INTENSIFICATION IN BARRHAVEN’S CORE

There is much interest being expressed by our community about new commercial growth in Barrhaven. With construction starting and City planning signs going up in areas like the Marketplace Mall, the Citigate mall and the new development at the corner of Highbury Park and Greenbank Road, residents are curious about what new stores and services are coming and also wondering how we are going to manage all of this new growth.

Barrhaven’s lease rates are among the highest in the City. As long as there is a demand, this will continue. It is not an ideal situation for owner-operated businesses. The BBIA produces market studies that identify gaps in retail and services and areas of over-saturation, but at the end of the day, there is no “approval” process for what stores come and where they choose to locate.

The application for the new pads in the Marketplace Mall was approved by the City in December 2017. The parking lot that has been in existence for the Loblaws grocery store since it was built was providing many more than the required number of parking spaces based on the City of Ottawa Zoning By-law. The reduction in parking to allow for the new retail pads has not taken away any of the required parking spaces from the grocery store: there will still be 515 spaces maintained. The applicant would have been obligated to produce a traffic and parking study as part of their City planning submission last year.

The City makes a general development plan for the over all community and then a plan specific to certain areas, in this case the Barrhaven Downtown. That Marketplace mall has always been planned for infill as the community grows. It is considered the start of “downtown” Barrhaven where we will continue to see significant intensification over the coming years as a greater number of higher density housing developments continue to be built (new seniors and retirement homes are going up soon beside that mall, as well as mid rise apar