The tricky balance of highrise development and experimental farm research

City officials and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) say there needs to be a broader discussion about the growing number of highrise proposals around Ottawa's Central Experimental Farm and how they affect the viability of research at the site.

The debate has intensified with the proposal for two such towers at 1081 Carling Ave., on the corner with Parkdale Avenue.

Ottawa-based developer Taggart Realty Management said the 16 and 27-storey buildings would hold 350 rental apartments, potentially including affordable units.

On the other side of the farm, a separate application from Theberge Homes that proposes three towers — two of them 24 and the other 32 — at 780 Baseline Rd. on the corner of Fisher Avenue is winding its way through the planning process. 

Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper, chair of the planning committee, said people want to have a larger discussion about how future growth along these transit corridors will affect the farm.

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He said the city's current official plan doesn't limit height for the sake of the farm, but the city could create a secondary plan if AAFC made the case.

"I don't think that's a productive discussion with the farm until we have a well-considered, modern, up-to-date document from them — thinking from them — that describes exactly what the role of the farm is going to be within their network of research facilities," Leiper said.

"I'm interested to see whether there is a compromise between the heights that would be contemplated by our official plan today versus the research needs of the farm."

The farm is one of 19 agriculture research centres in Canada, covering more than 1,000 acres just southwest of the city core. It's nearly 140 years old and is a national historic site.

River Coun. Riley Brockington, whose ward encompasses the farm, said given the importance of agricultural research at the site the city needs to make sure these proposals aren't handled as one-offs.

"This is in the centre of the city. I think there are a lot of people who have a lot of different ideas of what this land could be used for. But, at the end of the day, agriculture research is very important," Brockington said.

"The corridors that we're talking about really should have density. They're close to rapid transit, they're going to be close to LRT stations."

Brockington said he hopes there will be more clarity when AAFC attends Wednesday's planning and housing committee meeting, which will be considering the Carling proposal again. 

Joey Theberge of Theberge Homes said he has tried to adapt his proposal to minimize shadows by shrinking the footprint of the tallest tower and trying to angle the buildings.

"Our shadow analysis has shown that the impacts we're going to create are more in the winter … Our main highest-point tower is more of a square pin tower now, rather than a flat wall to try to minimize any of those impacts," Theberge said.

"The benefits far outreach any of the negative impacts that would have by bringing that kind of density to this area."

He said he thinks proposals should be considered on a case-by-case basis and his is bolstered by the proximity to future bus rapid transit and the need for rental units.

Pascal Michel, AAFC's director general for science and technology in the Ontario-Quebec region, said he found the adjustments on the Baseline proposal to be minimal so far, but he does think compromise is possible.

"No building would be best. But we do understand that there are probably ways to build those buildings with minimal impact for the land," he said. "It's a balancing of top-of-the-mind challenges."

Michel said research at the farm is important to adapting agriculture to climate change and providing food security.

He said shadows cast by proposed towers around the farm would introduce variability to existing research projects and diminish the continued value of the farm as a model of how Canadian farmers' fields work.

"We are expecting that these are not the last files that we're going to be dealing with. Our perspective on this is holistic," Michel said. 

"We need to not only look at the immediate impact of those individual projects, we need to look at the foundational and core function of the Central Experimental Farm and how all of this impacts at once our ability to do research here."

Committee chair Leiper notes the 1081 Carling Ave. proposal succeeded the last time it was at committee. It's returning because city staff realized AAFC had not been notified of the meeting.

The meeting is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

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