Traffic concerns trump Costco deals for Beacon Hill residents
By Brier Dodge, Ottawa East News
May 06, 2016
It was a mixed bag of reactions from Beacon Hill residents who attended a community consultation on May 5 at the Earl Armstrong Arena about a proposed Costco move to Shoppers City East.
Some are happy about the Costco moving in, but others expressed concern about the big box store joining the neighbourhood and the traffic that it will generate in the area.
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“It’s been back and forth,” said Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney of the resident feedback . “It’s been very mixed.”
Costco wants to nove from its existing Innes Road location to a new location in the Shoppers City East plaza at Ogilvie Road and Blair Place.
“I think it’s great,” said Pauline LeBlanc, who said she walked to the consultation meeting from her nearby home after shopping at the Innes Road Costco. She said her family has several roads they can use to access their neighbourhood so traffic isn’t a major concern, but understands it is an issue for some of her neighbours.
There were also many in attendance who expressed concern that the megastore will be a bad fit for the neighbourhood, and cause too much traffic. As well, there were concerns that the bulk purchasing store is too close to schools.
Several had just found out about the public consultation that day when they read about it in Metroland Media community newspapers.
“For us this is going to be a nightmare to get in and out of our street,” said Louise Michaud, who lives on Cloverlawn Crescent and attended the meeting with her husband. “We’re pretty upset.”
She said they were displeased to find out about the meeting on the day it was held, and don’t feel there is a lot they can do because the property is already properly zoned to allow a store such as Costco to move in.
“We’re just going home very disappointed,” she said.
The site plans need to be approved by the city, but the zoning is already in place for a big box store to go on the lot in question.
Tierney said that the site is currently just a giant parking lot.
“They didn’t have to hold this (consultation), but I pulled the councillor card,” Tierney said of why developers and Costco reps held the hastily called public meeting.
He said he shares some of the community concerns about traffic, and also wants to see more greenery added to the site plan.
The Costco on Innes Road currently causes massive traffic headaches, with police officers required to direct traffic during peak periods. The new location won’t have significantly more parking, as the 740 spots on Innes will be increased to 786 at the new location. But there will be more exit and entry points controlled by traffic lights.
The existing store is 123,000 square feet, and the new store will be 160,000 square feet, said Costco director of real estate Renee Rutherford.
There will likely be “some tweaks” to the design that was presented at the open house based on the public feedback, Rutherford said. The goal is to open in fall 2017, but depending on the approvals process with the city it could be delayed until 2018.
Tierney said he will be actively trying to persuade some small to medium grocery stores to take over the former Costco spot on Innes, as it was the only store with groceries in the immediate area.
Brier Dodge is a reporter-photographer with the Orléans News and Ottawa Metroland Media publications. She can be reached at [email protected].
http://www.ottawacommunitynews.com/news-...-costco-deals-for-beacon-hill-residents/
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