By John Chenier
A group of Lowertown residents has filed an appeal with the Ontario Land Tribunal contesting the City’s approval of the Shepherds of Good Hope (SGH) project at 216 Murray Street.
Deirdre Freiheit, President and CEO, of the SGH has expressed profound disappointment with the appeal. In a statement to the Echo she says, “We believe the grounds outlined in the appeal do not meet Planning Act requirements. The City of Ottawa’s own Planning Committee unanimously approved the zoning amendment.”
The group, calling itself the Citizen Coalition for Compassionate and Safe Communities (CCCSC) has hired a lawyer from Toronto to represent them before the tribunal. Several Ottawa lawyers and planners were approached, but as is often the case, were reluctant or unable to take on the case due to time constraints or conflict of interest.
CCCSC is no different from most coalitions in that it brings together people with different reasons and perspectives for opposing the 216 Murray Street proposal. What these people have in common is a frustration with the City, which once again has approved a development that makes a mockery of and violates our Official Plan, zoning bylaws, and the Ontario Provincial Policy Statement.
Some members of the CCCSC are objecting because they feel that it is unreasonable and impossible to justify building housing units for Indigenous or any other women in a milieu that is right next to a busy supervised injection site and the City’s largest shelter. They cannot think of a less safe place for Indigenous women to live in the city and are skeptical of the motives behind the SGH in proposing this. They want federal money designated for housing Indigenous women to be Indigenous-led and to be built where it will do the most good, and that certainly is not at 216 Murray Street.
The coalition includes residents of the community that have long been involved with planning and the preservation of heritage in Lowertown. They are contesting the massive rezoning associated with this project and insist that the urgent need for housing should not serve as a pretext to violate and rewrite aspects of existing city bylaws and elements of the Official Plan. They point out that there are other, more suitable plots of land available in the vicinity where this housing could be built within existing zoning regulations. They ask why the City is using this project to break its promises to the community and worry what this could mean for the rest of the heritage conservation district.
222 Beechwood the southern edge; 19 Beechwood the bottom border.
Both buildings were constrained by the policies protecting the viewshed.
Others involved in CCCSC are objecting to the building’s protrusion into the protected view of Parliament Hill. In 2008, an amendment to the City of Ottawa Official Plan was adopted by council that would preserve the view of Parliament Hill from our National Cemetery. The Official Plan explicitly prohibits rezoning of any land that would allow a building to protrude into a protected viewshed of Parliament from the two designated points in Beechwood National Cemetery. Even if 216 Murray were a desirable location for housing, they strongly feel that it should be limited to the maximum permitted height established in 2008 of 24 metres and not the 33.5 the City has approved in contravention of the Official Plan.
Last but not least among the CCCSC members are those living near to the existing SGH facilities on Murray Street who bear the brunt of the externalities, or unaccounted-for costs, of having these facilities nearby —the undercurrent of violence that accompanies drug dealing, petty theft, trespass, prostitution and vandalism to vehicles and buildings. They fear these problems will only increase with the expansion of the SGH facility in that location.
The position of the SGH on these externalities has been that their role is to offer a place for the homeless to sleep at night and to provide meals and other services during the day to those in Lowertown who are in need. They provide these services to the best of their ability and say they cannot be held responsible for the damages or inconveniences affecting nearby residents and businesses.
“Shepherds of Good Hope continues to operate in a storm of three crises: a homelessness state of emergency, a toxic drug supply, and the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Frieheit. “This appeal increases barriers to an already vulnerable population and delays much-needed supports for the entire Lowertown community, which has been deeply impacted by these crises. The design of this program is a response not only to the needs of people experiencing homelessness, but to business owners and residents in our community.”
The coalition believes a good corporate citizen or good member of the community wouldn’t ask for all the zoning exceptions granted. It has started a “GoFundMe” campaign to cover the expected cost of $25,000.