Orléans Corridor Secondary Plan Study
Dear neighbours,
Over the past year, you have probably heard me talk about or refer to the Orléans Corridor Study. In early March, we held the project’s first open house. We won’t be having the summer we expected, and I don’t want this project to lose its momentum. So, this newsletter is dedicated to the Orléans Corridor Secondary Plan Study – what it is, what it means, what my vision is, why you should participate and how you can participate. This is a bit of a longer read and it’s worth it. I want to make sure my goals and intentions are clear. This study, improving our community and preparing it for the future cannot be successful without your input.
What is the Study, anyway?
The Orléans Corridor Secondary Plan Study aims to replace two existing secondary plans in the Orléans Town Centre with new policies in the City’s Official Plan. The Official Plan provides a vision for the future growth of the city and a policy framework to guide the city’s physical development. Since the City encompasses a large area, secondary plans provide area-specific guidance. I saw a real opportunity to maximise the benefits of Stage 2 LRT by being proactive about permissible land use in the areas around the LRT stations in Orléans to maximise benefits for our community. Stage 2 LRT will be transformative for Orléans.
In the years ahead, we expect new communities to grow around those stations, transforming properties along the rail corridor as taller buildings and mixed-use neighbourhoods replace parking lots and low-rise commercial areas. I want to attract jobs, build more affordable housing and attract the amenities that we feel we have been missing in the east end. Currently, we lack rental options, places for our seniors to downsize into, employment opportunities close to home and, have limited amenities within walking distance of our homes. I look at this study as a way to start remedying this and to build a better community. We want to ensure future development results in livable, resilient, desirable neighbourhoods that support transit and provide the highest quality of life possible.
That’s great! But where is the “Orléans Corridor” exactly?
The corridor refers primarily to the 800m radius around each of the future LRT stations (Jeanne d’Arc, Orléans Blvd., Place d’Orléans and Trim). However, the whole study area does go a bit beyond that. The boundary to the north is Jeanne d’Arc Blvd N., and St. Joseph Blvd. to the south. To the east, the boundary is Youville Dr. and Vineyard Dr. (or the golf course and farmland next to the 174) and Trim Rd. to the west. Aging strip malls, large surface-level parking lots, inaccessible businesses and sprawling business parks with no residential options should become a thing of the past. There is a lot of underused land desperately calling for modernization in the corridor, especially Youville Dr., Place d’Orléans, Taylor Creek, and, St. Joseph Blvd. The areas currently occupied by large, cloverleaf highway ramps can also be improved by simplifying the on and off ramps in order to co-locate housing and employment space close to LRT stations, maximizing the utility of the land.
Do we really need another study? Why isn’t the City doing anything to actually make things happen?
I understand your hesitation and frustration. I have lived in Orléans my whole life (with the exception of my military service) so I know what this must seem like – “oh great another government study about the same thing everyone has been talking about for 30 years”. It’s true, the improvements for Orléans that we’ve been talking about have been hard to come by and there have been lots of other studies. We owe a lot to previous elected officials for making sure that LRT is being brought to Orléans in Stage 2. Other areas of the City have no timeline for their extensions of the Confederation Line. While these studies might seem pointless, they are legislative requirements. Their purpose is to develop secondary plans, which are a part of the Official Plan (which guide zoning and the types of development applications we receive), which have to reflect provincial policy statements. The Planning Act enables and limits the City’s capabilities when it comes to land use. The City is not equipped to be an industry leading builder, we have to rely on the private sector. We can’t be unreasonable with our zoning regulations, lest they be appealed by property owners and overturned by the Province, leaving us with less control over things than we had before.
What we understand today as a desirable and sustainable community is, in some respects, very different than what we understood 30, 10 or even 5 years ago. Change is inevitable, necessary, welcomed and sometimes difficult. In the past, I don’t think studies were bold enough to attract the necessary private investment. I also don’t think residents were included in the process enough. At our first open house for this project we were completely taken aback by the attendance, over 250 people! The planners working on this project had never seen so many people interested in this kind of project and as a result, our venue was completely overwhelmed. For those of you attended that meeting, thank you for coming and bearing with us. We don’t know when we’ll be together again, but we will definitely be more prepared. For this study to succeed and truly reflect our vision for Orléans, as many people as possible need to be involved. I have my ideas, which I outline below, and I think a lot of people share them. But we all have different experiences and backgrounds, which might mean you think of something myself, my team and the planners hadn’t considered. So, I hope I can convince you that taking part in this project is worth your while. I outline the ways to do that at the end. I am really looking forward to seeing how many voices are added to the conversation.
Okay, so what is your vision for this area?
I envision Orléans finally coming into our own. We have so much potential as a community that we have yet to realise. Once, we were two municipalities – which was a barrier to a coordinated effort to developing a live, work, and play community. We’ve seen what major investments can do in the western suburbs, and I believe that Stage 2 LRT presents us with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build our community and build our economy.
