More cash set aside for affordable housing as Lansdowne 2.0 debate stretches on

During another prolonged debate on Lansdowne 2.0, Ottawa city councillors tried to restore the proposed green arena roof, secure funding for parks and even defer a decision on the project entirely.

But a vote on competing motions to secure increased funding for affordable housing brought perhaps the largest change to the contentious $419-million redevelopment plan.

That pitch for Lansdowne Park, dubbed Lansdowne 2.0, seeks to refresh the Glebe entertainment site and help it make money.

A key vote in Wednesday's council meeting involved air rights — the right to build in the airspace above a property — sold to developers to build residential towers.

As the plan originally stood, 10 per cent of the money from the sale of those rights would have gone to the city's affordable housing reserve.

A motion from Coun. Catherine Kitts more than doubled the percentage that will go into affordable housing to 25 per cent, an amount that aligns with city policy.

The city estimates it can sell the air rights at Lansdowne for $39 million, so this change represents about $6 million more.

Another motion from Coun. Laura Dudas added that half of any money made above that sale price would go to affordable housing as well.

Both motions passed.

Coun. Rawlson King tried to bump the percentage that would go toward affordable housing up to 40 per cent, four times the original plan, but his motion was ultimately defeated.

"If we have a project of this scope and magnitude, we need to have the appropriate amount of funding that's actually enumerated within the city's policy," King said in a scrum with reporters after the meeting.

"Of course, I think that we have to get more aggressive."

Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Rawlson King says he'd prefer the more 'aggressive' funding of affordable housing that council ultimately voted against. (Francis Ferland/CBC)

Attempt to defer

The debate comes after more than 80 public delegations weighed in on the redevelopment plans over the course of two full days of meetings late last week.

As the third day got underway Wednesday, Coun. Sean Devine tried to delay the decision until next year.

He introduced a motion to defer the vote on Lansdowne 2.0 until after the city's auditor general tabled a report on the project, likely in June 2024.

"I'm following the advice my grandfather gave me — my grandfather was actually a politician but also a carpenter — and he told me 'Measure twice, cut once,'" Devine said.

"I think he was talking both about politics and about carpentry."

City manager Wendy Stephenson said staff have spent "thousands of hours" preparing the report as it stands. She said it is not necessary to wait for the audit because staff will take the audit's recommendations into account as the process moves forward.

"There's a significant amount of due diligence that staff have done to get us here to date," she said.

Devine's motion failed by a wide margin and wasn't the only one to do so.

More motions on parkland, green roof

Coun. Shawn Menard, whose Capital ward includes Lansdowne Park, introduced several motions on the day that failed to get the support of council.

Among them was a motion that staff develop a mitigation plan for the possibility of Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG), the for-profit group that leases Lansdowne in a complex partnership with the city, defaulting on its debt.

Menard unsuccessfully moved to bar any companies owned by a partner within OSEG from bidding on rights to develop the residential towers.

He also tried to pass a motion to force developers to pay the waived cash-in-lieu-of-parkland fees — a charge if they don't meet the green space requirement for new development.

"The bottom line in this is that there's a principle at play here," Menard said during a heated exchange with Mayor Mark Sutcliffe. "In this case, we're actually losing green space and they're not paying it. So it's a double whammy."

Capital Coun. Shawn Menard says the small concessions made during Wednesday's council meeting did not convince him it is a good deal. (Francis Ferland/CBC)

Coun. Glen Gower argued forcing developers to contribute to the city's parkland fund would simply cause them to lower their bids by the amount they'd be forced to pay into it — thus reducing the money the city could raise on the sale.

Ultimately, staff said a city bylaw dictates that the parkland requirement must be waived because the city itself is a partner in the site.

Menard's other motions on increasing active transportation access to Lansdowne and asking OSEG to consider options for a roof over the north-side stands carried, while a motion from Coun. Theresa Kavanagh to reintroduce the green roof conspicuously missing from the 2.0 version of the plans failed.

"Although there are minor concessions being made, it still in my view doesn't improve the deal enough to make it a great public investment," Menard said after the meeting.

Councillors will pick the discussion back up at noon on Thursday.