Taggart Realty Management has applied to the City to build two large residential towers at 1081 Carling Avenue at Parkdale. The location borders the mature Civic Hospital neighbourhood and the Central Experimental Farm. The zoning for the site is set at 9 stories and the proposed rezoning, if approved, would permit the construction of two towers of 16 and 27 stories.

The Civic Hospital Neighbourhood Association (CHNA) is opposing the proposal because it is an overdevelopment of the property and does not meet Ottawa's New Official Plan requirements for ensuring appropriate transition to an abutting community.  In addition, officials with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada who oversee the Central Experimental Farm have expressed concern to City planners about the shade effects from the towers on the multi-year scientific research performed at the farm. 

You can help! By signing this petition, you will be requesting that the City of Ottawa Planning Department and Planning and Housing Committee REJECT Taggart’s 1081 Carling rezoning application. You will also be supporting a broader campaign for sensible intensification required for much needed additional housing in Ottawa.

Thank you for your support.

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Who does this impact?

Residents of the Civic Hospital neighbourhood

• The height and scale of the development does not provide transition through "sensitive integration of low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise buildings" as required by Ottawa's New Official Plan and urban community design policy framework.
• If approved as is, a trend would be created for development along Carling Avenue between Island Park Avenue and the O-train, the southern boundary of our neighbourhood. 
• An additional 340 resident vehicles from the proposed development will worsen an already serious traffic management problem related to access to the 417 further north on Parkdale, hospital visitors, and cut-through traffic between Holland and Parkdale. In addition, service vehicles that would access the proposed development from Inglewood Place and Hamilton would create excessive and heavy vehicle traffic on narrow residential streets.

Other citizens of Ottawa

• Approving this development will signal that the city does not respect the New Official Plan, which sets out an approach to increase density sensibly and to require height transition to existing communities.
• Low-rise communities across the city near main street corridors like Carling Avenue could be subject to the same over-intensive development approach if this rezoning application is approved.
• This would be yet another development that weighs the interests of developers over those of communities. 

What is at stake?

• If approved by the Planning and Housing Committee, the application would contravene the New Official Plan and would set a negative trend in the CHNA neighbourhood and in Ottawa.
• Vital Central Experimental Farm research examining the effects of climate change and drought stress on crop production and yield would be compromised by the increased shadows created by the excessive height of the towers.