Infill Housing #12

February on Kenora Street:

February 4th....Ongoing frustration continued, with long trucks like this one, blocking laneways, with nowhere to pass because of the snowbanks.

February 6th  Cause for celebration! This wonderful snowbank- destroying machine appeared. It was such a relief to drive on a street devoid of snowbanks.

Of course, that transformation was short-lived.  February 12th -  30 centimetres of snow fell. 

The following day was a treat - a real snow day!  Because schools and many offices were closed, some of the young families on the street took advantage of a perfect day to go sliding down the Kenora St. hill. For a short while, it felt like an old fashioned neighbourhood again...lots of people out shovelling, visiting, kids sliding and absolutely no one driving on the street.

Now however, it's back to business as usual. It was raining on February 15th, when I took this photo, but that does not affect construction in an Ottawa winter. The chipboard walls started going up on the double at # 79. 

And yes, the house beside that project? It's official. It has been sold and will be demolished to make way for another double. Ten years ago there were five original houses across from us - all unique and reasonably sized. As of this spring, only one will remain.  There will be seven properties instead of five. We thought our area was zoned for single family dwellings only, but we were sadly mistaken. That zone starts about six houses up the hill from us.

Over the past month we have had discussions with city officials, community activists and fellow neighbours.  Long time residents are pretty upset that our neighbourhood is changing so rapidly. We hate to see the original houses and mature trees disappear, in favour of overly large houses with little green space. In short, we feel that our neighbourhood is under siege. What can be done? The province and the city have a policy of intensification. As long as there is money to be made and builders adhere to the current restrictions, it's full steam ahead. We all live in fear that more of our neighbours' homes will go up for sale. 

Pot Shop !

With profound apologies to Humphrey Bogart,

Of all the streets, in all the neighbourhoods, in the entire National Capital area, The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario has picked ours!

Ottawa's first pot shop is set to open at 1306 Wellington St. West (not to be confused with the downtown Wellington St.)  Really? Why here? Is it the whole trendy Wellington Village/Westboro thing?

A bit of background: When we bought here, thirty years ago, it wasn't trendy - just a quiet residential area, with stores like BiWay.  There were a couple of schools and regular families could afford to buy here, unlike now.

However, with the city's current policy of intensification, they are stuffing as many doubles, triplexes,  apartment buildings and condos as they can, into every square inch of this area. You literally cannot go on any block of this neighbourhood, without seeing a construction vehicle or a hole in the ground where a house once stood.

As if all this house construction (and resulting truck traffic) was not enough, this summer Elmdale Public School will be undergoing major renovation. That is expected to go on for over a year, resulting in even more disruption and truck traffic.

A few years ago they re-worked Wellington St. itself. Yes, I know. It's called traffic calming. They widened the sidewalks to make them more pedestrian friendly. There were once places for a bus to tuck in, beside the sidewalk, while letting traffic continue, in the other lane. Those places disappeared, in favour of the widened sidewalks. So now, when a bus stops to let off or take on passengers, the entire lane of traffic stops. It is an extremely slow drive along Wellington, between three and seven pm. You can walk it faster.

So now, into this incredibly congested area, the AGCO, has decided that we should host Ottawa's first and only pot shop! What were they thinking? If people drive here, from all over the city, where are they going to park? It's just not going to work.

What can we do? The city has no say in this. It is up to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario. Residents can make their views known until February 22nd - tomorrow! Their site is not easy to navigate. Go to agco.ca, then at the top of the page click on… iAGCO online services, then click …submit a complaint.

David Wise, of the City of Ottawa, provided me with an explanation of the process. Here are the only grounds on which to complain:

"The Provincial legislation provides that the AGCO may not issue a retail store authorization for applications deemed not to be in the “public interest”, which has been defined in s. 10 of Regulation 468/18 as meaning:

1. protecting public health and safety, 
2. protecting youth and restricting their access to cannabis, and 
3. preventing illicit activities in relation to cannabis. "

As far as # 1, public health and safety, I think this area will be more dangerous because of the influx of traffic. Buses will be even later than they are now. Emergency vehicles will not be able to attend to crisis situations in time, because our roads are going to be impassable. 

And # 2, our youth? How about the grade 7 and 8's who attend Fisher Park Public School? It's a five minute walk away. Those students have the right to leave school  at lunch time. They are always roaming along Wellington Street. It's going to be easy for them to ask others to go into the store and buy weed for them. How would you like to be teaching those kids in the afternoon?

Five minutes south of here is Westgate Shopping Centre, which has plenty of vacant stores right now. Why not go there? There's a large parking lot and no residential neighbourhood would have to bear the brunt of the influx of cars.

There is a limit to how many houses, people and cars this area can absorb. Sorry Ottawa, but we're full up already. Thanks for reading this and hopefully, taking the time to help us out, by contacting the AGCO.

Click here to read about how Warren Avenue residents feel about this.

Click here to read how area businesses feel about it.

Paul Dewar

It's a sad evening in Ottawa. Paul Dewar has died. He served here, in the riding of Ottawa Centre as our MP from 2006 until 2015. He was such a highly principled politician. We were shocked and disappointed when he lost that 2015 election, in the tide that swept the Liberals into power. This riding (and I)  go back and forth between the Liberals and New Democrats.

