Report
to/Rapport au :
Planning and Environment Committee
Comité de l'urbanisme et de
l'environnement
Submitted by/Soumis par : Ned Lathrop, Deputy City Manager/
Directeur municipal adjoint,
Planning and Growth Management/Urbanisme et Gestion de la croissance
Contact
Person/Personne ressource : Richard Kilstrom, Manager,
Community Planning and Design Division
Planning, Environment and Infrastructure
Policy/Politiques d’urbanisme,
d’environnement et d’infrastructure
(613) 580-2424 x 22653, Richard.Kilstrom@ottawa.ca
REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS
That the Planning and Environment
Committee recommend that Council:
1. Approve the South Nepean Town Centre
Community Design Plan in Document 8, which has been submitted under separate
cover.
2. Adopt Official Plan Amendment No. XX to the City of Ottawa Official Plan (2003), as detailed in Document 5, to implement the Community Design Plan.
RECOMMANDATIONS DU
RAPPORT
Que le Comité de l'urbanisme
et de l'environnement recommande ce qui suit au Conseil :
1. Approuver le plan de
conception communautaire du centre-ville de Nepean-Sud figurant dans le
Document 8 et présenté sous pli séparé.
2. Adopter la modification no
XX au Plan officiel de la Ville d'Ottawa (2003),telle qu'exposée en détail dans
le Document 5, de manière à mettre en oeuvre le plan de conception
communautaire.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Assumptions and Analysis:
The South Nepean Town Centre is an area of approximately 165 hectares in size located in the southern portion of the City of Ottawa’s urban area, between Strandherd Drive and the Jock River. The Town Centre is surrounded by a number of established communities (Barrhaven, Longfields, Stonebridge) and proposed new communities (Barrhaven South and Chapman Mills). The area is designated as a “Mixed Use Centre” in the Official Plan with a “Town Centre” overlay designation.
The South Nepean Town Centre Urban Design Strategy was initiated in 2004 to provide an updated direction for the Town Centre from that of the previous 1997 Secondary Plan. The Strategy was completed in 2005 and its recommendations set the basis for the South Nepean Town Centre Community Design Plan (CDP). The CDP will guide development of the Town Centre as a compact, mixed-use, walkable, pedestrian-scaled, and transit-supportive community.
Based on the proposed planning policies in this CDP, the Town Centre could contain over 20,000 residents and over 12,000 employment opportunities at ultimate build-out. Lands within the Town Centre are classified into eight different policy areas with differing intents, permitted uses, and policies, including mixed use, residential, community amenity area, and parkland.
High quality urban design will be critical for achieving an urban environment with compact and mixed use built form and a strong civic identity for South Nepean. Urban design policies express the general objectives that must be met by all development, covering such issues as building coverage, orientation, frontage and setbacks. Urban design guidelines express the City’s expectations as to how these policies can be met, dealing with specific elements within four broad categories: built form, streetscape, landscape and open space, and parking.
The rapid transit network consists of light rail and bus transit routes that will be the focus of the Town Centre. The road network is organized to connect the Town Centre with surrounding communities and provide regular “urban” blocks. The parking network will support the development of an urban environment, focused on parking structures and on-street parking in order to avoid the preponderance of large surface parking areas.
The wastewater and water supply for the Town Centre will be through extensions of the infrastructure network from surrounding communities. Two stormwater management ponds will service the Town Centre, including a redesigned Kennedy-Burnett Stormwater Management Facility and a new pond east of Longfields Drive. The electrical network will be accommodated through underground services with the main trunk lines along major roads like Strandherd Drive, Longfields Drive, Chapman Mills Drive, and Riverside Drive.
The plan for implementation establishes policies for administration and interpretation of the CDP, development review and zoning, phasing of development, community improvement, acquisition of greenspace, housing affordability, the process for revisions, and monitoring. The proposed Official Plan Amendment is the first step of implementing the CDP, by replacing the previous Secondary Plan and revising schedules with the Official Plan to reflect the CDP.
Financial Implications:
The development of major servicing infrastructure, parks and recreational trails within the South Nepean Town Centre will be financed as per the new City of Ottawa Development Charges By-law.
Public Consultation/Input:
Six public meetings were held during the processes for the Urban Design Strategy and the Community Design Plan within the South Nepean community. The purpose of these meeting ranged from concept development to the review of draft documents and plans. A study mailing list was initiated from the outset to provide updates and meeting notices and the City's website provided additional notice. Between 50 and 100 participants attended each of the public meetings. Written submissions are detailed, with responses to how these comments were addressed, are provided in Document 6.
