Ottawa committee OKs home demolition to fit parking for adjacent church expansion

Ottawa’s planning committee voted Thursday in favour of a plan to demolish three west-end homes to accommodate parking for a nearby church’s planned community centre, despite opposition from some councillors and members of the community.

The St. Mary Coptic Orthodox Church at the intersection of Canfield and Greenbank roads is proposing to build a new two-storey community centre on its lot.

Part of the application would see the demolition of three houses — all currently owned and rented out by the church — at nearby 9 Canfield Rd. and 15 and 17 Parkmount Cres.

In addition to the community centre, the development would add a surface lot with 98 parking spaces.

Numerous community members turned out to Thursday’s virtual planning committee meeting to object to the church’s proposal.

Neighbourhood resident Clarke Cross called St. Mary Coptic a “land baron,” citing a handful of additional homes in the area the church owns. He and other residents expressed concerns that this proposal might be an initial stage of development planning for the church.

Christy Allen, the owner of the home adjacent to the site, 11 Parkmount Cres., said she and her husband would feel pressured to sell their home as well if the community centre popped up next door.

The current iteration of the church’s plans have scaled down since they were presented to the public at a meeting in March 2019. Earlier proposals would’ve seen building heights of 18m— now reduced to 11m — and six homes demolished instead of three, with 11 Parkmount Cres. among the casualties.

Bishoy Alfy Samy, who spoke on behalf of the congregation at Thursday’s meeting, said the home in question was originally part of the demolition, but those plans were revised after community opposition and it did not pursue the acquisition discussions with the homeowners.

2:14 Château Laurier renovation plan causes a ruckus

He also said the church does not have any further development plans at the moment.

“We’re focused on what we have,” Alfy Samy said.

Alfy Samy said the church wants to build the community centre as a benefit to the neighbourhood, and offered to sign an agreement allowing residents access to the space as needed.

Some residents asked the church to consider underground parking options or lots separate from the site itself at nearby offices or schools, which could allow the construction of a community centre while sparing the homes from the chopping block.

St. Mary Coptic Orthodox Church has already struck an agreement with the owners of an adjacent lot to lease 120 spaces for a five-year term to alleviate the congregation’s current parking crunch.

Sean Devine, president of the Trend-Arlington Community Association, said during the meeting that the community is not opposed to the church’s expansion plans, but noted that consultations and attempts to find compromise have “fallen off the map.”

Alfy Samy said the church has already made compromises in blocking off vehicle access to the site from Parkmount Crescent and lowering the proposed height of the facility.

Any further concessions would make the project unviable, he expressed, and he hasn’t seen the same flexibility from the community’s side.

“We haven’t seen any positive steps from them,” he said.

Councillors Jeff Leiper and Keith Egli, the ward’s representative, put forward a motion to defer the decision to give the parties more time to find a compromise, but the proposal was roundly dismissed.

Alfy Samy noted he didn’t think the six weeks proposed would make a difference.

Egli disagreed, and put the impetus on the community and the church to coexist going forward.

“If there’s a will, there’s a way, and it seems maybe there’s not a will,” he said.

The proposal passed through committee with a 7-2 vote. The plan will require sign-off from city council on July 15 before construction and demolition can begin.