I would like to see Youville Dr. drive turn into a mixed-use hub, tying into the Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Complex, St. Joseph and Jeanne d’Arc station. Moderately sized residential buildings intermixed with small businesses and services with direct access to transit and a recreational facility will add to our rental stock and the vibrancy of the area. Improving this area would attract business and jobs as well as give our local business owners new, fresh spaces to work out of. This increased employment will give us more opportunities to work closer to home and significantly reduce our commute time and wear on our infrastructure. It will also contribute to the establishment of a daytime economy that will see our local restaurants and services thrive.
St. Joseph Boulevard, once the marquis shopping district of Orléans, has become tired and requires major investment. At this time, it is not an attractive place to walk or bike to, with very few connections to the surrounding neighbourhood. This study, coupled with incentives built into the new Community Improvement Plan currently in the works, will provide opportunities for landowners to improve the face of their properties and contribute to increasing rental stock here in Orléans. Imagine a street with mixed height between one and sixteen stories, with a podium of retail and business space on the ground floor and residential apartments and condominiums above. In the morning you could pop downstairs for a coffee and then walk to transit or directly to work. We would then use the development charges collected for these projects to move hydro wires underground, create better pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, provide on-street parking, put in a median to separate traffic and add greenspace. Finally, we’d be able to realise the dream of the BIA’s streetscape team and have a main street we can be proud of.
Taylor Creek business park is walking distance from the LRT Terminus, Trim Station. It still has empty lots upon which we can build Class-A office space. I envision attracting more restaurants, breweries and distilleries and even some nightlife. Because of its distance from our existing residential areas, it is a prime location for this kind of activity.
In the areas immediately adjacent to LRT stations, especially on land now being used inefficiently by cloverleaf on and off ramps to the 174, I would like to see taller residential rental buildings and amenities. Co-locating people and transit both increases the long-term viability of the system by increasing ridership, but also reduces congestion by adding easy access to transit.
Okay, so high-rises?
Not necessarily. Development is not always synonymous with height, although we tend to immediately associate the two. What Orléans needs is more diverse land use. Not everybody wants to live in a single-family home or can afford to. Of course, we do have town homes and other higher density residential options but not nearly enough. A lot of those options are condos, and that can also be a barrier for some people when they are looking for a place to live. Other low-rise housing forms that are more dense than single- or semi-detached houses within existing neighbourhoods can provide the type of housing diversity our community needs to thrive. Mixed-use buildings don’t always have to be high-rises either. Many of the existing strip malls have great potential to remain so but be transformed with the addition of 3-5 storeys of residential space on top. In most cases, a few extra storeys on these strip malls would not negatively affect the character of neighbouring residential areas.
If you have aging parents (or adult children who consider you an aging parent!), you may have had tough conservations about downsizing and a difficult time finding options to do that, outside of a retirement home. My friend, Councillor Tim Tierney, was engaged in a heated bidding situation when he was helping his mother purchase a 2-bedroom condo. I’ve had calls from the Orléans expat community of Les Terrases Francesca (off of the Vanier Parkway) wondering when similar rental options might be available in Orléans so they can move back. I also had a call from a refugee sponsor group, wondering about emergency housing options because a mother and her two daughters could not find a suitable rental in Orléans – where their support system was located and where the children had begun adjusting to school.
We all go through episodes of life: leaving home, maybe start a family, maybe separate, watch our kids start their adult lives, want to live closer to our grandchildren. Having diverse housing options will improve the diversity of our community, which is necessary to make the world go ‘round. Seniors who want to downsize from their family homes shouldn’t have to move away from Orléans. Seniors are important drivers of the daytime economy and they should be able to stay in the community they have come to cherish. Seniors are not the only group of people that make up smaller households. These types of housing options would also serve younger people, single people, as well as two or three person families. Sometimes multiple generations want to be close to each other, but not on top of each other.
This study is about incentivizing development that works for our community. In some areas, taller buildings will serve an important purpose. In others, not so much. Townhomes, duplexes, triplexes and other housing types that are centered to the ground will also fulfill an important function. Through redevelopment, densities can be increased on existing lots by replacing one existing dwelling with multiple new units, responding to the variety of housing needs. Intensification can be achieved within existing neighbourhoods, in a low-rise form, that maintains the main defining character attributes of low-rise neighbourhoods such as tree-lined streets and privacy space in the rear. In a lot of areas in the corridor, these types of ground-oriented development will be complementary to the existing neighbourhoods.
I’m interested in this project, where can I learn more and/or participate?
You can visit the Engage Ottawa project page. You can click the subscribe button to make sure you never miss a project update.
I have a few thoughts and/or questions about all this, who can I talk to?
That’s great! The project team and I are eager to hear them.
On the Engage Ottawa Project page, you can post your comments and questions. This allows the project team and other members of the community to engage with you.
There is also an interactive map, where you can drop pins and make your location-specific ideas or comments visible for everyone.
The members of the project team have their contact information posted on the page as well.
As always, I can be reached anytime at Matt.Luloff@ottawa.ca or (613) 580-2471