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160 Lees Development goes to Planning Council on February 26

The City of Ottawa’s planning committee will review the application for 160 Lees Avenue on February 26, 2013. At the request of Councillor Chernushenko, the city has agreed to conduct the site plan studies in advance of this going to committee so that due diligence is done and the proper assessments and analysis are conducted on the impacts raised such as environmental issues and traffic. We will be receiving a list of the studies that will be conducted and we will post them on the website.

The OECA has received a copy of the alternative locations that the city staff reviewed before proposing the 160 Lees Avenue site as the recommended option. They are posted in the planning section under the 160 Lees Avenue file.

The OECA will continue to press for more information regarding the size of the proposed parking lot. The city is required to compensate the university for lost parking due to LRT construction, however, the current proposal provides the university with an additional 132 parking spots. At a meeting held on January 7, 2013, between the OECA, Councillor Chernushenko, university representatives and city staff, we asked the university to assess its current parking, do a needs assessment and review if indeed it really needs a 362 parking lot to compensate for 230 lost spots. The University of Ottawa is in a key leadership position to change the decision on whether the parking lot is necessary and whether its size can be decreased, but we need to appeal to the president to get the decision in the MOU with the city changed. Officials from his office indicated that they were surprised that they have not received more letters – let’s make some noise and send President Allan Rock some letters. Your voice matters and because of the interest that we have been getting on this issue, changes are happening but there are still more changes required.

For full details about this proposal, including the most recent site plan, please visit the planning page.