Look up, way up: Is Ottawa ready for a 65-storey tower?

The conglomerate that wants to build Ottawa’s tallest building has made it official: It wants a 65-storey tower across from the Bayview LRT station.

City council’s planning committee on July 10 will be asked to approve an amendment to the official plan and property zoning at 900 Albert St. to allow a three-tower complex with high-rises reaching 65, 56 and 27 storeys.

A previous plan floated by TIP Albert GP considered three towers, but with the tallest tower at 59 storeys and the other two just slightly shorter.

Now, the developer wants to reach higher, rankling the councillor who represents the City Centre area at the westernmost edge of Somerset ward.

In a report to council on the planning application, Coun. Catherine McKenney says the towers would be “overwhelmingly tall” and out of scale with the surrounding community.

The current property zoning calls for a maximum of 30 storeys.

The 65-storey tower “will neither complement nor respect its location,” McKenney says in the report published Friday.

McKenney is also concerned about making sure units in the complex would be suitable for families, including having amenities such as child care and recreational space. The councillor continues to take issue with the south side of the proposed complex and its perceived failure to complement the neighbouring community.

The Dalhousie Community Association is also skeptical.

The community, however, is poised to get a financial boost for affordable housing and transportation projects if council approves the planning amendments for the 1.44-hectare property.

A proposed deal under provincial planning law, which allows developers to trade amenity cash for extra building height, would see $975,000 transferred to two programs. A planned footbridge over the Trillium Line south of Tom Brown Arena would get $450,000, while Somerset ward’s affordable housing fund would get $525,000.

Council approved a sweet deal for TIP Albert GP as part of the land development by making available $8.3 million in rebates under the brownfield program, plus waiving $920,000 in land-use fees for relocating a sewer to the Trillium Line corridor. The city wants to intensify residential development around transit stations and saw the deal as way to encourage construction on a key property.