Highrises are coming to an LRT station near you

Sheena O'Donaghuehas moved into Ottawa's future.

O'Donaghue rents a two-bedroom apartmentsteps from the Blair light rail station. The new23-storeybuilding sits on what was aretail stripuntil owner Riocanstarted turning its agingshopping malls into tower developments.

"I never wanted to live in a multi-storey. I was quite against it," she said.

But O'Donaghue soon realized she liked the light pouring throughher apartment windows. In pre-COVID days, she hopped on the LRT for a quick ride to see friends on her old downtown stomping grounds. Her big dog named Chester isn't even a problemher building welcomes dogs.

Her husband, meanwhile, can keep an eye on the LRT from his window, and walk two minutes to his job as a train operator.

City council debates this month whether to add rural land for future subdivisions, but the flip side to staff calculations means Ottawa needsmore intensification like this: rebuilding on underused properties, and directing development to41stations that will exist by the time Stage 2 is scheduled to be finished in 2025.

A staggering number of towers is already proposed or approved up and down lines 1 and 2, bringing tens of thousands of people to live, like O'Donaghue, within a short walk of light rail.

'Sleepy' areas waking up

"Transit-oriented development" isone way the city hopes to house some of the 400,000 morepeople it expects will live hereby 2046. City staff are callingfor the existing urban areas to absorb some 92,000 of the expected households, nearly half of which would be in apartments.

And while COVID-19 might have some residents wondering if they want to live packed together, neither city staff norcouncillors see the pandemic fundamentally changing the way people live or travel in the long term.

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Developers were inthe LRT game years before the trains started rolling. They bought landand started rezoning parcels for towers far higher than any Ottawa hasseen.

Council approved65- and 56-storey towers beside Bayviewstation, the city's tallest buildingsyet.Westborohas been in the thick of it, absorbing new fourplexesand a string of towers on Scott Streetnear Westborostation.

The phenomenon is spreading. Three apartment towers of up to 36 storeys and a hotel are proposednearCyrvillestation. Thatarea currently has just 35people per hectare instead of the city's population density goal of 200.

The LRT is ushering inchange to other old areas within the Greenbelt, too. Coun. Theresa Kavanagh expects her Bay ward to become the "next Westboro."

"Bay ward'sbeen kind of sleepy for a long time. There hasn't been much new development at all no new apartments, no new condos," Kavanaghnoted.

Her ward will see seven new LRT stations, and they will bring intensification thatwill shock someresidents, she predicts.

Tower plan 'completely bonkers'

For instance,two highrisescould crop up on a patch of land beside Bayshore Shopping Centre and its future LRT station.

"All of the ingredients are there for this kind of development," explainedLloyd Phillips, the planner representing the shopping mall's owners, KingSett Capital andIvanho Cambridge, whichhave filed a development application withthe city.

But the people who live nearby say the project imposes too much change, too quickly.

Just before the COVID-19lockdown began, Suzette Guo and Jean-ChristopheHuotwent to an empty store on the mall's third floor to hear Phillips's pitch at a public meeting.

The couple lived thehighrise life in Toronto, but left for Ottawa and now ownasingle-family home nearby.

"The proposed planjust brought us back flashbacks of the life we were trying to escape," Guo said.

"They are assuming 80 per cent of the people will not have a car, or will take the LRT most of the time, which is completely bonkers," Huot added.

The couple feels densitymakes more sense downtown, where people expecttowers to be.

"You can't just pop up big buildings everywhere and expect things to be fine," Huot said.

Money for pools, libraries

Councillors, too, saycommunities need more than transitto make a neighbourhood livable.

Bay ward has no recreation centre, Kavanagh pointedout. Facilities in older parts of the city are aging or overcrowded. If thousands more people move in, the city will need to spend moneyon morelibraries, pools and even bylaw officers, downtown councillors argue.

"I'm worried that intensification is going to be thoughtless," said Coun. Jeff Leiper, whose Kitchissippi ward is already seeinginfill developments and tower projects.

"The zoning is easy. It really doesn't cost the city any money to allow greater numbers of people to live in any given neighborhood.The hard part where I am increasingly cynical is all that stuff that's going to cost the money."

No sea of highrises

Tall buildings mightbe strategically located on LRT, but Ottawa's chief planner says people should expect most of the needed densityto be spread acrosstriplexes, townhousesand 12-unit apartment buildings in every part of the city, much like in Montreal.

"I don't think we're heading down the path thatToronto and Vancouver are going, where you see a sea of highrise towers," said Steve Willis, general manager of planning, infrastructure and economic development.

"That's not Ottawa. That's not what people want."

For SheenaO'Donaghue, life above theLRTworks. When the pandemic is over, she and her husband will hunt for a new condo using theLRTmapas their guide, and they will look as far asbuildings overlookingthe Ottawa River nearPetrie Island and Trim Station.

"I didn't really want to live in suburbia, butas long as it's within 15 minutes to get me where I want to go, then I'm pretty open," O'Donaghuesaid.