Community updates

At the Annual General Meeting in September 2022 Councillor Egli brought updates to several community issues.

780 Baseline Road (Lone Star Plaza)

The proponent of the780 Baseline Road redevelopment has bought a second house, 9 Hilliard, to accompany his previous purchase of 7 Hilliard. The adjacent properties, which abut the 780 Baseline property, are to be used as a construction staging area if the project is approved, and will then become a city park.

It is not clear where the funds to equip the park – which could include a play structure, benches and/or picnic tables, perhaps a basketball half court – will come from. Will that be funded by the developer as part of that project, or from direct city funding, or from the parks-in-lieu funds that accumulate in the ward and citywide? He said this proposal will not advance to Planning Committee until 2023.

Park improvements consultations for Gilbey and Parthia

As mentioned in the November 2021 community association newsletter, federal infrastructure funding has been approved to replace play structures in Gilbey Park (in 2023, value $161,000) and Parthia Park (in 2024, value $160,000). The funding is guaranteed, but can only be used to “renew the active play elements in the park,” the city says, not add new ones. Community consultations are to begin this fall for Gilbey Park and in fall 2023 for Parthia Park.

Councillor Egli said that replacement of Fisher Heights Park play structures is slotted for 2024, but this funding is not guaranteed as it must be included in the city budget, along with competing park priorities.

Fisher Heights Islamic School

The Islamic School has found sufficient funding to proceed with the full exterior cladding of the addition. This will improve considerably the appearance of the building. But occupancy is still a long way off, as after all exterior construction is completed, funds must be found to do the major work in finishing the interior – ceilings, walls, plumbing, electrical work, painting, furniture, equipping the science lab, construction and equipment of the gym floor and so on.

56 Capilano (Land at Curling rink)

The 56 Capilano development proposal is scheduled to go to the city Planning Committee on Oct. 27. councillor Egli shared that the proponent has negotiated an agreement with a social housing provider where it will operate the building after construction and will provide its specific recommendations regarding elements of the zoning amendment and if that is approved, the site plan.

Lone Star Plaza meeting with Riley Brockington in park

Susan Paul informs us that there will be another meeting with Riley Brockington, this time in Lexington park…at Fisher/Malibu. Bring a chair.  Monday July 25 at 7pm, yes that is July 25.

He will respond to stuff brought up in first meeting, according to Susan, the lead contact person for the push back against the development as it is proposed. 

Online petition

If you have not signed the on line petition against the zoning proposals for Lone Star Plaza on Baseline and Fisher, here is your chance: https://www.change.org/p/ottawa-communities-against-rezoning-proposal-at-780-baseline-road

Not monitoring social media

PLEASE BE AWARE THAT FHACA IS NOT MONITORING SOCIAL MEDIA, WE ONLY USE IT TO GET THE WORD OUT. IF YOU LIKE TO HELP US OUT (WE ARE ALL BUSY AFTER ALL INCLUDING YOUR FHACA BOARD) PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING THE BOARD IN SEPTEMBER. We are looking for more people to follow developments, for people to run a park committee, for people to run a Halloween event (ideas welcome) and board members at large.

Kids Movie night

Our Kids movie night returns this year. Please follow our newsletter (fhaca.ca) for updates.

Open house 1509 Merivale Road mid rise proposal – February 24, 2022

The mall that’s gonna go (pink roof building)

As you are likely aware, the Ottawa official plan has been approved by City council. It is now on the (provincial) Minister’s desk and community organisations are approaching the minsite with further changes. The plans means that over the next decades we will likely see changes starting to happen in our neighbourhoods such as infill and a bus corridor, more highrises (and way more traffic).

Draft Official Plan might effect Fisher Heights too

If you want to read more on retrofitting suburban development, this is a great book (available at the library)

Fisher Heights residents Corey Peabody dove head first into the official plan and sent us some feedback. Note this is a combination of cut and paste from several on line documents as well as some of her own comments crafted into a beautiful webpage :-). It is not like we will become the next Hintonburg (coffee roasters anyone?), but times they are achanging.

What is the Official Plan & why is it important?

The new Official Plan, once approved, will be the City’s primary planning document to guide growth and redevelopment in Ottawa for at least the next 25 years. The draft new OP must be based on the requirements of the Province’s Planning Act and the Provincial Policy Statement. The new OP will also inform other City master plans to ensure that services such as water, roads, parks, green space and transit are available to support the new development.

Where can I find the documents?

The main portal for this is here https://engage.ottawa.ca/ and the document library is here 

I would like to warn you – the Draft Official Plan document is 263 pages long and one of the most impenetrable and difficult to understand documents I have ever dealt with.

Where are we in the consultation process?

Individual Feedback

The first draft was released on November 20 2020. The city is asking for feedback by February 17 2021. Because the draft document is so complex, the city has thoughtfully provided no less than 21 one-pagers and feedback forms on subjects of interest. They can be found here. While the one-pagers are definitely very helpful briefs, the problem with the bite-size info and sending comments on those is that you get the feeling that you are missing the real show. But do comment! 

Community Feedback

For well over a year, a group of community organizations, including CAFES, Ecology Ottawa, City for All Women (CAWI), Greenspace Alliance, Healthy Transportation Coalition and Just Food, have been meeting under the label People’s Official Plan (POP) both at a convener level and at a residents’ level through organizing large consultative workshops. The first was at the Bayswater Innovation Centre, the second at Nepean Sportsplex and most recently on Dec 12 2020 we met in a well attended on-line workshop looking at the Draft OP and 15-minute neighbourhoods.

Residents have until Feb 17, 2021 to comment on 21 one-page summaries on specifics sections of the OP, such as Housing, Employment, Parks, Water Resources and Climate Change, to name a few.