RÉSUMÉ
Hypothèses et analyse :
Le centre-ville de Nepean-Sud couvre une
superficie d’environ 165 hectares et se trouve dans la partie sud de la zone
urbaine d’Ottawa, entre la promenade Strandherd et la rivière Jock. Le
centre-ville est entouré de communautés établies (Barrhaven, Longfields,
Stonebridge) et de nouveaux quartiers proposés (Barrhaven-Sud et Chapman
Mills). Le secteur est désigné centre polyvalent dans le Plan officiel avec une
désignation superposée de centre-ville.
La stratégie de conception urbaine du
centre-ville de Nepean-Sud a été lancée en 2004 afin de proposer pour le
centre-ville une orientation plus récente que celle du plan secondaire de 1997.
La stratégie a pris fin en 2005 et les recommandations qui en sont issues ont
constitué le fondement du plan de conception communautaire (PCC) du
centre-ville de Nepean-Sud, qui orientera l’aménagement d’un centre-ville
compact, polyvalent, à l’échelle des piétons et propice au transport en commun.
Selon les politiques d’aménagement proposées
dans ce PCC, le centre-ville pourrait, à sa pleine capacité, accueillir plus de
20 000 résidents et offrir plus de 12 000 possibilités d’emploi. Les
terrains du centre-ville sont classés selon huit zones ayant des fonctions, des
utilisations autorisées et des politiques qui leur sont propres, notamment des
utilisations mixtes, résidentielles, d'agrément communautaire et de parc.
L’adoption d’une conception urbaine de grande
qualité sera nécessaire pour réaliser un environnement urbain composé de formes
bâties compactes et polyvalentes et pour créer une identité forte à Nepean-Sud.
Les politiques d’aménagement urbain expriment les objectifs généraux devant
être atteints dans tout aménagement, et abordant des enjeux tels que l’emprise
au sol, l’orientation, les façades et les marges de retrait. Les directives
d'aménagement urbain expriment quant à elles les attentes de la Ville sur la
manière dont ces politiques peuvent être suivies, et traitent d'éléments
particuliers relevant de quatre grandes catégories : forme bâtie, paysages
de rues, aménagement paysager, espaces ouverts et stationnement.
Le réseau de transport en commun rapide est
constitué d’itinéraires de train léger et d’autobus, qui constitueront le point
central du centre-ville. Le réseau routier est organisé de manière à relier le
centre-ville aux quartiers avoisinants et à former des pâtés
« urbains » réguliers. Le réseau de stationnement sera suffisant pour
un environnement urbain. Il sera principalement composé de structures et de
places de stationnement sur voirie afin d’éviter une abondance de grands parcs
de stationnement.
Le raccordement des eaux usées et
l’approvisionnement en eau seront assurés vers le centre-ville grâce au
prolongement du réseau d’infrastructure des quartiers avoisinants. Deux bassins
de rétention des eaux pluviales desserviront le centre-ville, c’est-à-dire
l’installation réaménagée de gestion des eaux pluviales Kennedy-Burnett et un
nouveau bassin à l’est de la promenade Longfields. Le réseau électrique sera
acheminé par voie souterraine, avec les lignes principales longeant les grandes
artères comme la promenade Strandherd, la promenade Longfields, la promenade
Chapman Mills et la promenade Riverside.
Le plan de mise en œuvre établit des politiques
en matière d’administration et d’interprétation du PCC, d’examen du projet et
de zonage, de répartition par étapes de l’aménagement, d’amélioration
communautaire, d’acquisition d’espaces verts, de logement abordable, de
révision et d’encadrement. La modification proposée au Plan officiel, qui
consiste à remplacer le plan secondaire précédent et à réviser les annexes du
Plan officiel de manière à ce qu'elles reflètent le PCC, constitue la première
étape de la mise en oeuvre du PCC.
Répercussions financières :
L'aménagement d'importantes infrastructures de
viabilisation, de parcs et de sentiers de loisir au centre-ville de Nepean-Sud
sera financé conformément au nouveau Règlement municipal sur les redevances
d'aménagement de la Ville d'Ottawa.
Consultation publique / commentaires :
Six réunions publiques ont été tenues dans le
quartier de Nepean-Sud au cours de l'élaboration de la stratégie de conception
urbaine et du plan de conception communautaire. Ces réunions ont permis aux
membres du public de discuter d'aménagement conceptuel et d'examiner les
documents et les plans provisoires. Une liste d'envois a été constituée dès le
début du processus pour permettre aux personnes qui le souhaitaient de recevoir
des mises à jour et des avis de réunion. Le site Web de la Ville a également
publié des avis. De 50 à 100 personnes ont participé à chacune des réunions
publiques. Les propositions écrites détaillées et les réponses à ces
commentaires figurent dans le Document 6.
