Wellington West residents look for CDP answers

Posted Jan 26, 2012 By Kristy Wallace

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EMC news - Wellington West residents filed into a church hall to hear about the guidelines that shape what their community could look like for years to come.

The neighbourhood's community association held a meeting to try and clarify some things about their recently adapted community design plan, a document that guides any future development happening in a community.

The plan was adopted last spring and includes a six-storey height limit along the community's main street. Sites that aren't subject to the six-storey rule include 345 Carleton Ave., 1451 Wellington St. and 369 Island Park Dr. On these sites, a developer can use Section 37 of the Planning Act which allows them to add height to a development in exchange for a community benefit.

"This is a chance for us to explore our own CDP and focus on the future," said Katie Paris, president of the Wellington Village Community Association.

City staff outlined to residents how the community design plan works and left time for questions from about the 40 to 50 residents who attended.

Daniel Buckles, a resident from Champlain Park, said he was concerned that a six-storey height limit on Wellington Village's main street would mean that higher height and density would get pushed off the main thoroughfare and into the neighbourhood.

Richard Kilstrom from the City of Ottawa said that would be "unlikely."

"Generally you might get a double from a single home, but that's it," said Kilstrom.

Jay Baltz, a Hintonburg resident who's also on the Hintonburg Community Association executive, asked about re-zoning of properties to make a property higher and denser than what is zoned.

"Everything being built is outside the zoning," said Baltz. "I think the key question is what's the language in the CDP, the document itself? The first thing that might come in here is a 25-storey building in a six-storey zone."

Coun. Peter Hume, chairman of the planning committee, said the committee would be there to defend the CDP if that ever happened.

Lorne Cutler, head of the Hampton Iona Community Group, said one of his concerns was there wasn't adequate consistency in the quality or timing of consultations.

"(Developers) should be talking to the public much earlier in the process," he said.

He said his community association was told that building nine storeys at the former convent in Westboro set a precedent because there were nine storey buildings further down the street.

Hume said there is no precedence, and each site is governed by its own bylaws and rules.

"In the Wellington West CDP, we've locked it down at six storeys and we will defend that zoning and we will defend policies that are in the plan," Hume said.

kristy.wallace@metroland.com




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