A south Ottawa community is closer to a major business and transit upgrade after the city's planning committee approved a development in Riverside South.
The area near Limebank Road and Earl Armstrong Road, about 20 kilometres south of the city's downtown, would be re-zoned and developed to include over 2,000 new homes, a new transit hub and big-box stores.
Residents said it's a big move to bring services to a mostly residential area, where they have to drive quite a distance to get the basics.
"It's very good because there's nothing around here at all yet," said resident David Tran. "It's (going to be) a place for me to go get groceries somewhere, it's closer to here and it's going to expand the neighbourhood better too."
The community's population is growing, with 50,000 more people expected to live there by 2031.
That would be almost five times the current population of 11,000 to 12,000 people.
The area's councillor said they want to make sure that services keep up with that growth.
"We don't want to just have a bedroom community," said Steve Desroches. "We want to have jobs. We want to have additional retail."
For the future residents of the area, they said this could mean more opportunity.
"I think it's exciting," said Arti Parbhakar, who lives in the area with her eight-month-old son. "I think that having things nearby especially in a place with a lot of young families will keep things really lively and vibrant."
If city council approves the plan next week, construction could start in 2012, with everything completed in a decade.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Stefan Keyes