BACKGROUND
The
South Nepean Town Centre is an area of approximately 165 hectares in size
located in the southern end of the urban area of the City of Ottawa, as
illustrated in Document 1. The study
area's northern boundary is Strandherd Drive, its western boundary is the
Kennedy-Burnett Stormwater Management Facility, its eastern boundary is the
future extension of Longfields Drive, and its southern boundary is the Jock
River. Although the Official Plan
identifies lands south of the Jock River as part of the South Nepean Town Centre,
only the lands north of the Jock River
were considered as part of the Community Design Plan. The lands south of the Jock River were included as part of the
Barrhaven South Community Design Plan.
"Town Centre" throughout this report and throughout the
Community Design Plan refers only to the lands north of the Jock River.
The
Town Centre is surrounded by a number of established communities, including
Barrhaven, Longfields, and Stonebridge, and also lands for proposed new
communities, such as Barrhaven South and Chapman Mills. While the large majority of the study area
is currently undeveloped, there have been recent developments in the area such
as large-format retail projects along Strandherd Drive and a new secondary
school on Greenbank Road.
Approximately
87% of the total land area within the Town Centre is designated as Mixed Use
Centre in the Official Plan. Mixed Use
Centres are sited at strategic locations on the rapid-transit network, are to
be focal points of activity within the broader community, and have a high
potential for achieving compact and mixed-use development. The remaining 13% of the total land area,
located along the Jock River, is designated as Major Open Space, which are
areas intended to provide recreational opportunities for the larger community
while protecting the natural environment.
Additionally, the entire area has an overlay Town Centre designation,
one of the three such areas in the City, which additionally requires that a
minimum of 10,000 jobs must be accommodated within the area.
The
Official Plan requires the completion of a Community Design Plan (CDP) for all
Mixed Use Centres. Community Design
Plans are intended to translate the direction and policies of the City of
Ottawa Official Plan (2003) to the community level, by establishing the land
use framework of principles, objectives and policies that will guide
development within the community. They
are prepared as policy plans that operate between the policies of the Official
Plan and the development review process.
In the case of the South Nepean Town Centre, the key sections of the
Community Design Plan will be adopted as a statutory Secondary Plan to the
Official Plan, through the Official Plan Amendment proposed in Document 5.
The
Planning and Growth Management Department initiated the South Nepean Town
Centre Urban Design Strategy, which was undertaken by consultants to the City,
in February 2004 to provide the basis for a Community Design Plan. The South Nepean Town Centre Community
Design Plan (CDP) was initiated by City staff in November 2005 following the
completion of the Urban Design Strategy.
The CDP provides the detailed land use policies, urban design policies
and guidelines, servicing and transportation policies, and implementation
guidelines for the Town Centre. The CDP
was completed in May 2006.
This report seeks approval of the South Nepean Town Centre CDP and the proposed Official Plan Amendment that would: (1) replace the existing Area 7 Secondary Plan with a new South Nepean Town Centre Secondary Plan; and (2) would make revisions to the Official Plan's schedules to reflect the CDP. The approval of the South Nepean Town Centre CDP is required in order to support the proposed Official Plan Amendment.
DISCUSSION
The
South Nepean Town Centre has long been envisaged as the "downtown"
for the broader South Nepean area.
The Area 7 Secondary Plan is the
existing policy document that has guided land use planning decisions concerning
the Town Centre since 1997. The South
Nepean Town Centre Urban Design Strategy was completed in October 2005 to
provide a revised land use and urban design vision for the Town Centre to
account for the current realities within the area, such as new large format
retail developments and new directions regarding land use policy, rapid
transit, and urban design. The South Nepean Town Centre Community Design
Plan was completed in May 2006 based on the recommendations and will guide
future development in the Town Centre.
The Area 7 Secondary Plan, Urban Design Strategy and Community Design
Plan are discussed in further detail below.
Area 7 Secondary Plan
The
former City of Nepean initiated detailed visioning and planning for the Town
Centre in the early 1990s. Nepean City
Council endorsed the Nepean South Urban Activity Centre Concept Design Report
in 1994 as the guiding vision for the Town Centre’s future development. The Concept Design Report was undertaken as
part an integrated planning program of transportation, servicing,
environmental, and land use studies.
The Concept Design Report formed the basis for the preparation of the
Area 7 Secondary Plan, which Nepean City Council approved in 1997. The Area 7 Secondary Plan has remained as
the statutory planning document guiding development within the Town Centre
since its approval in 1997, after being readopted by the City of Ottawa in 2002
and reconfirmed in the Official Plan (May 2003), Volume 2A.
