8/9/2019 DCA Comments on 845 Carling (Dow Honda) development

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DALHOUSIE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION

 

755 Somerset Street West Ottawa Ontario

K1R 6R1

9 February 2015 

Councillor Jan Harder

Chair, Planning Committee

City of Ottawa

Re: 10 February Planning Committee

845 Carling Ave., Re-Zoning 

Dear Ms. Harder,

I am writing to express some concern with the proposed redevelopment of 845 Carling Ave. that will be

discussed at a meeting of Planning Committee on February 10 th 2015.

Firstly, we remain concerned about the traffic flow from this development onto nearby side streets.

Though there is some access to Carling Ave., this underused arterial road would make much more sense

as a primary garage entrance.

Most importantly, we are flabbergasted with the proposal to allocate more than one third of the Section

37 monies towards burying hydro wires on the streets surrounding the proposed development. The

community has never seen burying hydro wires as either a public benefit nor as anything but the mostfrivolous of public realm improvements, a point we made consistently during the secondary plan’s public

realm consultation process.

The functional effect of burying these utilities is to remove the need for a building to be setback 5m to

accommodate aboveground wires. Given the It seems unlikely that a development of this scale would be

possible with such a setback, meaning relocation or burying of hydro lines would have been required in

any case. Section 37 monies should not be used to do what the developer would have to do anyway.

There are many higher priorities for public benefit and for public realm improvements, even within the

priority list set out in the Preston-Carling Public Realm and Mobility Study. This is to say nothing of

broader needs within the community, including greenspace, affordable housing and day care spaces.

845 Carling will likely be the largest, most-intense redevelopment in the Preston-Carling area. It alone

will add 1100 new residences to our community. This plan creates what amounts to a vertical

subdivision within our existing community, but, unlike most greenfield development, there is no real

plan to add or increase the capacity of public amenities, such as parks, libraries, or community and

recreation centres, that this growth requires.

8/9/2019 DCA Comments on 845 Carling (Dow Honda) development

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With such a clear need, it is absurd that the city would accept burying of hydro wires as a “community

benefit”, let alone such a large portion. We recommend that the committee table this report while the

section 37 benefits are re-negotiated accordingly. 

Yours truly,

Michael Powell

President

cc: Members of Planning Committee

Councillor Catherine McKenney

Mayor Jim Watson