Ours is: Bronson Avenue ! Some observations: the traditional traffic analysis uses “level or service”, rated A thru F, for motorists. No measure of pedestrians, cyclists. New measure … Continue reading Building a liveable Ottawa

Bayview-Carling CDP, OTrain bike path, Preston street9 Comments

Preston CDP report available for your reading pleasure

Westsideaction

Here is the official public version of the city planning dept draft CDP for the Carling end of the Bayview-Carling CDP. You can read it at the same time as the developers ! http://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/public-consultations/transit/findings Lots of good words. It remains to be seen what good deeds remain once everyone has a kick at making changes. For a start, I’m not fan of the mews proposed along the east side of the OTRAIN cut and bike path, or the proposed nine storey height limit. All of the little side streets of preston should remain at 4 stories, with maybe a bonus … Continue reading Preston CDP report available for your reading pleasure

Bayview-Carling CDP, OTrain bike path, Ottawa, Preston street1 Comment

Bayview Carling report, better maps

Westsideaction

Being computer illiterate, I do have some problems sometimes getting maps or illustrations  out of reports to paste into these stories. So, here are some larger, hopefully clearer and more detailed illustrations of what George Dark and our planning dept (and developers) want to see in the west side Preston-Carling Little Italy neighbourhood. Alas, I cannot make “live” links to outside websites or previous posts (somehow, the blue letters that make links live don’t work for me…) and for these maps the key is a separate picture from the actual map. Here goes:   __________________________________________________________________       _______________________________________________________________     … Continue reading Bayview Carling report, better maps

Bayview-Carling CDP9 Comments

Bayview Carling report

Westsideaction

Recall that George Dark of Urban Strategies was employed by the City to accelerate the Bayview Carling CDP process, particularly for the Carling Avenue end of the neighborhood. Recall also that community types were pretty unhappy with the process, seeing it as somewhat biased towards the proliferation of high rises. Of course, the developers were much happier. All this was covered in some detail in previous posts, such as the Charades post:    www.westsideaction.ca/charettes-or-is-it-charades-on-the-west-side. Here are two key diagrams, outcomes of his report, which the planning dept is recommending to Council: (double click to enlarge) Continue reading Bayview Carling report

95 Norman, Bayview-Carling CDP, CDP, housing policy, intensificatioin7 Comments

The Dark-side condo shower

Westsideaction

Back in October, the City hired George Dark to conduct a “charette” – a planning exercise for the Otrain corridor and neighborhood along Preston, south of the Queensway. As related here previously, the charette charade seemed little more than an exercise in bombarding the neighbourhood with high rises. Mr Dark presided over a large plan of the neighbourhood,  chummily accompanied by the city’s leading developers and their agents, raining down Styrofoam cut-outs of high rise apartment buildings. (https://www.westsideaction.ca/charettes-or-is-it-charades-on-the-west-side/) The local community association is holding a public meeting of upset residents in the area. The poster below pretty accurately captures their feelings. Less obvious is the sense of betrayal, … Continue reading The Dark-side condo shower

Bayview-Carling CDP, Claridge, condos, Dalhousie, design, Dows Lake, infill, intensificatioin24 Comments

Charettes — or is it charades? — on the west side

Westsideaction

The City of Ottawa’s CDP on the Bayview-Carling area has long been an embarrassment. Not that its key worker bee has been lacking, but rather that the city has endlessly unfunded it, delayed it, postponed it, and frustrated it, while many of the prime lots have been spot rezoned, frequently from a two or four storey height to twenty, thirty, and now forty+ stories. But there are many more sites yet to be rezoned, and the developers are lined up four deep for rezoning, so the City flew in its favourite swat team Urban Strategies, of Toronto. Here are some impressions of the George Dark — … Continue reading Charettes — or is it charades? — on the west side

500 Preston, Bayview-Carling CDP, condos, design, Dows Lake, Gladstone, intensificatioin, little Italy, LRT, NCC, O-Train, OLRT3 Comments

