New plan for Rideau Street expected this spring – Lowertown Echo de la Basse-ville

By Robert Tritt

The city plans to circulate for public comment before summer a draft plan for development on Uptown Rideau St, between King Edward and the Cummings Bridge

The need for a new Community Development Plan, or CDP, arises from the recent renewal of the street and a new Official Plan which provides for intensification, including an exception for taller buildings, on “traditional mainstreets” like Rideau St The city already has received, or is expecting, several new applications, including a proposal by Trinity Developments for a large residential and commercial complex at Chapel

New build height always a point of contention

The new CDP will allow increased building heights The question is “how high?”

The vision for Uptown Rideau Street as “a vibrant mainstreet framed with three to six storey buildings on both sides of the street”, as set out 10 years ago in the Community Development Plan The City is now writing a new Plan that would permit more high-rise buildings in several blocks along the street

One idea the city has circulated to a working group of local residents, property owners and developers is to protect the current four and six storey limits in some blocks, but replace them with a “baseline” height of nine storeys in many others On several large lots, developers also would have the ability to design much taller structures – up to 25 storeys – provided the overall footprint of the building would not exceed that of a nine storey building occupying the same site As part of the approval process, some of the extra space on the property resulting from the building’s smaller footprint would be turned over for public use, for example, as a plaza or small park

Community representatives on the working group, including the Lowertown Community Association (LCA), recognize the need for development but also want to preserve the vision of a traditional mainstreet set out in the current CDP – that is, a pedestrian-friendly, human scale street framed by mid-rise buildings They can support the proposed increase in height and density from six to nine storeys However, they do not want to give developers permission to build high-rise towers They fear that new tall buildings will lead to the same canyon effect that now dominates Rideau St west of King Edward

Others, particularly the developers, believe that a nine storey limit, even with the flexibility to build taller structures, is too rigid Larger buildings are needed to encourage developers to take on the risks of building in the current economic climate Another argument is that it is not realistic to limit building heights to nine storeys on a street that already has eight existing or planned high-rises ranging from 10 to 22 stories

The new CDP will help guide how Rideau Street develops to meet the needs of residents and businesses over the next 20 years Building height will be front and centre during the public consultations expected over the summer The City also will be looking for input on many other important issues in the plan Among them are the relationship between buildings on Rideau St and their residential neighbours; the location and nature of new public spaces and parks; protecting the historic streetscape; and improvements for cyclists and pedestrians.