There were rumours that he was going to run for mayor in last year's election. Many of us hoped that was the case. The last time I saw him was at the Great Glebe Garage Sale in May of 2017. That community wide garage sale has grown over the years. There are not only households selling goods but countless charities that take advantage of the huge crowds to raise money for their causes. That's where Paul was, working at a charity booth. Of course. He urged me to buy a cupcake and I answered, "I'll buy one of your cupcakes if you'll run for mayor." He laughed and said there was a lot of money to be raised if that was to happen. I took it as a hopeful sign. He would have been a great mayor, just like his mother was.

However, it was not to be. Others, far more eloquent than me, have many pieces online, about his career, his illness, his remarkable attitude.  Like Jack Layton, Paul has left a thoughtful, inspiring goodbye message to us all.  In it,  he advised readers to, "concentrate on what you can contribute - to your country, your community and neighbours." He was a real gift.

Click here to read Paul's message.

Infill Housing #11

Some day I will write something positive, something uplifting ....but not today.

It's official now. January 2019 is the snowiest on record for Ottawa, with 97 centimetres,  as of yesterday. It's impossible for city crews to keep up with the situation. Driving conditions are the worst I have ever seen. Many streets are simply impassible, with only one lane. Some are like cow paths with two wiggly ruts down the street. There's nowhere to park. Short drives have to be carefully planned out, to avoid getting stuck. It didn't snow today but it was cold and windy; about -24 with the windchill.

As I have mentioned before, Ottawa used to have a holiday from construction. Truck drivers would haul snow to the snow dump, not dirt. However, this is 2019, the era of extreme greed, so no time is wasted.
As the sun rose on Kenora Street this morning, this is what greeted us.

Today was the day they chose to backfill the construction site on our block.

So, in addition to the narrow street, lined with snowbanks, we had huge trucks blocking our way for most of the day.

The sidewalk plows are also missing in action.  

In the late afternoon I  set out for the nearby residential neighbourhood of Champlain Park. I had to alter my route because of a school bus, stuck in a snowbank. At one point I came to a corner and couldn't turn right or left because of a huge truck and trailer blocking both directions. My only option was to continue along the street, following this excavator as it rumbled along to its next conquest.

This city,  this area, is a madhouse today. As our neighbour said tonight, "With this cold, snow and extreme traffic challenges, you just want to stay inside. " 

Tomorrow is January 31st. Besides being our regular garbage day (Pity those poor drivers),   I suspect it is moving day for the new infill house across from us. That's what we need here - moving trucks!

Infill Housing #10

So, it's a truly wintry day here in Ottawa. This morning it was -38 with the windchill. Frostbite warnings were heard all morning on the radio. And yet, this morning there were guys working at the construction site on our street. Can you imagine having to work in these temperatures?

We were out of town last Friday so we missed the parade of cement trucks all day long, pouring the walls for the "linked" doubles.  In an effort to protect the cement from the approaching weekend snowstorm, the cement was covered in tarps.

On Sunday evening, while sitting in our living room, I kept hearing a strange sound. It was intermittent and resembled fireworks. I finally realized the sounds were coming from the construction site. Strong wind gusts were whipping the plastic tarps around. Here's what the site looks like today.

Yes, someone is going to pay well over a million dollars, for each of these places, built in these conditions!

Infill Housing #9

Happy New Year ! ?   on Kenora Street

Sorry, but this will be a very grinch-like post.

71 Kenora - All the work is on the inside now and the new owners will move in later this month. In the spring we'll have to deal with the asphalt pebbles scattered through our lawn, from the sidewalk plows, as they go over the rough patch from the gas line hook up. However, compared to what is happening up the street, the new single house across from us, is looking better all the time.


79 Kenora -

Demolition of this house took place on November 21st and excavation for the new dwellings ( a "linked double") quickly commenced.  I had a conversation with our councillor and voiced my concerns about the size and placement of the hole. He assured me that most of the time, when officials go out to inspect these infill digs, the contractors are digging according to their approved building permit. So, I came away from that conversation feeling that there was nothing to be done; I just had to just accept the fact that these huge doubles were going up.

So, we were pretty surprised to see this stop work order posted to the fence outside the property on November 30th.

Basically, the excavation and construction at 79 was found to be damaging the adjacent property, at 91. The ironic thing is that it is an infill house that has halted the progress of this latest infill project.

Here are a couple of photos of the original place at 91.  This was taken in April of 2011, just before it was torn down. It's in the middle of a hill but when I look back at this now, it really wasn't  a lot higher than the lovely yellow place at 79.

I'm not sure of the technical term but I assume that there was a lot of fill put into that lot. They seem to have raised the level of the property, because it certainly did tower over the lovely yellow house. There are new owners now. The couple that built it, ("We'll build something in keeping with the character of the street.") sold it, soon after the required time period for avoiding capital gains tax. As you can see from this side view, it's immense.

So basically, the workers at 79 dug too close to 91, causing damage to the walkway beside their house. Now they've got to brace and shore it up. These photos were taken on December 3rd.