High rises: Gladstone southwards

Westsideaction

Yesterday’s post covered high rise intensification — on an east-west axis — along the north edge — the Carling Avenue line — of our  community. Today’s post covers a north-south line drawn roughly along the OTrain cut from Gladstone to Carling. It is not clear if the drawing (second pic, below) puts the line along the OTrain cut or Preston Street itself. This post is somewhat speculative. Here is the area in Google Maps: Recall that there is a proposed LRT station on the OTrain corridor near Gladstone. Generally, the station is drawn running from Gladstone to the Queensway, with its north exit … Continue reading High rises: Gladstone southwards

Bayview-Carling CDP, Claridge, condos, Dalhousie, design, Dows Lake, housing policy, intensificatioin, LeBreton Flats5 Comments

Future shape of high rises in Carling and Preston areas

Westsideaction

Preston Street is an odd mainstreet, in that it has minimal hinterland of dense residential development. Hintonburg’s and Westboro’s main street areas are more densely built up and have large catchment areas on all sides with a mix of low-rise and high-rise built form. Preston lost its eastern residential areas when 50’s urban renewal wiped out existing urban fabric to replace it with commuter office towers (NRCan), a commuter high school (Commerce, now Adult HS), and a commercial strip predicated on a city-wide market (the ethnic Italian community) rather than an indigenous market. Thus merchants champion converting housing to parking lots, and since the merchants rarely live in the neighborhood, might be more easily convinced of … Continue reading Future shape of high rises in Carling and Preston areas

801 Albert, Albert St, Bayview, Bayview-Carling CDP, bike path, Dalhousie, design, intensificatioin, LeBreton Flats, Uncategorized9 Comments

City’s tallest office towers proposed for west side

Westsideaction

Phoenix DCR is going to Council in August seeking rezoning of the parcel of land known as 801 Albert Street. They are proposing a 34 storey office tower; a 31 storey office tower, and a 7 storey office tower. Currently, the tallest office buildings in Ottawa are Place de Ville at 29 stories and Place Bell, both in the downtown core. The parcel of land they propose to build these on is right across Albert Street from the existing Bayview transit station and the adjacent OTrain station. The triangular parcel of land is immediately north of the 8 storey City … Continue reading City’s tallest office towers proposed for west side

Bayview-Carling CDP, CDP, Claridge, condos, Dalhousie, design, hintonburg, intensificatioin24 Comments

What to do with a highrise (proposed)

Westsideaction

Right on the boundary of Hintonburg and Dalhousie, which is to say in the heart of the west side turf this blog purports to cover, at the intersection of Breezehill and Somerset, Claridge is proposing a 28 storey highrise. The adjacent mainstreet is lively; the views of the downtown superb. No doubt the 28 floor request is an opening gambit. If he actually gets it, bonus for him. But I suspect he will be quite happy to get 18. Why 18? Because that’s the height of the 30+ year old apartment a block west at Bayswater. Funnily enough, opponents of … Continue reading What to do with a highrise (proposed)

Bayview-Carling CDP, Claridge, condos, Dalhousie, DCA, design, hintonburg, infill, intensificatioin

From low rise to high rise …

Westsideaction

The Dalhousie and Hintonburg Community Associations will be holding a joint open house on Tuesday at 7pm at Tom Brown Arena where interested people can see just what the City is planning for the industrial and vacant lands along the OTrain corridor. Most of the emphasis will be on the area north of Somerset Street, to Bayview Station, which is shown in the illustration below. Those are 30+ storey office towers on the top centre, opposite Bayview Station; the blueish buildings are already approved by the City and NCC as part of the LeBreton project (so don’t fret, we’ll all be dead before … Continue reading From low rise to high rise …

Bayview-Carling CDP, bike path, City Centre, condos, cycling in Ottawa, design, infill, intensificatioin, O-Train, somerset street15 Comments

Lonely house on the parking lot

Westsideaction

The area along the O-Train corridor has undergone lots of changes from its original industrial beginnings. Occasionally, an old building survives. Notice that it has a real slate roof, there are few houses or buildings left in our neighborhood with slate roofs. In this case, it probably was to provide additional fire proofing from the sparks that flew out of the many steam engines in the area. David Jeanes tells me this may have been the home of Ottawa Stair Works. Probably built right after the Great Fire in 1902, the building then faced Somerset Street which was not yet elevated up on the … Continue reading Lonely house on the parking lot

125 Hickory, 855 Carling, Bayview-Carling CDP, Carling Ave, condos, Dows Lake, housing policy, intensificatioin, O-Train, traffic volume, Uncategorized, Young street23 Comments

The Dog Shelter Condos – Is Ashcroft Serious?

