Richmond
Current Development
Richmond has grown by 30% since 2000. Much of this growth has occurred north of Perth Street and development will generally continue at that pace and in that area in the near future. Hyde Park, King’s Grant, and Richmond Oaks are all developments that still contain vacant lots. In addition, the empty lot at Cockburn & Hamilton has been approved for 40 semi-detached homes. TELUS has proposed a 40m communications tower at 6117 Perth Road. You can find out more information on our news post.
Future Development
The process to develop the Western Development Lands is well under way. One application (Caivan) has received approval while another (Mattamy) is still in the review process. The development application by Caivan Developments was for 1000 units at 6335 & 6350 Perth Street. It was appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board last fall. On May 26th, the OMB hearing was scheduled to take place with the City of Ottawa, Caivan and the Richmond Village Association all represented. Prior to this meeting, however, an agreement was reached with regard to the development application and Draft Plan Approval was granted.
One of the key issues from the community standpoint was stormwater and how the new development would handle surface water and not impact the existing community. One of the conditions of draft plan approval is that Caivan must host a public meeting to explain their approach to handling stormwater on site. Drainage was another issue and I can now confirm that the Arbuckle Drain has been approved and will provide adequate outlet for the development, between Perth Street and the Jock River. The drainage works will see erosion controls put in place to prevent future erosion from occurring. Similarly, the Van Gaal drain to the north of Perth Street will see the same benefits to the development and the surrounding properties.
On the density concerns, Caivan has agreed to a maximum of 750 units on their lands rather than the applied for 1000 units. Also, the setback from the road to the home will be four metres rather than the three metres originally sought. This will help keep the development closer in line with the existing community and less like a suburban development. Some of the benefits of this will include larger lots, more space for trees, less parked cars on the roads and more space for stormwater recharge within individual lots.
I still don’t expect to see any new homes until at least 2016 and I imagine the growth rate will be consistent with what we have seen in Richmond over the last ten years. The rate has dipped a little recently with only 26 new homes built in 2013. An ideal comparison would be the Minto development in Manotick, which will see the addition of 1400 homes. So far, around 30 new homes have been built and construction began in 2012. While the new homes in Richmond will be a little more affordable, I don’t expect the growth rate to be anywhere similar to suburban development.
The next steps will see Caivan satisfy their conditions of approval whereas I, along with the City, will work with Mattamy Homes to seek similar adjustments to density and other issues with their 1100 unit application. If you have any questions on this, feel free to contact me.
As for commercial development, Colonnade Developments still has plans for future units at their Richmond Marketplace development to join King's Independent, Tim Horton's and the currently under construction TD Bank. The grand total of retail space will be no more than 75,000 square feet, spread out over several separate structures. Just to give you a size comparison, all stores combined will be one fifth the size of the new IKEA.
Road Renewal
As part of Ottawa on the Move, Richmond had two streets resurfaced in 2013: Ottawa Street (Eagleson to McBean) and King Street (Ottawa to the Jock). Clearly, these are not the only two streets that require attention and I will continue to work on increasing funding into our infrastructure renewal program.
Updated August 2014
