by Joan Spice
The Centretown Community Design Plan (CDP) is being developed by the City of Ottawa to provide a twenty-year guideline for the development of Centretown. It was launched in response to recent development proposals and the need to update the Centretown Secondary Plan in keeping with the city’s intensification and urban design policies. The draft Plan has just been announced.
The Centretown Citizens Community Association (CCCA) is sponsoring a public meeting to be held on May 30 at McNabb Community Centre. This meeting will provide information on the draft CDP and a forum for discussion and debate. City staff have been invited to present and answer questions.
The terms of reference for the development of the CDP were approved by City Council early in 2010. The city engaged Toronto-based consultants Urban Strategies Inc. to develop the Plan. The Centretown community was chiefly engaged through a public consultation group representing community organizations and stakeholders, at three open house events and through a blog (www.midcentretown.wordpress.com)
City staff have indicated that their report and recommendations will be presented to the June meeting of the Planning Committee. If approved by Council, the CDP will provide a framework for the development and growth of Centretown for the next 20 years. It will provide guidelines for “decision-making on land-use planning,” translate “the principles and policies of the City’s Official Plan to a community scale” and provide “more detailed direction on what future developments should look like.”
The illustration at the top of this article is from the December 2011 draft CDP. It depicts the streets and the five primary areas of Centretown today: the low-rise, primarily residential areas west of Kent and east of Elgin, the diverse “central” area between Elgin and Kent, the area north of Cooper/Somerset/MacLaren which serves as a “transition” area between the high-rise office towers north of Gloucester and the more residential area south of MacLaren Street, the area centred on the Museum of Nature, and finally the southern Catherine Street corridor.
One aspect that stands out is the relatively small number of parks and greenspaces that dot the map. Included is the ‘West Lawn” of the Museum of Nature, which used to be one of the largest areas of greenspace in Centretown but is now a dismal parking lot and seems destined to remain so for the foreseeable future.
In summary, the 7 chapters in the Draft CDP cover the following:
“The Study” deals with how the draft plan was developed including objectives and a vision statement.
“Centretown Today: Analysis” deals with current land use, heritage areas and issues, mobility, utilities, parks and open spaces; and community facilities. It provides information on the locations of recent, current and planned or approved developments. It also highlights four “zones of change” where more immediate growth is anticipated.
“Centretown Tomorrow: The Vision” discusses proposed land uses, building density and heights, affordable housing and enhancements, improved streetscapes, and parks and parking where immediate growth is anticipated.
“Moving Around Centretown: Mobility” discusses ways to enhance the quality of the pedestrian experience and bicycle and transit use and the need to reduce reliance on car travel. This chapter covers greening and improving streets; right-of-way protection; parking availability and associated community concerns; converting Lyon, Kent, O’Connor and Metcalfe to two-way; and specific recommendations for improving streetscapes on main streets. For residential streets, the elimination of parking encroachments, lane width reductions and planting opportunities are recommended.
“Greening Centretown” presents a strategy and specific proposals for repairing and upgrading existing parks, adding new parks (Derby Lane Square, Catherine Street Landscape, Upper Town Commons, Catherine Park, Lisgar Parkette and Gladstone Park) and introducing “smaller moments” — open spaces in conjunction with new residential and commercials developments.
“Building Centretown” deals with land use, building heights and design guidelines. The section includes a strong statement that the existing city guidelines must be considered when proposing a new development. Additional guidelines are proposed to respond more specifically to the Centretown context. This section also emphasizes the importance of ensuring that heritage and redevelopment interests work together for “the betterment of the community”. It recommends the updating of the Centretown Heritage Conservation District study and specific guidelines for integrating a heritage structure into a new development and for planning developments on sites adjacent to a heritage building.
“Implementation” outlines the implementation of the draft CDP recommendations, including changes to the Centretown Secondary Plan (part of the City’s Official Plan,) changes to the zoning by-laws, community benefits through Section 37 and the priorities for change.
It is worth noting that the Draft CDP Plan recommends that priority be given to Sections 4 and 5 (mobility and greening) and to specific additional studies, including updates to the Centretown Heritage Conservation District Study, the Bronson Avenue Design Plan and a study on requiring replacement of rental units as part of the Demolition Control By-law.
Despite its length of 115 pages (+ 91 pages of appendices which this writer has not perused), the draft CDP is well worth reading. It might elicit various emotions about the future of Centretown and raise fears about what will and what will not be implemented, but it pays to be well informed and this document provides useful information, presented in an attractive (albeit expensive) format.