Westsideaction

The Champagne Avenue area — immediately west of the O-Train near Carling Avenue — has been a hotbed for developers recently. Domicile built two red brick mid-rise condo towers and some townhouses at the southwest corner near Carling Avenue.  He has another one – Hom – starting at the corner of Hickory and Champagne. Starwood Mastercraft has the vacant lot at the NE corner of Hickory and Champagne, where they are building two towers, about 16 floors high, the Soho Champagne. Here is an aerial view of the neighborhood, taken from somewhere above the soon-to-be-demolished Sir John Carling Building (which should instead … Continue reading The Dog Shelter Condos – Is Ashcroft Serious?

801 Albert, Bayview, Bayview Otrain, Bayview-Carling CDP, bike path, bikewest, City Centre, Claridge, Dalhousie, design, DOTT, hintonburg, infill, intensificatioin, LeBreton Flats, LRT, NCC, O-Train, OLRT, ottawa river, Phoenix DCR Developments, Scott street, Transit, Uncategorized, Walnut Court, west wellington9 Comments

Sim-City model: Bayview-carling CDP

Westsideaction

The City has been sporadically doing up a CDP (Community Design Plan) (which is a plan of dubious effectiveness under the Official Plan) for the O-Train corridor running from Bayview Station to Carling Avenue. Residents frequently ascribe its tardiness to a desire on the part of the City to see all the developable land purchased and rezoned before the plan is drawn up. In that way, the city won’t have to continually amend it. The City is committed to having CDPs done for all the stations along the OLRT. Having seen some of the in-progress ones I’d have to say they are better than nothing.  At least they … Continue reading Sim-City model: Bayview-carling CDP

801 Albert, Albert St, Bayview, Bayview Otrain, Bayview-Carling CDP, bike path, bikewest, DOTT, intensificatioin, LeBreton Flats, O-Train, Scott street, Transit, Uncategorized8 Comments

Bus shelters vs a station for Bayview

Westsideaction

 The picture below shows the current Bayview Station. It is simply a bus shelter on a hill in the middle of a field. It’s been that way since 2001, and while not ideal, it does function. The City is currently designing its transit stations for the new LRT network. For the first few years of the Downtown Ottawa Transit Tunnel (DOTT) process, they had very elaborate station design for Bayview. It was a long elevated structure with east-west trains on top, and underneath was a second set of platforms for the successor to the north-south LRT that would someday replace the O-Train. Until that … Continue reading Bus shelters vs a station for Bayview

500 Preston, Bayview-Carling CDP, Claridge, condos, LeBreton Flats, pedestrians, Soho Italia6 Comments

On development styles, and what is planning anyway…

Westsideaction

I hope that many readers of this blog also read the comments. Most of them are really good, some rise to absolute excellence (and that’s not just because I agree with the writer …).  I will not repeat the material submitted in comments as a “post”; I prefer to write new stuff each day. And there’s too many good comments anyway. In discussing Soho Italia, the 35 storey small-lot condo proposed for 500 Preston, I lamented that it did not relate well nor contribute to sidewalk life. This ignited a debate amongst readers. Some people prefer the “courtyard” approach whereby condo buildings are … Continue reading On development styles, and what is planning anyway…

125 Hickory, 855 Carling, Bayview-Carling CDP, bike path, Claridge, condos, cyclopiste de preston, Dows Lake, intensificatioin, O-Train, Preston street19 Comments

