Sandy Hill student towers to go virtually parking-free

The City of Ottawa's planning committee has agreed toslashminimum parking requirementsfor a pair of student highrises proposed for Sandy Hill, allowing the development to go ahead with barely a dozen spots for vehicles.

Textbook Student Suites Inc. wantsto build a pair of narrow, 26-storeytowersonewhere the Dworkin Fursstore once stoodat256 Rideau St., the other at 211 Besserer St. with 275 units geared towards students at the nearby University of Ottawa.

Under the current zoning bylaw for the area, the developmentshould have 164 parking spaces. But today's decision will allow the project to proceed with just 14 short-term visitorspots, or one for every 20 units.

City staff supported the move becauseboth the campus and the future Rideau light rail station will be just 400 metres away,and because they felt there is enough on-street parking in the area already.

Existing on-street parking shortage

Not everyone approved of the plan, however.

Janet Bradley, alawyer for another developer,Claridge Homes, called the reduction in parking "drastic."She argued it would compound an existing on-street parking shortage in the growing neighbourhood.

"It contributes to parking on residential streets.Itleads to illegal parking. It leads to double parking. It leads to a cruisingaround effect," said Bradley."It's not good planning."

Coun. Rick Chiarelli, whose ward includes the main campus of Algonquin College,also expressed frustration.

"You have a constant problem that everyone complains about," saidChiarelli, who described students driving up and down residential streetsin his ward lookingfor spots, and homeowners calling bylawwhen parkedcars exceedthe three-hour on-street limit.

City reviewing parking requirements

However Chiarelli was the only member of the committee to vote against reducing parking requirements for the Sandy Hill development.

"Quite frankly, I like it. I think we should do more of this to get our students proper housing," said Kanata South Coun. AllanHubley.

Coun. Jean Cloutier said giventhe billions of dollarsthe city is investing in light rail, car-free student apartments make sense, especially so close to campus.

Staff reminded councillors that multi-residential buildingsin Centretown are already exempt from minimum parking requirements, and the city is undertaking a development review of similarly dense areas to weed out inconsistencies in the zoning rules.

The planning committee's decision regarding the proposed buildings on Rideau and Besserer streets still needs the approval of city council.