Next Thursday, Planning Committee will consider the Department’s recommendation to permit the conversion of four adjacent triplexes on Elmgrove to four-unit low-rise apartments by adding a dwelling to the basement of each. The community association is strongly opposed to this two-step process whereby developers add fourth units to triplexes that are still under construction or have recently been completed. These are triplexes for which the developers have already been granted relief from the zoning requirements for three-unit dwellings. This means that even as triplexes, the buildings were squeezed onto lots that were too small to accommodate them, leaving virtually no space for greenery and amenity area. Now the developers are asking to be excused from having to meet the zoning standards for four-unit dwellings as well.
In the opinion of the community association, the Scott- Elmgrove-Winona-Churchill area is being overdeveloped in the absence of a solid plan for the Scott corridor and for the low-density communities adjacent to it. We will be opposing this application. We will encourage Planning Committee to postpone approval of this and similar spot rezoning applications until their decisions can be informed by the results of infill studies already underway in our community. Currently, the Westboro Infill Zoning Study is looking at patterns of intensification in Westboro and considering zoning changes that can yield infill projects more sensitive to the character of our neighbourhoods.
We encourage you to submit your comments on this application.
Send them to the Committee Coordinator at Melody.Duffenais@ottawa.ca. anytime on or or before the hearing on Thursday, November 28. Or if you wish to attend, you can sign up to speak upon arrival at Committee. Oral presentations are limited to 5 minutes.
Planning Committee meeting
November 28, 9:30 a.m., City Hall, 110 Laurier Street – in the Champlain Room
Below is a link to the City’s Development Applications webpage that has all the details about the project:
https://app01.ottawa.ca/postingplans/appDetails.jsf?lang=en&appId=__BI8QQH