Tiny North Gower braces for giant warehouse
North Gower is something of a “one-horse, one-light town” in Ottawa’s rural south, with a couple of pizza joints, a lumber and hardware store, one church steeple, and an all-purpose grocery that sells beer and jugs of water and worms, past the notice board about a lost cat and a used arc welder.
It’s a village after all, right off Highway 416, with a population just over 2,000, where city meets country — until city eats country?
Since August, the village has been buzzing with the news that a plan is afoot to build a massive, Amazon-style warehouse and distribution centre near the Roger Stevens exit off 416, about 2 1/2 kilometres from the heart of the village.
Though so far only an application to amend the official plan and zoning, Broccolini, the builder, has sketched out the vision: a 700,000-square-foot building with a frontage equal to about eight football fields and standing as high as nine stories.
On 120 acres, there would potentially be 63 loading bays, 240 “trailer-drop” spaces and roughly 1,800 parking spots.
The site will be big enough for as many as 1,700 employees, possibly working 24/7 during peak periods.
In other words, close to 3,500 people (shifts depending) daily could be travelling to what is today a cornfield, a tract that touches Ace Powell’s backyard.
“We built it by hand basically, and put all our heart and soul into it,” he says of the log retirement home, built on two acres on Third Line Road, starting in 2003.
Powell, 72, well-known as the former football coach of the Carleton Ravens, and his neighbours are worried about many of the same things: the scale, extra car and truck traffic, the light pollution from such a huge parking lot, the constant noise of rumbling, beeping trucks and the impact on already battered roads.
“This is going to kill North Gower,” he said one day this week.
“Instead of sitting in my backyard and looking at the stars, I’m going to feel like I’m at Lansdowne Park.”
Pat Gillis, 72, whose family started Quantum Farm and the associated horse operation, lives across the street, as do her three grown children in their own nearby homes. Their roots, in other words, are deeply planted.
“I feel it’s just unsuitable for this area,” Gillis said Wednesday. “We’re a village of 2,000 and, in one go, we’re going up to 4,000 people?”
Two things are adding to the general unrest: Powell received notice of the zoning change in August, when he was out of town on vacation, and only had two weeks to respond. Secondly, no one — not even ward Coun. Scott Moffatt — knows who the eventual tenant might be, leading to wild speculation.
“It’s all been kinda sneaky,” Powell says.
(We do know Montreal-based Broccolini has built similar warehouse centres for Amazon, Ikea and Canadian Tire.)
Broccolini real estate development director James Beach wrote that the “the end-user” has not been “solidified.” If the land-use changes are approved, the company would move to a site plan process tailored to the tenant. Typically, the build-out is between 12 to 24 months.
Moffatt, meanwhile, says he supports development on the site because of the planning rationale. Many residents either don’t know or have forgotten that the site — despite the corn — is currently zoned industrial. The maximum build under today’s rules is 1.4 million square feet in multiple buildings, he said, and right to the edge of neighbouring backyards.
The main difference with this plan is the height limit — to 30 metres from 15. Moffatt is hoping that discussions during the site-plan process will lead to an illumination plan that doesn’t leave the building looking like a giant, glowing spaceship visible for miles.
“There are always pros and cons,” said Moffatt, who lives in North Gower. “It’s about how to mitigate the negatives”
Moffatt assumes the endtenant is someone in the “e-commerce” world and that, in peak season, the warehouse will operate multiple shifts.
The uncertainty does not make things easier, he added.
“If we knew exactly who it was, I think the conversation is easier.”
There are other reasons to be skeptical. Like the Amazon “fulfilment” centre off Boundary Road, this site is not served by transit, forcing everyone into private vehicles, and for jobs likely paying near the minimum-wage line.
And what about drainage, a very-real country worry?
“One of my biggest concerns is how they’re going to distribute water, off site,” said Lyle Perkins, who owns the home building centre in the village and 200 farm acres across the road.
(Unlike absorbent soil, the hard surfaces of roofs and asphalt — especially acres of it — will create a significant amount of water run-off that didn’t exist before.)
A public meeting on the plan is scheduled for Thursday, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., at the Alfred Taylor Recreation Centre in North Gower. It should go before the city’s rural affairs committee in December.
Powell, for one, knows where he stands.
“I want to live here until they take me out in a pine box. It’s certainly put a lot of stress on us during our golden years.”
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@ postmedia.com.
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