Plan could unlock Stittsville’s ‘Main Street’ potential

New rules could rejuvenate the area, writes Jonathan McLeod.

Urban renewal is hitting the road. The principles we have used to rejuvenate our central main streets — principles such as intensification, mix-use development and walkability — are heading down Hazeldean Road.

A new Community Design Plan is being developed for Stittsville Main Street, and it could make Stittsville one of Ottawa’s next great neighbourhoods.

Yes, yes, my Stittsville friends, your community is already lovely; but there is great potential to create a new dynamic main street while preserving the aura of Stittsville’s small-town heritage.

Fittingly, the city has decided to classify Stittsville as a “Traditional Mainstreet.” Unfortunately, when the city starting building strategies for the development of Traditional Mainstreets, the focus was on Traditional Urban Mainstreets — Elgin, Preston, Wellington West and the like. Shoehorning Stittsville Main Street into this category is a delicate task, and, unfortunately, the initial draft of the CDP was not welcomed by residents.

Enter a new city planner and a new plan. The planner, Mark Young, has roots in Stittsville, and understood the concerns of residents. The original height limit of six storeys, for instance, was just too high. The new plan balanced such concerns with the benefits of intensification. The height limit was lowered to four storeys and set backs were adjusted to ensure the street would not feel cavernous.

Further, the new CDP sets regulations on the types of buildings that may be erected. There are recommendations for rooflines, windows and porches. We are not going to see radical departures in style; the CDP quells the potential infill squabbles that plague so many of our neighbourhoods.

Here we see the benefits of collaboration between planners and residents. Despite initial tensions, we have a worthwhile plan for Stittsville.

Paramount in this endeavour was capturing the historic nature and village feel of Stittsville Main Street, but the CDP goes further. It sketches an outline of a more livable and walkable Main Street. There is a focus on mix-use development. The idea is to get people living, working, shopping and relaxing on Main Street. There will be more shops and more restaurants, but the commercial elements will be interspersed with public space.

The Trans Canada Trail has replaced the railway in the centre of town; it brings green space and outdoor recreation. There will be parks and patios along the street, places to sit and chat and people-watch. The library bookends the street, drawing people along the corridor, encouraging more visiting, shopping and community.

And though residential development along Stittsville Main Street has grown at a slower pace than the rest of the area, the CDP seeks to have more and more people living there, including some affordable housing, helping to create a demographically-rich community. With proper attention to various modes of transportation (a focus on walking and bicycling, while also leveraging the city’s transit system), it will be easier for more and more people to make a life in Stittsville, and make a living without leaving.

The point is to create a suburban village. It is not to turn Stittsville into Hintonburg. At its core, this is a village with a suburb growing up around it. The new CDP builds off this foundation, further enhancing the daily life of residents.

In The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs likens the seeming chaos and disorder of the daily life of a thriving city street to “... an intricate ballet in which the individual dancers and ensembles all have distinctive parts which miraculously reinforce each other and compose an orderly whole.”

The city cannot force people to dance, but with the right planning, we can set the stage for a wonderful show.