Where a once bustling mall stood, there is now open ground – a blank slate awaiting a new planned community, mixed with large residential towers, retail, and green space. It’s the urban city dream where all basic amenities are within walking distance. But as shovels inch closer to the ground, not everyone is happy with the city’s vision.
In November last year, city council approved the Lincoln Fields Secondary Plan, which will help guide the development of the parcel of land that was once home to the Lincoln Fields Mall.
At 2525 Carling Ave, developer RioCan and RLA Architecture have submitted a concept plan to see upwards of 11 high-rises with mixed-use space built on the 6.5-hectare area. Most would range from nine to 40 storeys, with the tallest towering 45 storeys.
Most in the community are welcoming the addition of more housing and are excited about the new opportunities it will bring. But as Trevor Proulx from the Mud Lake Community Association points out, there will also be a need for more essential services.
“It is just going to be like this curtain of 30-storey or more buildings. I think the infrastructure is going to be a problem. Right now, the neighbourhood schools are already full,” he said. “Carling Avenue is one of the worst streets in Ottawa, and traffic is only going to get worse. And then Richmond Road is just one lane each way. So the traffic there is going to get really bad.”
Kathy Vandergrift, president of the Queensway Terrace North Community Association, also shares that concern. She feels the city has allowed “maximum development permissions with little consideration of transportation impact.”
“They want to add the equivalent of Renfrew – a town of 10,000 people – to the Lincoln Fields area. They are basically building a whole new community,” she said.
The city is betting on the opening of the Lincoln Fields light rail station in 2027 to hopefully get many people out of cars and onto public transit. With that comes bike lanes and expanded sidewalks. Not included, though, is a direct linkage from the bus and train stations to the soon-to-be-redeveloped mall site.
Vehicle access to the Kichi Zibi Mikan Parkway from Carling will also change. The giant traffic circles are slated to be removed and replaced with a T-intersection—a type of road junction where one roadway ends perpendicularly at another road, forming a “T” shape, with no road continuing across the intersection.
Vandergrift said they support that, but are worried about the traffic impacts it will create.
“We will have more backup traffic impacts that will make entrance and exits from our neighbourhood during rush hours almost impossible,” she said.
One component the community would like to see is more shopping options. It suffered greatly when Walmart closed and the mall was torn down. The closest location is now three kilometres away at Bayshore.
Because of leasing conditions, the mall owners were forced to build a standalone Metro Grocery store to replace the old one. There was hope it could have been incorporated into the ground-floor retail space of a building; however, the chain was not interested in that a few years ago. Bay Ward Coun. Theresa Kavanagh now believes they’d be willing to move when the towers are constructed.
While buildings in the centre of the site will have retail options, the towers closest to Carling won’t. Vandergrift said the Queensway community is unhappy about that, but Kavanagh said it’s because developers struggle to lease some of their spaces.
“It definitely would have made the community more attractive. Carling, unlike Richmond, is harder to feel like a real downtown main street because it’s four lanes, and often six lanes of traffic,” she said. “The dream is to have coffee shops and things like that right there. We get a taste of it with Rexall Pharmacy. But from a developer’s point of view, that’s not an effective use of their space.”
Kavanagh gave the example of the Brigil buildings at the corner of Richmond and Woodroffe. For the last two years, a sign has been up saying a coffee shop is moving in, but there have been no takers.
There will be several new stores in the area of a new main street connecting Carling to Richmond. The new connector will have parkland on both sides in an area that is currently a concrete parking lot.
Perhaps some of the bigger concerns are over the proposed new towers to be built on Edgeworth Drive. Up to 24 storeys are planned for the quiet residential street, which the community said was not made to handle an influx of people.
Under the current plans, the 24-storey component of the towers would be built closest to Carling, with tower heights between 18 and 17 storeys, the closer you get to single-family homes and low-rise buildings.
Also, by Regina Street, Proulx said there are concerns over the Parkway House development. The current non-profit long-term home for 12 adults with physical challenges is slated to be torn down, with a new seven-storey building planned for its residents. Next to it would be two towers of 16 and 28 storeys.
“The home for people with disabilities is great. People also need places to live. But the city also needs to think about safety and sidewalks, speed bumps and stop signs, and there are schools around there and kids,” said Proulx. ” If you put a big building like that in, it should be off a main road like Richmond. I think it will be a little chaotic.”