1. Mid-Centretown
Community Design Plan
Photo By: Charles Akben Marchand
www.centretown.blogspot.com November 30, 2010
ERA Architects Delcan Hariri Pontarini Architects
2. TONIGHT
6:30 Presentation
7:30 Questions & Answers
8:00 Activity Stations:
1. The Character of Centretown: Buildings
2. Greening Centretown: Parks & Public Realm
3. Moving Around Centretown: Mobility
4. Living In Centretown: Community Amenities
6. What is a Community Design Plan?
Implemented through the Official Plan, CDPs direct future growth and
guiding development across areas facing significant change.
CDPs provide guidelines for decision-making on land use planning at the
neighbourhood level, around:
1. Future development
2. Urban design
3. Parks and open spaces
4. Streetscape improvements
5. Zoning
6. Community priorities
Community Design Plans (CDPs) are used to update Secondary Plans.
A key objective of process is to build consensus around an updated
twenty-year vision for Mid-Centretown.
9. Where & What is Centretown?
O’Conner
Metcalfe
Bank
Elgin
Kent
Gloucester
Nepean
Lisgar
Cooper
Somerset
MacLaren
Gilmour
James
Florence
Gladstone
McLeod
Flora
Arlington
Catherine
417
20. Centretown is composed of a diversity of places
Residential Northern
Neighbourhood
Central
Residential
Catherine Corridor Neighbourhood
Downtown Metcalfe Street Heritage Cluster Northern Zone
Main Street Museum District Central Zone Catherine St. Corridor
23. Centretown Community Amenities
Worked with University of Ottawa to prepare a Community Amenities
Audit – sets the baseline scenario for the provision of community
facilities in Centretown.
Focused on public spaces & facilities that provide community services.
Starting point for understanding existing provision and
where gaps exist.
24. Centretown Community Amenities
Key Findings
As a well-established, central neighbourhood, Centretown is generally
well provided for with facilities.
However, Centretown suffers from many of the same deficiencies
experienced in other urban communities, such as:
community centres … meeting space … local libraries … youth
centres…investment in existing facilities…outdoor recreation space…
Findings were reinforced by what we heard from you:
… more park space … more healthy trees … better quality
affordable housing … a new local library …. more bike lanes
needed … schools are essential … improvements to rinks, tennis
and basketball courts
25. Making It Happen
Section 37
Allows the City to grant additional height and/or density beyond
existing permissions in return for ‘community benefits’.
Typically community benefits are cash contributions, but can also
be physical facilities.
Community benefits are negotiated between the applicant, the
City, the local councilor.
26. Community Benefits
What qualifies as a ‘Community Benefit’?
From City of Ottawa’s Official Plan:
> Cultural facilities
> Public art
> Heritage conservation
> Rental housing conservation
> Affordable housing provision, including land
> Child care
> Improvements to rapid-transit stations
> Artist live-work studios
PLUS…other local improvements identified in community design plans,
community improvement plans, capital budgets, or other implementation
plans or studies.
27. Community Benefits
…but could also include:
> Parkland
> Park improvements
> Funding for non-profit arts, community, cultural or institutional facilities
> Streetscape improvements
> Land for municipal purposes
> Funding for the urban forest
> Green technologies
Let us know what ‘community benefits’ are important to Centretown
33. The Starting Point
Mobility Projects:
Two way conversion of all
one-way arterials
Removal of Metcalfe
Street from East Lawn
Metcalfe Street as a Civic
Boulevard
34. Mobility Overlay Study:
Centretown Demands…
The City of Ottawa is about to undertake
a Downtown Mobility Study.
All ideas presented tonight will be
included in the scope of work for the
Downtown Mobility Study.
Would you like to include other ideas?
35. Turning Your Roads into Street:
Two–Way Conversions
Metcalfe
O’Connor
Kent
Lyon
55. Moving Centretown: Projects
1. Metcalfe should be converted to two-way
2. Restore grid street system around Museum
3. Safe Crossing Project: Signalized pedestrian
crossing should be introduced at intersections along
arterial routes.
4. New on-street cycle lanes
5. Pedestrian comfort improvements should be pursued
as a priority on Metcalfe, Elgin, Bay, Somerset.
89. Building a Tall Building
750 m2
Built Form Principles:
6 storeys
How should you build?
Minimum Maximum Minimum
distance tower distance
between tower floorplate between
and adjacent towers
properties
106. Four Zones of Change,
each with a different response.
Built within the last 10
years/Under Construction
Approved
City or NCC Sponsored
District
Proposed Development
Possible Developments
107. Centretown Tomorrow?
Built within the last 10
years/Under Construction
Approved
City or NCC Sponsored
District
Proposed Development
Possible Developments
Heritage Category 1
Heritage Category 2
108. Four Zones of Change,
each with a different response.
• Main Street
• Centretown North
• Neighbourhood Infill
• Catherine Corridor
109. Building Centretown:
Projects
1. Design Guidelines (Infill, Mid-Rise and Tall Building)
2. Green Building Design Standards
3. Update Policy Framework Update (zoning)
4. Existing quality heritage buildings of Category 1 and 2
should be preserved. Depending on the site context and
the characteristic of the existing heritage building, these
buildings could also be integrated into new proposals.
111. What We Have Today
Somerset
Gladstone
Catherine
112. The Starting Point
Greening Projects:
Park Space Acquisition Program
Canadian Museum of Nature
Block Restoration
Metcalfe Gateway Square
Escarpment Cental Park
Street Beautification for:
• Elgin Street
• O’Connor Street
• Somerset Street
• Metcalfe Street
• Bank Street
115. Canadian Museum of Nature Park West Lawn
Long term site development plan
Barry Padolsky Associates Inc.
Architects
KPMB Architects
Gagnon, Letellier, Cyr, Architects
117. Museum of Nature East Lawn Expansion
Barry Padolsky Associates Inc.
Architects
KPMB Architects
Gagnon, Letellier, Cyr, Architects
118. Museum of Nature East Lawn Expansion
Requires:
Elimination of the
Metcalfe Street
Removal of surface
parking lot
Re-landscaping the park
Barry Padolsky Associates Inc.
Architects
KPMB Architects
Gagnon, Letellier, Cyr, Architects
121. Jack Purcell Park: What’s Proposed
Playground
enhancement
New basketball court
New winter ice rink
Off-Least Dog Area
Improvements
122. Jack Purcell Park: Suggested Upgrades
• Improve Park
entrances
• Improve streets
leading to park
• Make park
more visible by
improving edge
conditions
• Improve
pathway
system
• New planting
143. Greening Centretown:
Projects
1. Park space acquisition programme
2. Park repair and upgrade programme: Museum of Nature
East Lawn and Jack Purcell Park as priorities.
3. Metcalfe reinvented as a green boulevard
4. Streetscape enhancements: Elgin and Catherine streets
5. Reclaim public ROW when encroached by parking
