This Tuesday, October 24, Ottawa’s Planning Committee will vote on a zoning bylaw amendment that would give the green light for Richcraft to proceed with a massive residential development on Maple Grove Road, just east of the Fairwinds neighbourhood.
You would be forgiven for thinking this latest zoning proposal came out of nowhere, even though this development has been going through the approval process since 2004.
I happened to notice a line about it on the agenda for next week’s planning committee meeting. There’s also a small update about it buried in our councillor’s weekly email this week.
The last major update I heard about this project was back in 2013, when Richcraft submitted an updated plan of subdivision for 803 residential units. That was an update to an original plan of subdivision and zoning amendment submitted 13 years ago, in 2004. (The original plan was subject to an appeal at the Ontario Municipal Board, which was dismissed.)
This particular amendment being considered on Tuesday would change the zoning for most of the land from Development Reserve (DR) to Residential Third Density Subzone Z (R3Z). The plan is to build 946 residential units, one elementary school, one local commercial block and three parks, on 46 hectares of land stretching between Maple Grove and the big box stores along Hazeldean. (The plan of subdivision has already been approved.)
Some of the land to be rezoned along the Carp River on former flood plain will still be subject to a planning “hold” until the Carp River restoration is complete.
Here’s some info about what’s planned for the land:
- 945 units that include a mix of single-detached, townhouses, back-to-back townhouses, stacked townhouses and low-rise apartments. (From the councillor’s weekly newsletter: “For back-to-back townhouses, staff recommend permitting a maximum 12 units instead of eight, to help achieve desired densities. This approach has been used successfully in other Stittsville and Kanata West subdivisions.”)
- A school block for an Ottawa-Carleton District School Board elementary school
- A local commercial development located adjacent to Maple Grove Road
- Three parks, two adjacent to the Carp River on both sides of the river and one adjacent to Poole Creek
- One block for a stormwater management pond
- Two blocks for the future north-south arterial (Robert Grant Avenue) and a rapid transit corridor
- Several open space blocks associated with the Carp River, Poole Creek and relocated Hazeldean Creek corridor.
You can read the staff report about the proposed zoning amendment here and if you do have comments to share with Planning Committee, you can send them to Melody Duffenais, Coordinator at 613-5850-2424 x20113 or melody.duffenais@ottawa.ca before Tuesday’s meeting.
