An 84-unit low-rise building has been proposed in the Sandy Hill area, with construction slated to begin next year pending city approvals.
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An 84-unit low-rise building has been proposed in the Sandy Hill area, with construction slated to begin next year pending city approvals.
The proposal to the city, which was submitted earlier this year, would see a four-storey building constructed on the eastern edge of Sweetland Avenue, between Osgoode Street and Somerset Street East. The 1,650-square-metre property is currently occupied by three detached homes and a two-unit semi-detached building, which will be demolished to make way for the project.
With nearby amenities like a park and LRT station, the Sweetland location is ideal for this type of development, said Rosaline Hill, co-owner and architect at RJH Architecture, which filed the application.
“It’s really well located. It’s one of Ottawa’s few genuinely walkable neighbourhoods, where you can live without a car,” she said. “We were going for the mid-density neighbourhood infill development without parking.”
Proximity to the University of Ottawa makes the property well-suited for students and young professionals. Access to nearby shops, grocery stores and daycares, she said, could also attract young families.
Hill added that these types of walkable amenities are a major asset in the current market.
“All of our clients are struggling right now to make their development business models work, because it’s such a tough market,” she said. “If you can find a piece of property where the model doesn’t depend on parking, it’s a lot easier to make the financials work. Parking consumes so much space and reduces your yield dramatically.”
According to Hill, her firm specializes in housing projects with a focus on the “missing middle”: low- and mid-rise multi-unit developments versus single-detached homes or high-rise towers. The Sweetland development falls into that category, she said.
“We know how important it is to our growing urban places across the country,” Hill told OBJ. “There are lots of opportunities in Ottawa (for developments) at different sizes. Sometimes a project can be large without the height, like the Sweetland project. There’s still an awful lot of units here. It’s a big building and zoning dictates the maximum height limits on any given site.”
According to the application, the new building will include 63 bachelor, three two-bedroom and 18 three-bedroom units. One visitor parking space will be available to accommodate service vehicles and deliveries. There will also be 84 bicycle parking spaces within the building.
The application asks the city to eliminate resident parking and reduce visitor parking requirements for the project.
In terms of design, Hill said the project would feature a facade that is becoming increasingly popular in the Ottawa market.
“The building has quite a long facade along the street, so we wanted to make sure that we were working with the rhythm and scale of the architecture in the neighbourhood,” she said. “So the facade is divided up vertically so that when you move your eye horizontally along the street, there are different sectors that are in keeping with the scale of the smaller buildings around.”
This “repeating design” creates more visual interest, allowing the building to be more dynamic and unique, she said.
“It’s a new window of opportunity that’s opening up,” Hill said of that type of facade. “We’re already doing them, but it’s going to start booming.”
The firm had originally hoped to receive approval from the city a few months ago to begin construction on the project in the fall of 2025. But Hill said the application process has been slow.
“I know the City of Ottawa staff have worked hard and some of them have made a big difference streamlining things,” she said. “In spite of all this, our applications are still very long and slow. They missed the date and we’re not going to start (construction) in the dead of January.”
While construction has been delayed, Hill said once it’s underway, the building is expected to be completed within a year.
