NCC plantings along new bike path, view from Wellington
Claridge doing nothing yet... this is their green roof
NCC plants up to edge of Claridge condo
NCC trees along north edge of condo
In a posting in March, there were photos of the NCC doing winter landscaping on the Flats. They filled in the depression on the north side of the Claridge condo on Lett St, phase 1 of LeBreton Flats north of Albert. They graded the land to a lawn area, roughed in bike/pedestrian paths, and installed a generous trench of topsoil for a row of trees along Wellington. They are now planting in the new areas.
Note that the new bike path goes nowhere. It descends downslope from Wellington, along the west side of the tailrace landscaping. Once it reaches the Claridge zone, it stops dead. Claridge is supposed to continue the path and install landscaping along the public lands between its building and the ravine, as part of its subdivision agreement with the city. There is no sign of Claridge crews. Once they build their section of bike path, it still won't go anywhere until Claridge builds tower 2 of the current building. There is also no sign of Claridge installing its green roof on the parking garage or in the roof top planters.
All this is in marked contrast to the lot to the immediate west of the Claridge condos. It remains a hole that is more evocative of Khandahar than Ottawa. Anyone want to spend half a million buying a condo with a view of an open pit?
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I don't understand why the NCC is taking such a leisurely and meandering path to reviving LeBreton. Allowing one condo to be built and haphazardly planting a few trees is not the way to develop Ottawa's greatest untapped area.
ReplyDeleteI agree ever so much. In a number of blogs I have wondered about this bureaucratic development that builds paths one little segment at a time, that leaves huge open pits beside condos, etc. Who is going to rent the inaccessible commercial space in the buildings?
ReplyDeleteIt doesnt help that the city is unhelpful (to say the least. For example, the NCC wanted trees between the sidewalks and road curb, the city refused. The City then promptly went and did just this along Albert west of Bronson, and elevated this idea to be part of its escarpment CDP. I can only presume Diane Holmes reflects a wider cityhall viewpoint when she refers to the Booth St overpass over the transitway, which is a city responsibility under the agreement, as :"if the NCC wants it to serve their development then they'll have to pay for it". Fortunately, the NCC and Claridge put the city's precious "non-profit" housing building on Booth, where it cannot be built until the new road is put in, because the road surface will be raised about 16 feet. Is this all part of the bureaucratic gamespersonship?
Recall too that the city owns Bayview lands to the west and the (current) parking lots to the south of LeBreton. For years, city hall types claimed that their redevelopments would show the NCC how to do it. So while the NCC builds 7 storey buildings with some 14 floor towers, the city plans 14-21 foors (75m) for its lands along Albert (with boulevard); and 18-28 stories for Bayview yards, with no townhouses and no lowrise, and a much lower "affordability". So typical of this city.
I often ask myself, if it wasn't for the NCC, just what would Ottawa have to boast about?