Highest High Rise

Westsideaction

Starwood Mastercraft was an Ottawa builder decades ago, got more active in Toronto, and is now back in Ottawa building condos on Parkdale (north of Scott), Lisgar (old Canus plastics site), Champagne at Hickory (a few feet west of the O-Train, near the dog shelter). They also bought the site at Preston and Sydney and are proposing a condo tower there. As predicted, they are asking for a 35 storey condo tower, which would be the tallest in Ottawa. Taller than Tower C, Place de Ville; taller than the Metropole on Lanark/Scott. Like the rush of downtown applications by Claridge for 28 storey condos on tiny lots, … Continue reading Highest High Rise

Bayview-Carling CDP, condos, cyclopiste de preston, design, Gladstone, housing policy, intensificatioin, LRT, O-Train, parks, plant recreation centre, Plouffe Park, Preston street, Uncategorized, woonerf10 Comments

Planning Exercise (ii)

Westsideaction

There is a large parcel of land owned by the Feds. It runs from Somerset Street to Gladstone, on the east side of the OTrain corridor. At the Somerset end, it has the address 1010 Somerset Street; at the Gladstone end it is 943 Gladstone; in the middle it has an Oak Street address. Most of the site is covered with a giant brick and concrete warehouse dating from the Second World War era. Before that, it was open field, my father tells me he attended the Ringling Circus there when he was a boy in the ’30’s. The circus arrived … Continue reading Planning Exercise (ii)

Bayview-Carling CDP, Chinatown, design, pedestrians, Preston street, Primrose, sidewalks, streetscaping, Uncategorized, woonerf6 Comments

Planning exercise (i)

Westsideaction

The photo above is taken a few weeks ago, looking south along Cambridge. Primrose is behind us, Somerset and the new Chinatown Royal Arch is directly ahead. The street looks closed to automobiles, which is the idea. It was reconstructed years ago using the Dutch design principles called a woonerf. Getting closer to the woonerf, it is less constricted than it first appeared. There is, indeed, plenty of room for a car … or truck, or school bus, or fire truck … to get through. The high shrubs and planters deliberately block the view and sight lines, forcing motorists to slow down. It … Continue reading Planning exercise (i)

Bayview-Carling CDP, cycling in Ottawa, cyclopiste de preston, LRT, NCC, O-Train5 Comments

Bushwacking for cyclists

Westsideaction

Last week a group of concerned citizens participated with the City and its consultants on the routing exercise for the O-Train corridor cycling path (cyclopiste de Preston). Participants represented the NCC, Dalhousie and Hintonburg Community Associations, CfSC and Cycle Vision Ottawa members, a landscape architect, engineer, planner, and others. The cycling arterial will connect the Ottawa River cycling paths to the Otrain at Bayview, run along the tracks behind the City Centre complex, under Somerset via a new underpass, behind the PWGSC complex at 1010 Somerset, and come out at ground level again at Gladstone. Then a short overground stretch … Continue reading Bushwacking for cyclists

Bayview-Carling CDP, cycling in Ottawa, cyclopiste de preston, LRT, NCC, O-Train

Bushwacking for cyclists

Westsideaction

Last week a group of concerned citizens participated with the City and its consultants on the routing exercise for the O-Train corridor cycling path (cyclopiste de Preston). Participants represented the NCC, Dalhousie and Hintonburg Community Associations, CfSC and Cycle Vision Ottawa members, a landscape architect, engineer, planner, and others. The cycling arterial will connect the Ottawa River cycling paths to the Otrain at Bayview, run along the tracks behind the City Centre complex, under Somerset via a new underpass, behind the PWGSC complex at 1010 Somerset, and come out at ground level again at Gladstone. Then a short overground stretch … Continue reading Bushwacking for cyclists

Bayview-Carling CDP, bike path, cyclopiste de preston1 Comment

Cyclopiste de Preston (vi)

Westsideaction

Most of the photos in the previous posts on this cycling route showed the path in winter or early spring. That is not the most attractive time of year. Here are a few shots in summer, to show what a pleasant route the Cyclopiste de Preston could be for cyclists and pedestrians; for recreational, short-haul and commuter users; and for easy access to and from the Preston mainstreet. Continue reading Cyclopiste de Preston (vi)