What doesn't seem to concern current builders is that we live in Ottawa, a city with considerable winter snow and ice. While speaking to a construction worker one day, I asked about  building in those conditions and he said there is never any down time now. Years ago, they would have a break in the winter, but today's houses are built in any and all weather. Again, I'm no expert, but I'm guessing that houses built in dry conditions will probably fare better than houses built in rain, snow and ice. All that particle board getting wet? However as the saying goes, "time is money," so they build non-stop, to optimize their profits.  If this builder really cared about building a better quality dwelling, he could have rented the lovely yellow house until the spring. Instead he is now trying to repair  damage in lousy weather conditions.

This photo from December 20th shows the retaining wall they built. I think they call this shutting the barn door after the horse is out.

However, as I said, this is Ottawa in winter. The wall didn't last long. I took these photos on December 22nd, after a really rainy day. The rain quickly froze.

You can see the erosion of the soil. 

The site looked more like a swimming pool than a construction site. 

And the house beside this mess, #77, the one on the right side of this photo? I'm so upset about that one, I can't even write about it yet. It sold quickly.

I'll close with a quote from an engineer who told me that "All the houses around here were only ever meant to last about 60 years." He said that to me after I lamented the loss of 79. He stated that all our houses were not built according to today's standards and codes and basically he doesn't have a problem with all of them being replaced. With the current atmosphere, I'm afraid that's what's going to happen. All the houses in our area are going to be knocked down because builders like him can come along and build doubles and sell them for an obscene profit. As far as his opinion about houses having a sixty year life span - what about Europe? How long do people there live in their houses? We all go to Europe to marvel at buildings that are hundreds of years old.

This neighbourhood, which people are attracted to, for its old fashioned character, is disappearing. We made a conscious choice, thirty years ago, not to buy a bigger, cheaper house in the suburbs. Now the suburbs are coming to us, whether we want them or not.

Infill Housing #8

The debate over infill housing in Ottawa often hits the letters page of the Ottawa Citizen. I appreciated reading this one on Monday Nov. the 19th.

• Ottawa Citizen
• 19 Nov 2018

In Montreal, the city government is stepping up to protect the homes that define the character of mature neighbourhoods — not just the mansions, but also the smaller, distinctive homes of working people. Meanwhile, just up the road in Ottawa, character homes are routinely being demolished while the city steps back and watches.

In Montreal, city council is enacting new zoning bylaws to preserve neighbourhood character. But here in Ottawa, existing zoning bylaws are routinely emasculated as developers, with the co-operation (dare we say “collusion”?) of city planners and the committee of adjustment, request multiple so-called “minor” variances that are routinely granted.

The result: a huge deviation from the zoning bylaw and the lot-by-lot destruction of neighbourhood character.

In Montreal, older neighbourhoods are valued as being important to the character of the city and to its history. In Ottawa, frustrated and angry residents watch as their neighbourhoods are transformed from period homes and buildings framed by stately trees and gardens to a densely packed series of oversized packing crates where all the mature trees are clear-cut and lots denuded of other vegetation and replaced by concrete and interlock.

In Montreal, there seems to be a strategy to preserve neighbourhoods as part of the heritage of the city. But here in Ottawa, there seems to be an unwritten and unspoken strategy to intensify neighbourhoods, using minor variances like shotguns to blow the zoning bylaws to smithereens.

Don’t get us wrong. We are in favour of intensification. But not at the cost of all the other attributes that contribute to a livable city. And not to line the pockets of developers who clearly have no investment in the preservation of neighbourhood character or built heritage of Ottawa, and no intention of being good neighbours.

Think about it. Max Finkelstein and Connie Downes, Ottawa

So I sat down the next day and sent this one in as a response. That was on Tuesday. I didn't know it then, but that was the day that the city granted the demolition permit for #79 Kenora. My letter to the editor didn't appear until Saturday the 24th, after my last post.

Stop wrecking traditional neighbourhoods

Re: Letter, Ottawa could learn a lot from Montreal, Nov. 19.

Thanks to Max Finkelstein and Connie Downes for their excellent letter. It’s not just Montreal that has the good sense to preserve the character of traditional neighbourhoods. London, England and St. Augustine, Florida are among many cities that also enforce strict guidelines when any changes to buildings in established areas are proposed.

It’s insulting when people destroy our area houses. These folks want our neighbourhood, but none of our houses are good enough for them. If you want to build a modern box-like structure, if you want a lot with no trees, yard or garden, if you want to live on top of your neighbours, then do that in the suburbs.

I’m sick and tired of the wanton destruction of perfectly fine homes. I’m tired of waking up to the noise of construction as excavators dig, and load houses into dump trucks to clog our landfills. I’m tired of walking around my Kitchissippi neighbourhood and seeing new hole after new hole, where houses once stood. It’s an environmental sin, based on nothing but greed on the part of developers and the city. There is absolutely no vision of our neighbourhood’s past or future.

Does it do any good to voice our opinions? Will the course of action change? Even if  it doesn't,  I think it's important that the folks at city hall know that we are not pleased.