3095 Albion Road North Zoning By-Law Amendment
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3095 Albion Road North Zoning By-law Amendment and Site Plan Control Applications PLANNING RATIONALE ADDENDUM Prepared for: Ahlul-Bayt Centre Ottawa (ABCO) 200 Baribeau Street Ottawa, ON K1L 7R6 Prepared by: NOVATECH Suite 200, 240 Michael Cowpland Drive Ottawa, Ontario K2M 1P6 January 2017 Novatech File: 113093 Ref: R-2017-003 Planning Rationale Addendum Ahlul-Bayt Centre Ottawa, 3095 Albion Road North Table of Contents 1.0 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 2 2.0 POLICY REGULATORY FRAMEWORK CHANGES – 2016 OPA ................................... 2 2.1 Policy 1 of Section 3.6.5 Urban Employment Area ....................................................... 3 3.0 COMPATIBILITY ASSESSMENT .................................................................................... 3 3.1 Purpose of the Compatibility Assessment .................................................................... 4 3.2 Land Use Context ........................................................................................................ 4 4.0 POTENTIAL ADVERSE IMPACTS .................................................................................. 7 4.1 Description of Class III Facility – Walkley O-Train Yard and CN Rail Lands ................. 7 4.2 Separation Distances within Infill Areas ....................................................................... 9 4.3 Potential Noise, Vibration and Air Impacts ..................................................................10 4.4 Health and Safety Considerations ..............................................................................13 4.4.1 Trespassing .....................................................................................................14 4.4.2 Areas of Potential Environmental Concern (APECs) ........................................14 4.4.3 Pedestrian Safety .............................................................................................15 4.5 Potential Traffic Impacts..............................................................................................16 4.5.1 Potential Traffic Increases ................................................................................16 4.5.2 Off-Street Parking Impact .................................................................................17 5.0 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................19 Novatech 1 Planning Rationale Addendum Ahlul-Bayt Centre Ottawa, 3095 Albion Road North 1.0 INTRODUCTION This Planning Rationale Addendum serves to complement the Planning Rationale (Novatech, 2016) that was prepared in relation to two concurrent planning applications, a Zoning By-law Amendment and a Site Plan Control application, for the proposed development of a mosque, school and community centre, to be known as the “Ahlul-Bayt Centre Ottawa” (ABCO) complex at 3095 Albion Road North. This Planning Rationale Addendum should be read in conjunction with the Planning Rationale and serves to address comments provided by the City (letter dated 28 April 2016) in regard to their review of the ZBA and Site Plan submission (deemed complete on 8 March 2016); as well as to address the recent proposed policy changes to the Urban Employment Lands designation of the City’s Official Plan that are directly relevant to this proposal. 2.0 POLICY REGULATORY FRAMEWORK CHANGES – 2016 OPA The Planning Rationale (2015) demonstrated conformity with the relevant policies of the Provincial Policy Statement and the City’s Official Plan; as well as provided an overview of the proposed Zoning By-law Amendment and a review of the Site Plan. Since that time, Council of the City of Ottawa adopted an Official Plan Amendment (Council Adopted 14 December 2016), known as 2016 OPA. The 2016 OPA is a comprehensive set of policy changes to the City’s Official Plan that incorporates findings of two major studies (Employment Land Review and the Land Evaluation and Area Review for Agriculture) and reflects a change of the OP’s planning horizon to the year 2036. The Amendment proposes a new policy within Section 3.6.5, Urban Employment Areas that will allow the consideration: “through a site specific amendment to the Zoning By-law permitting low density institutional uses such as community centres, daycares, places of worship only if the proposed use is compatible with existing and potential permitted uses as specified in the Zoning By-law; and, the ability for the remainder of the Urban Employment Area to achieve the requirements of Policy 1 above or as otherwise provided for in a Secondary Plan. The compatibility assessment will be guided by the Ministry of the Environment D-Series Guidelines, as