Alayne McGregor
Ottawa Community Housing is in the final approval stages for Phase 2 of its Rochester Heights development, which will replace the 1960s brick townhouses on the south side of Gladstone Avenue between Booth and Rochester.
The new one-hectare complex will provide 270 units in two nine-story buildings and a series of townhouses, and expand the city’s Piazza Dante Park at the corner of Booth and Gladstone.
At a virtual open house on the project on December 13, OCH planners said that the overall project is designed to be moderately affordable (yearly household salaries of $40K to $110K). Units will range from bachelors to four-bedroom units. Tenants will not have balconies or back yards, but will share the greenspace in the centre of the complex.
Parking for 146 cars (primarily underground) and 280 bicycles will be included, with more than 200 secure bike spaces in ground-floor and underground rooms. OCH will have a TDM program to encourage walking, cycling, transit, and car sharing, and will charge separately for car parking.
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The ground floor along Gladstone will be commercial space, almost 5000 square feet in total.
Like Phase 1 of the project across the street, the project is designed for sustainability. It will be built to high-efficiency Passive House standards with photovoltaic arrays on the roof, wastewater heat recovery, and four-stream garbage/recycling. The buildings have been placed in order to save some mature trees along Gladstone and in the centre of the property, OCH manager Rob MacNeil said.
Construction is scheduled to start this summer, with the summer and fall of 2024 the likely date when tenants can move in. A high-density Phase 3 of Rochester Heights will be built south of this project up to Raymond Street, after the MTO replacement of Queensway overpasses finishes.