Recent Developments with Lansdowne 2.0

In late November 2023, City Council approved moving forward with Lansdowne 2.0.  

There are still many steps to be completed before the project is a ‘go’. City Council requires more detailed cost projections before it gives a final okay as the $437.7 Million total cost was a Class “C” or preliminary/rough estimate. Council is also waiting for an audit of Lansdowne to be completed by the City’s Auditor General.

While work remains to be done on the financial and governance aspects of Lansdowne 2.0, City Council did make important decisions related to land use planning. It approved both the rezoning of parts of Lansdowne and an official plan amendment for the site. 

The proposed amendments/rezoning would rezone public green space to allow for the relocation of the arena/event centre to the public park and would raise height limits to allow for 40 storey towers.

Land use planning in Ontario is subject to provincial oversight. The GCA believes that the City’s planning applications were flawed and accordingly we have launched an appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal.

To be clear, the GCA is not opposing Lansdowne 2.0 in its entirety. We recognize that the sports facilities need to be replaced at some point and we support residential housing on these public lands. Indeed, we advocated for affordable, and deeply affordable housing to be included on site.   However, we believe the plans need to be improved if Lansdowne is going to be more successful.  That is why we are calling for responsible planning for this publicly-owned land. 

What are the grounds for the GCA appeal?

  • Overall, this project does not represent good planning. It has been driven by private investor pressures and not by professional planning practices. No options or alternatives have ever been considered (for example: replacing the arena where it is now, locating the residential towers closer to Bank Street or adding residential on top of existing buildings). 
  • The loss of a significant amount of green and recreational space violates several provincial and municipal policies related to healthy, liveable communities as well as environmental protection and climate action. The Glebe and central Ottawa have a deficit of green space compared to City targets and adding more residents while taking away green and recreational space contradicts good planning practices.

The plan for Lansdowne 2.0 does not respect the Lansdowne special district designation in Ottawa’s Official Plan, which calls for the protection of the urban park.

  • The proposed project is too big and doesn’t fit the scale of the site. The two 40-story towers are too high (only a few stories less than the tower at the corner of Carling and Preston) and represent an over-intensification beyond the capacity of the site.  Moreover, the siting of these buildings will have a negative impact on the public realm. 
  • Supporting studies on transportation impacts were artificially limited in scope and failed to analyze the impacts of increased traffic. 
  • The city has disregarded the recommendations of the city’s own Urban Design Review Panel regarding the need to reduce the height of the event centre, maintain public access to the park, and to explore other options for the residential buildings. 

By appealing the rezoning and official plan amendment to the Ontario Land Tribunal, the GCA does not aim to stop the redevelopment of Lansdowne Park—we want to make it better for Ottawa.