amended. The identification of potential permitted uses may consider the impact that existing uses adjacent to and within the Urban Employment Area may already have on a non-existing use that is permitted in the Zoning By-law” (new proposed policy 3.6.5.2(f), OPA 2016, November 2016). Novatech 2 Planning Rationale Addendum Ahlul-Bayt Centre Ottawa, 3095 Albion Road North 2.1 Policy 1 of Section 3.6.5 Urban Employment Area Policy 1 of Section 3.6.5 (Draft OPA 2016) indicates that established Urban Employment Areas (UEA) have capacities to provide for 2,000 to 20,000+ jobs, which would be distributed over a particular Urban Employment Area at a range of densities. As outlined in the Planning Rationale (Novatech, 2016), the Urban Employment Area in which the subject property is located has an area of approximately 685 ha (including only those employment lands south of Walkley Road, not the larger Employment Area designation that captures the rail corridor north and east to the 417). The subject property is 1.55 ha in size, which represents 0.2% of the lands within the Urban Employment Area. When applying the minimum and maximum job capacities to the South of Walkley Road Urban Employment Area (i.e. 2,000 jobs (minimum) to 20,000 jobs (maximum) over 685 ha), a 1.55 ha parcel would have job targets ranging from 4.5 jobs (minimum) to 45 (maximum) jobs. The proposed institutional building at 3095 Albion Road North would employ 20 full-time people and 43 part-time people, for a total of 63 jobs. Sixty-three jobs will provide an adequate number of jobs on the site to enable the UEA to reach the higher magnitude job capacity of 20,000+ jobs. 3.0 COMPATIBILITY ASSESSMENT The overall purpose of carrying out a compatibility assessment is to prevent land use conflicts. In keeping with policy 3.6.5.2(f), introduced through OPA 2016, and the City of Ottawa’s Review Comments, this compatibility assessment is being guided by the MOE D-Series Guidelines. Appendix A of D-6, Compatibility between Industrial Facilities, classifies the adjacent Walkley Rail Yard and CN lands located to the south of the subject property as a Class III Industrial Facility. Appendix 3 (D-6-3 Separation Distances) indicates that the following parameters should be considered as part of a compatibility assessment for a Class III Industrial Facility: - a 1000 metre potential influence area and - a 300 metre recommended minimum setback in which incompatible development should not normally take place. Novatech 3 Planning Rationale Addendum Ahlul-Bayt Centre Ottawa, 3095 Albion Road North 3.1 Purpose of the Compatibility Assessment The specific outcome of this assessment is to establish the parameters and/or mitigation measures which are required to reduce the potential conflicts and adverse impacts of locating the proposed institutional uses (mosque/school/community centre) within the minimum 300 metre recommended separation distance limit between uses that may be considered incompatible. In addition to MOE’s D-Series, the Guidelines for New Development in Proximity to Railway Operations (Federation of Canadian Municipalities/Railway Association of Canada Proximity Initiative, 2013) apply in this context and this assessment includes their consideration. The Proximity Initiative Guidelines recommend a 300 metre setback for new residential development in proximity to a “freight rail yard” and a 30 metre setback from a main rail line (Section 3.3 Building Setbacks for New Developments). The Walkley O-Train Yard, which is directly adjacent to the subject property, is not a typical “freight yard” since the trains that are serviced and maintained within this Yard are passenger trains (diesel-powered O-Trains), whereas the CN rail lands further south are more typical of a freight rail yard. 3.2 Land Use Context Adjacent to and abutting the subject property to the south, is the Walkley O-Train Maintenance and Storage Yard. The Walkley Yard forms part of the O-Train Trillium Line (component of the City’s Rapid Transit Network) and is zoned Light Industrial (IL), as is the front portion of the subject property (see Figure 1). Permitted uses within the Light Industrial Zone include “heavy equipment and vehicles sales, rental and servicing” and uses that are similar to the proposed institutional uses (i.e. day care, place of assembly, recreational and athletic facility, and training centre) (see pages 17 and 18 of the Planning Rationale for further discussion). It is assumed that since the City’s Zoning By-law for Light Industrial zones allows for the listed range of uses, it de facto has established that such uses (institutional and heavy equipment and vehicle sales, rental and servicing) may be compatible with each other given appropriate handling in regard