Developer plans to move `cottage' service station
Historic site would be incorporated into proposed nine-storey building
The “cottage” gas station redevelopment at the corner of Richmond Road and Island Park Drive might be the most difficult heritage-retention project currently happening in Ottawa, right behind the controversial Château Laurier expansion.
Architects on the city's urban design review panel who scrutinized the design during a formal review Friday expressed concern that the new building proposed by Trinity Developments at 70 Richmond Rd. would overwhelm the one-storey building protected by heritage designation.
Trinity is proposing a nine-storey mixed-use building with the relocated heritage building forming part of the ground-level commercial space. There would be 60 residential units.
Ottawa's Hobin Architecture is leading the design work and architect Rheal Labelle walked the independent panel members through the firm's concept.
Labelle explained how the developer would relocate the heritage building to the side of the property before setting in a new permanent location closer to the front of the property, along with the reassembled garage bays, as part of the redevelopment.
While panel members liked that the development would provide public space at the corner of Richmond Road and Island Park Drive, some couldn't get over the feeling that the new building would have the appearance of pushing down on the heritage building.
The old cottage-like building, a former Champlain Oil Company service station built in 1934, received heritage protection from city council in 2015. More recently, it has been used as a car lot or has been completely fenced off. The property is an obvious candidate for some kind of redevelopment.
However, there are several challenges on the property for high-density development.
Planning rules would allow for a mid-rise, not highrise, building and there's no buffer between the property and the low-rise neighbourhood to the south along stately Island Park Drive.
An imposing, blocky building wouldn't fly, so floor space is compromised by the need to inset the building at the upper floors.
Cleanup of ground contamination, since the property is a former gas station, will add to the cost of redevelopment.
And, the Richmond Road, Wellington Street, Island Park Drive intersection is considered a “gateway” to the downtown, requiring a bit of design pizzazz.
That's all on top of the existence of an awkwardly located heritage building at the back of the site.
So, a developer needs to squeeze as much floor space as possible into a project to make it economically viable, while not making a mockery of planning rules governing the property and surrounding community and respecting the council-recognized heritage value of the cottage gas station building.
It's a property that one former landowner declared virtually impossible to redevelop if the old building had to stay there. Main + Main unloaded the land as part
of a larger portfolio sale to Trinity in 2018. Trinity has known it was a tricky site since the acquisition.
Early in the development phase, the company floated three options to the community and only one of the options called for the retention of the heritage building. After hearing from the public, the company moved ahead with a development vision that included the heritage building.
James Parakh, a member of the urban design review panel, called the cottage gas station the “jewel of this project” and suggested the new building should provide an unimposing background to the heritage structure.
Panel members zeroed in on a glassy vertical box in the centre of the building above the garage bays of the heritage structure, warning that, visually, the old gas station would shoulder a heavy load.
But the panel members were equally concerned about the walllike backside of the development facing the neighbourhood.
Emmanuelle van Rutten said it's “problematic” that the new building wouldn't conform with a necessary angular plane measured from the ground. The unique characteristics of the Island Park Drive need to be preserved in the new development, van Rutten said.
Heather Rolleston said the back of the building would be a “sheer wall up against an established neighbourhood.”
Developers aren't compelled to follow the recommendations of the urban design review panel, but the panel's observations are usually included in the staff report to council's planning committee.
Usually developers have the option of coming back to the urban design panel with a revised concept before the development application goes to planning committee and council.
Trinity needs council's approval to amend the Official Plan and property zoning to build the mixed-use project. The city has been targeting February for a decision by the planning committee.