A developer has scaled back its proposal to construct two residential towers near the Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus after complaints the buildings would cause traffic headaches and overshadow nearby homes.
Taggart Realty Management recently filed a revised application with the city that would see the builder reduce the height of the proposed highrises at 1081 Carling Ave. from 22 and 28 storeys to 16 and 25 storeys.
Under the revamped plan, the two-tower housing complex just east of Parkdale Avenue would feature a total of 414 residential units, down from 460 in the original proposal.
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Taggart also says it plans to cut the height of the buildings’ podiums from six storeys to four. Meanwhile, the east tower is being moved closer to Carling Avenue while both highrises’ north setbacks have been slightly adjusted. Each building will now have two stepbacks on the north side as opposed to the single stepbacks proposed in the initial application.
In addition, there would be 21 metres of separation between the towers, up from 20 metres in the original plan.
The developer is also adding more bicycle parking, boosting the number of spots from 342 to 399. The number of vehicle parking spaces in the proposed four-level underground garage would be reduced slightly from 340 to 322.
Taggart says the changes are aimed at addressing resident and city staff concerns that the highrises in the original proposal were too tall for the one-acre footprint.
In its updated application filed earlier this month, the builder says the rejigged development plan “results in fewer shadow impacts” due to the project’s decreased height and multiple stepbacks.
“The revised design has more slender towers with smaller tower floorplates, minimizing the long shadows cast by the development,” the application prepared by planning consultant Fotenn says.
Taggart filed its initial proposal more than a year ago to tear down the eight-storey office building that now occupies the site and replace it with the new development.
Current zoning rules limit buildings on the property to nine storeys. But in its original development application, Taggart argued the property is “underutilized” and large enough to accommodate much taller buildings.
“While we understand this is a big change from the existing site use, we feel the site warrants the proposed development,” Taggart president Jeff Parkes said in an email to OBJ last September.
Parkes said the site is ideal for residential highrises due to its location on a main arterial road and its proximity to multiple transit stops and a potential future LRT station at the intersection of Carling and Parkdale. He said the site “offers the opportunity for a level of intensification that is rare in the core of the city.”
But Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper, who represents the area, told OBJ last fall he was worried a development of that scale would have a “major shadow impact” on the neighbourhood directly north of the site, which consists mostly of single and semi-detached houses.
“I’m having a really difficult time imagining two towers of that height,” he said. “We all know additional density along Carling is coming, but it doesn’t have to be the sky is the limit. This would be a different discussion if they were proposing a single, 15-to-20-storey tower with some substantial buffering to the adjacent lowrise neighbourhood.”
At the time of the original proposal, Parkes said the firm had yet to determine whether the housing units would be rental apartments or condominiums or if the site would include a commercial component.
He added that the development was still “many years away” from being launched, noting that tenants in the existing office building still have leases in place and would need time to relocate.
In the latest revised application, Taggart said that while city staff want to see retail space on the ground floor of the buildings, the performance of tenants in the existing office complex suggests that “commercial uses are not currently viable” at the site.
However, the developer said it was “hopeful to find a commercial tenant for this space in one or both towers.” Taggart said the ground floors are currently planned as amenity areas with taller five-metre ceilings that could be converted into retail space “should the market allow it.”
