City gives go-ahead to tear down apartment building to make way for parking lot

The city of Ottawa’s planning committee has given the green light to tear down a small downtown apartment building, to make way for a parking lot.

Part of a larger downtown development, the six units at 142 Nepean St. would instead become parking spaces.

“As soon as they put the proposal in, I was kind of prepared for that,” says Riley Magee, who has lived in the building since 2018.

Magee says he pays just under $1,200 per month for a two-bedroom apartment.

“The location is amazing.”

When he learned of the vote in favour to tearing down the building he lives in, he said he was disappointed.

“I mean, definitely disappointing; but we’re really lucky that the company who has put this in is trying to do right by tenants and offering us some decent solutions.”

Some of the families in the building have already moved out; for those left, they will be compensated, according to Derek Howe, Taggart Group vice-president of development.

“This is something that we’ve done above and beyond what the standard legislative requirement would be; we try to show that our duty of care in this situation should be higher than the minimum, so we have exceeded the minimum with a fair and reasonable offer,” he told CTV News Ottawa.

The compensation offered for existing tenants include: comparable units at a building nearby at the same rent they currently pay, reasonable moving expenses, and $15,000 for “additional miscellaneous expenses, and/or a buffer for future rent escalations, says Howe.

Additionally, the tenants will be offered a first right of refusal, at 108 Nepean St., once the tower is built.

The decision by the planning committee is part of a larger project in the area; according to documents filed with the city, the proposed development consists of a 27-storey high-rise mixed use building nearby, which will include residential units.

“It’s a win now, but in the long run; it’s going to be a loss,” says Lionel Njeukam, who also lives in six-unit building,

“We did what we could to keep the building up, and the city has decided that maybe parking is better than keeping affordable housing up."

“It certainly goes directly against our new official plan, which prohibits new surface parking in the downtown; and, what is really unusual is for two applications like this to be linked,” says Catherine McKenney, area councillor and mayoral candidate,

“It’s still a loss of six units of market rental, for a parking lot.”

The final decision will be made by city council on Aug. 31.