If you want to say more than what’s on the feedback forms, you can also email these Ottawa staff: charmaine.forgie@ottawa.ca; Alain.Miguelez@ottawa.ca

Three reasons I think this is more important than ever

Intensification

Intensification is the emphasis of the new OP. And there is very little land being taken in along the edges of the City for new urban expansion (as seen in newspaper articles the past two days). So intensification will have to happen from within.

Transit corridor – evolving neighbourhood

We live in an area that is bordered by Baseline Road that is going to become a major transit (bus) corridor. Our neighbourhood has been classified as “evolving” in the new OP which means “expected to gently evolve from a suburban to a more urban form of buildings and site layouts”. We are also nearby to the triangle lands behind Loblaws (which extend to Myers Motors land beside St. Augustine’s Church) which are classed as “transforming” lands which means “areas expected to undergo significant development”.

Rezoning

I took the City’s “Planning Primer” course yesterday evening (that is offered for free by the City) and discovered that some older neighbourhoods that are currently zoned R1, that are near transit lines (that’s two ticks for our neighbourhood) could be re-zoned to become R4 neighbourhoods that would allow three storey, six-living-unit buildings on certain parcels of land (likely street corners). This is how the City could meet its intensification targets, by providing additional housing space near major transit corridors but at the expense of established R1 neighbourhoods.

The Zoning by-law will also be re-written. (So could this be an opportunity to voice our concern about allowing commercial cube trucks to be stored in driveways? (I digress….)

I realize that many of these decisions may have already been made, but I think it is important to be informed as to what is happening or could happen in your neighbourhood. And while (apparently) change is good, knowing it is coming is better than being surprised by it!

Corey Peabody

This is the web location of all the OP documents; the one page summaries are here as well as a feedback form for each:

https://engage.ottawa.ca/the-new-official-plan

And this is the link to all the documents library:

https://engage.ottawa.ca/the-new-official-plan/widgets/36458/documents

Ottawa Islamic School Expansion Begins

(Updated December 4, 2014)

The Ottawa Islamic School officially launched its building expansion on Monday Nov. 3 with a brief ceremony. In attendance representing the Association were Bob McCaw and Doug Yonson. The construction involves an extension to the main two-storey wing of the building (closest to Fisher Heights Community Place) and will include a two-storey gymnasium, science labs, computer rooms, and study space. It will not result in any increase in enrollment.

The new labs will be a welcome addition to the school because at present, the students must attend other school labs to fulfil their science curriculum. The gym will also be a nice addition, and will finally enable the school to host it’s own home games. At the moment, all games played by the school’s basketball team, which is also the 2013-2014 city champion, are played at their opponents’ venues.

Construction plans and schedules were also clarified at the ceremony. The work to be completed this fall includes the installation of all utilities, the most disruptive of which will be the extension of city water mains from both Sutton Place and Coral Avenue to service a new fire hydrant that will be installed near the new building. That phase of the work is currently under way and has required the closing of a short stretch of Sutton Place.

Work on the building’s exterior, including its foundation, is to begin in the spring of 2015, and extend until the fall. Beginning in the spring of 2016, the interior finishing and fit-ups, and all landscaping, will be performed and the building is scheduled to open for September 2016.

This is a longer construction schedule than originally expected, and the potential noise, traffic and other disruptions will be borne primarily by residents of Sutton, Coral, and Barlyn. The association will monitor the construction and seek changes if necessary.

Is Intensification A Sound Investment?

Whether we like it or not, the city is growing. The question is, what is the most efficient and seamless method for that growth? The City of Ottawa seems to believe that the answer lies in the intensification of our existing neighbourhoods.

Intensification is meant to limit urban sprawl by encouraging more new development within existing urban areas. Whether positive or negative, we have begun to see this plan at work in our neighbourhood. The first phase was erected in the multi-unit residential infill at Encore Private, abutting the Villa Marconi property on Farlane Blvd. as seen below.

At last month’s FHACA Annual General Meeting, we heard a presentation by local resident Terrence Lonergan on the challenges our neighbourhood may face as a result of the City of Ottawa’s Residential Low-rise Infill and AM Densification policies. If you attended the meeting and wanted a closer look at the presentation, or if you missed the meeting but still wanted to be part of the discussion, we are including the presentation notes here.

This first link shows the slide presentation made by Terrence: Intensification Slide Presentation Sept 2014 AGM

This second link offers a background on Ottawa’s Infill policy and its implementation thus far. although dated May 2014, few, if any changes have been made, and the document remains relevant: Ottawa Low-Rise Infill – A Primer

Similar smaller infill initiatives have also begun to creep into other parts of our neighbourhood. At the moment, streets such as Trillium Ave are targets for property-splitting because they contain large lots with single, or smaller two-story homes. The first project at the North end of Trillium Ave is nearly complete, and the image below shows how different the neighbourhood can look after such a project is complete.

A similar second property-splitting project is about to begin on Trillium Ave, just a few doors down from the first. The Committee of Adjustment will be holding a public hearing to apply for consent to move forward with the proposed plan on Wednesday, November 5, at 6:30pm at Ben Franklin Place, The Chamber, Main Floor, 101 Centrepointe Dr., so if you wish, this is your opportunity to make your voice heard.

And here are images of the proposed lot severance, followed by computer sketches of the proposed homes.

Undoubtedly, these types of projects have a profound impact on the look and feel of our well-established neighbourhood, but only time will tell what the impact will truly be. Surely, this will not be the last you read about property-splitting and infill on this website, as we plan to keep you up to date on this topic. But in the meantime, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the benefits and risks of this ongoing neighbourhood redevelopment in the comments below.