NEW DATE
Development Consultation: 1400 Bank St

Applicant’s Proposal
The City of Ottawa has received an Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendment application to permit site specific performance standards to accommodate the construction of a 16-storey mixed-use building containing residential units and commercial, retail and office uses.

Proposal Details
The subject site is located at the northwest corner of the Bank Street / Bélanger Avenue intersection. The irregular shaped lot has an area of approximately 1,460 square metres with approximately 47 metres frontage on Bank Street and approximately 31 metres frontage along Bélanger Avenue. The site is currently occupied by a one-storey commercial/retial building with 465 square metre GFA and associated surface parking.

Within the site vicinity, the surrounding area generally consists of a variety of retail commercial and office uses as well as residential uses. To the immediate north of the subject site, across Belanger Avenue, is a five-storey, mixed-use building and further north is a residential area comprised of mid-rise and high-rise residential buildings. To the south is an automotive service business and a multi-unit commercial/retail building and further south is a law office and Blue Heron Mall. To the east, across Bank Street, is a one-storey commercial/office building and a three-storey mixed-use building with low-rise residential buildings futher east. To the west is a four-storey multi-unit retirement residence with low-rise residential buildings located further west.

The purpose of this Official Plan Amendment and Zoning By-law Amendment application is to accommodate redevelopment of the site to construct a 16-storey high-rise building consisting of 160 residential units and a two-storey mixed-use podium containing retail and commercial uses at grade fronting Bank Street and mix of office and residential uses proposed on the second level of the podium.
The applicant is proposing a three-storey underground parking garage with 66 parking spaces and one at grade loading space, both accessed from Bélanger. A combined total of 186 bicycle parking spaces are provided at grade and within the parking garage. A subsequent Site Plan Control application will be submitted to facilitate the development.

The applicant is seeking a site specific Official Plan Amendment to facilitate the proposed development as the building and site design elements relating to building height and floor space index do not conform with policies of the Bank Street Secondary Plan. Details of the Official Plan Amendment include:

• Redesignate the Subject Property as a “Node” to establish permission for development of highrise buildings of up to 50 metres in building height at the intersection of Bank Street and Belanger Avenue.
• Require no maximum Floor Space Index, whereas the site currently has a maximum Floor Space Index 3.5.

The applicant also seeks to rezone the subject site from Arterial Mainstreet, Subzone 1, Urban Exception 1913 (AM1 [1913]) to introduce a new site-specific Urban Exception and height Schedule to permit the following requested relief:

• To add “apartment dwelling, high-rise” to the list of permitted uses on the Subject Property.
• To permit a minimum rear yard setback for a rear lot line abutting a residential zone of three metres, whereas 7.5 metres is required.
• To permit a building height of 50 metres or 16-storeys, whereas a maximum building height of 25 metres is required.
• To permit no maximum Floor Space Index (FSI), whereas an FSI of 3.5 is required.
• To permit a combined minimum number of parking spaces of 66, whereas a total of 94 spaces is required (74 residential, 15 visitor, 5 office). 

Full application and other information can be found here.