Firehall Fest a Smashing Sunfilled Success - Old Ottawa South

Page 8 The OSCAR - OUR 36 th YEAR JUL/AUG 2008
Tony Campanale, President
Vince Campanale, Vice-President
Rocco Campanale, Broker
Campanale Homes
200 –1187 Bank Street
Ottawa, K1S 3X7
Re: Development at 35 Brighton Avenue
From: Residents of Old Ottawa South
cc: Clive Doucet, Councillor, Capital Ward
Larry O’Brien, Mayor of Ottawa
Michael Jenkins, OSCA
Dear Tony, Vince and Rocco
Campanale,
We are writing as concerned citizens
and neighbors about the proposed
development at 35 Brighton Avenue in
Old Ottawa South.
As you know, 35 Brighton is located in an
established community-oriented neighborhood
facing the Rideau River and Brighton Beach
Park. The homes on Brighton Avenue and in our
neighborhood are generally older, with welcoming
entranceways, front gardens, front porches and
with mature trees lining the street. While the yards
are small compared to suburban lots, residents
have landscaped to maximize greenspace. All of
this encourages the friendly interaction between
neighbours and makes our neighborhood so vibrant
and desirable.
However, the proposed design for 35 Brighton
is out of character with the rest of the neighborhood
in the following ways:
Development at 35 Brighton Avenue
• Two double garages dominate the ground
level
• The asphalt parking space for four cars
eliminates virtually all of the front garden
• Apartment-style second and third story
balconies over the garage create a cold high-rise
façade
• The building materials do not resonate with
the streetscape
• The new design packs in over 6000 square feet
onto the lot. In contrast, one of the largest homes
on the street houses 3000 square feet of living space
on the same size lot.
The good news is that there is still time to
improve the design. The City of Ottawa offers helpful
guidelines and Ottawa has talented architects. Our
community would welcome the opportunity to
work with you to support design excellence that
integrates with and enriches the streetscape. We’re
sure you’ll agree our neighborhood deserves this
attention and that it is indeed critical to maximize
return on investment.
Parking design: Front yard asphalt pad for
four cars, two double garages
The proposed design for 35 Brighton provides
space for four cars to be parked in a row in the
front yard in front of two double garages. This new
parking design requires eliminating most of the
current front garden and means that the entranceway
is overshadowed by the dominant garage doors and
black asphalt.
This design would set an unwelcome precedent
for Brighton Avenue and for other neighbouring
streetscapes. According to the City of Ottawa’s
Urban Design Guidelines for Low-Medium Density
Infill Housing: “A garage should not dominate
any façade facing a street, public space or other
residential dwelling. Soft landscaping should
prevail for its aesthetic and environmental value.”
Apartment balconies and entrance design:
Discouraging interaction with the neighborhood
The wall of balconies on the second and third
floors are shield-like in appearance and are more
in keeping with high-rise apartment buildings than
residential family homes in our neighbourhood.
However, examples of existing balconies that
fit well into the neighborhood and that can be used
as models to improve on this design element of the
new structure.
The absence of a welcoming front porch or
garden entranceway effectively creates a dead
space and structurally discourages the kind of
neighbourhood interaction that make Brighton
Avenue such a pleasant place to live.
Streetscape Look and Feel
The lack of appropriate design features which
would help to integrate the new structure into the
existing neighbourhood is disappointing given
the attention paid to the
streetscape for the recent
Campanale development at
6 Grove Avenue.
We very much
Kristen gtathering signatures at the Firehall
Festival. June 21
appreciate the civic-minded approach to getting
rid of the blank face of the parking lot at Bank and
Grove. The streetscape was improved and the whole
community benefits from this kind of development.
Similarly, the value of 35 Brighton Avenue could be
maximized by applying the same thoughtfulness to
the streetscape and park-like setting.
According to the City of Ottawa’s White Paper
on intensification, even intensification projects in
low-density R-2 areas should take into account
community concerns and long-term impacts. “Each
of these developments is of a small scale, but
they could accumulate over time into significant
intensification of a community.” (White Paper
Residential Intensification: Building More Vibrant
Communities.)
In conclusion, we on Brighton Avenue
and surrounding streets are concerned that the
inappropriate development of 35 Brighton Avenue
could lead to a fundamentally negative change in
the character of our street and neighborhood. We
hope that Campanale Homes will work with the
community to revise the design of the new house
to address the concerns outlined above, taking into
account City of Ottawa guidelines for infill, the
existing character and scale of the streetscape and
the exceptional nature of the site given its proximity
to the Rideau River and Brighton Beach Park.
Sincerely, Kristen Ostling
The petition and photos are available at
www.35brighton.ca..
Petition Results As Of June 22
As of June 22, 409 residents and concerned citizens from
over 30 Old Ottawa South streets have signed the open
letter to Tony, Vince and Rocco Campanale. For updates
and to add your name to the community effort to ensure that
infill fits the character of our neighborhood streets, check out
www.35brighton.ca and get involved in OSWATCH--the planning
and development sub-committee of the Ottawa South Community
Association.