The
Area 7 Secondary Plan established a land use plan and policies, residential
densities, built form requirements and urban design guidelines to direct
development applications for lands within the Town Centre. The land use plan's key organizing elements
(Document 2) include two significant commercial districts along Strandherd
Drive; a north-south mixed-use civic axis along Greenbank Road; an east-west
mixed-use main street running through the centre of the community; four
residential quadrants defined by the intersection of the civic axis and the
main street and each organized around a neighbourhood park; a community park on
both sides of Jock River; and the opportunity for both east-west and
north-south rapid transit routes. The
Secondary Plan set ultimate build out targets of approximately 3,700
residential units and 8,000 residents at ultimate build-out based on the
established land use policies.
Urban Design Strategy
The
South Nepean Town Centre Urban Design Strategy was initiated in 2004 to update
the land use and design vision for the Town Centre, which was necessary given
new issues such as the Official Plan's new land use, transit and urban design
direction. A multi-disciplinary
consulting team, guided by the City's technical advisory committee, carried out
the Urban Design Strategy between February 2004 and October 2005 and involved a
substantial consultation process as described in the "Consultation"
section of this report. The final
document for the Strategy was submitted in October 2005 and set the framework
upon which the CDP was prepared.
The
final report for the Urban Design Strategy is comprised of four main
components: development principles that express the fundamental premises for development; a community structure plan that
highlights the main structuring elements around which the community is
organized; urban design principles that provide direction for the design of the
built environment's components; and a direction for implementation that
highlights a series of implementation lessons and priority action steps for
achieving the established vision.
The
community structure plan (Document 3) within the Urban Design Strategy closely
follows the major elements of the land use plan in the Area 7 Secondary Plan,
including major road alignments, park locations, and rapid transit route
alignments. However, the Urban Design
Strategy did have some noticeable differences from the Secondary Plan. These differences included a finer level of
detail for the local road and development block pattern; a detailed vision for
the higher density uses and civic uses around the "transit hub"; a
phasing strategy for the existing large-format retail areas; and a mixed-use
area north of Chapman Mills Drive that is broader and more flexible in terms of
permitted uses.
Community Design Plan
The
South Nepean Town Centre CDP was prepared by the Planning and Growth Management
Department between November 2005 and May 2006.
The CDP builds on the vision provided by the Urban Design Strategy in
establishing the policies and guidelines that will direct future land use planning
decisions concerning the Town Centre.
Four
key revisions to the structure plan proposed by the Urban Design Strategy were
made in the CDP's land use plan (Document 4) to account for new information and
directions provided by several Environmental Assessments that became available
after the completion of the Urban Design Strategy. These revisions include: (1) Shifting Chapman Mills Drive, and
the light rail corridor contained within it, to the south to be consistent with
the alignment of Chapman Mills Drive east of Longfields Drive; (2) Shifting
Greenbank Road slightly to the west near the bridge crossing of the Jock River
and widening the right-of-way to accommodate rapid transit within its medianed
central lanes; (3) Re-routing the South-West Transitway Extension within the
medianed central lanes on Chapman Mills Drive and Greenbank Road; and (4)
Shifting Longfields Drive south of Chapman Mills Drive slightly to west.
The
South Nepean Town Centre is intended to be a showcase for mixed-use, walkable,
transit-oriented neighbourhoods. The
overall land use and design vision for the South Nepean Town Centre is based on
six elements, as follows.
(1)
Development that is in a "urban" form, including:
·
Buildings close to the street and maximizing site
frontage and coverage;
·
Buildings between 2 and 12 storeys in height depending
on the area;
·
Built form oriented to the pedestrian realm;
·
Transit-oriented development surrounding transit stops;
·
An emphasis on structured parking and surface parking
in the rear.
(2)
Development based on high quality urban design standards, including:
·
Parks surrounded and fronted by built form;
·
Attractive, tree-lined streetscapes along all
streets;
·
Transitions in intensity between different areas within
the community;
·
Significant amounts of building façade articulation and
windows along public streets.
(3) A broad
range of land uses in a variety of forms, including:
·
Office, retail, service, institutional, open space, and
residential uses;
·
A flexible range of uses within different areas;
·
A regular pattern of blocks accommodates a range of
uses in various forms;
·
An emphasis on mixed-use both vertically in the same
building or horizontally on the same block;
·
Employment opportunities to enable live-work potential
within the community.
(4) A
diverse greenspace network, including:
·
A range of recreational opportunities for different
types of users;
·
Parks designed to complement the urban form;
·