The city’s planning committee has narrowly approved a controversial plan for a six-storey self-storage warehouse near Merivale Road.
The committee voted 4-3 Thursday to rezone a 1.13-hectare plot of land to allow Dymon Storage to build a new facility at 1375 Clyde Ave. near the southeast corner of Baseline Road. It will be the Ottawa-based company’s 12th location in the region.
The approval came despite opposition from Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Keith Egli, who represents the ward but does not sit on the committee, and some nearby residents who argued the land could be put to better use as a site of new housing, mixed-use developments and parks.
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“This has got potential to be something special,” Bob McCaw, the past-president of the Fisher Heights and Area Community Association, told the committee. “What we want to see is something new, something great. This could be an entire community on its own.”
The property is part of what’s known as the “Merivale triangle,” an area bound by Clyde Avenue, Merivale Road and Baseline Road that includes mostly commercial enterprises such as a shopping plaza and a gas station. The site itself is currently home to a sports vehicle sales and service centre that will remain in operation.
Dymon representatives disputed that the building will be just a warehouse, noting it will also include community rooms and retail space. The company is also proposing to build a drive-through restaurant along the Baseline Road side of the property.
The proposal will now go to full council for approval on Jan. 29.
Lincoln Fields redevelopment OK’d
Also Thursday, the committee gave the go-ahead for the owner of the Lincoln Fields Shopping Centre to raze the 47-year-old mall and and replace it with a new supermarket and commercial building.
RioCan, the mall’s owner, says the new 28,000-square-foot Metro food store and 17,000-square-foot building that will include a Rexall drug store are just the first steps in a long-term plan to redevelop the prime 16-acre property on Carling Avenue. The developer says it envisions a “higher-density, mixed-use community” at the site that could include residential units in the future.
