Residents 'betrayed' by city as 9-storey building on former Oblates land gets OK

A group of Old Ottawa East residents say they've lost any remaining faith in the planning process at city hall after a developer was given the go-ahead to build a nine-storey apartment block in front of a heritage building in the heart of their neighbourhood.

"We really feel betrayed," said Phyllis Odenbach Sutton, president of the Old Ottawa East Community Association.

Residents who turned up at Thursday's planning committee said the community plan they developed with city staff and Regional Group for its Greystone Village development used to be held up as a rare example of co-operation between a community and a developer, but that's all been dismantled now.

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"This is a squandering of the goodwill that Regional had earned," said John Dance, a former community association president. "We worked well with them, but they're just blowing it and they can't be trusted."

At Thursday's meeting, a few dozen residents wore bright-coloured T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "respect approved plans."

Greystone Village development to go ahead despite resident outcry

5 years ago

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Residents of Old Ottawa East showed up at city hall on Thursday to speak out against the Greystone Village development, which will see a nine-storey apartment block built in front of a heritage building.

8-1 vote

Residents said the apartment building, which will be three storeys higher than originally zoned but with no extra density, will distract from the heritage building formerly used by Oblate fathers.

What bothers the neighbourhood more, however, are changes to wording made to the secondary plan that governs what gets built in their community, to allow buildings ranging from three to nine storeys.

The planning committee approved both elements Thursday, siding with city staff in an 8-1 vote. Coun. Jeff Leiper registered the only vote against. The city councillor for the area, Shawn Menard, isn't a member of the planning committee and therefore had no vote.

After the vote, Menard said he no longer feels he can encourage residents to participate in city planning exercises.

"I can't tell them to go do that anymore because it's not worth the paper it's written on," a defeated Menard said as he left the committee room to commiserate with residents.

More changes feared

City planner Erin O'Connell characterized the changes as fixes to a "clarity problem" with the proposal, but residents saw it as staff bowing to a developer's whims.

Now, residents including Jeff O'Neill fear further changes to the development are inevitable.

"That policy, like a thread on a sweater, is being pulled and we're worried it will unravel and lead to more deviations from the original vision," O'Neill said.

Harder commends developer

Regional Group had a different take on the secondary plan, believing it allowed them to build nine storeys instead of stopping at six, said consultant Murray Chown.

The company's lawyer and architect pointed out other Greystone Village buildings had dropped from six storeys to three without fuss, and said the space between the heritage building and the new apartment building could fit a football field.

Few councillors weighed in on the file, but Coun. Jan Harder, who chairs the planning committee, commended the developer for investing in Old Ottawa East and highlighted the benefits including a new a linear park along the Rideau River, the cleaning up a brownfield and major road improvements on Main Street.

But Menard said his residents had already made many compromises, to no avail.

"A brand new plan is going to be changed. For what? Not community benefit, not Ottawa public benefit, but the benefit of one proponent," Menard said.

The zoning change still needs the approval of city council on July 10.