Proposed Embassy Row causes row

The row over ‘Embassy Row’

By Patrick Langston

Local residents and the National Capital Commission (NCC) remain at loggerheads over a proposal to turn 3 .7 hectares of green space, west of downtown, into a new diplomatic precinct .

In December, the NCC asked the city to rezone the land next to the Sir John A . Macdonald Parkway in Mechanicsville to permit the eventual construction of six diplomatic missions . The space lies between Slidell Street and Forward Avenue . An existing mission, the Indonesian Embassy, is on the western border of the property .

The NCC’s intention to use the location for diplomatic missions is long-standing and forms part of the Scott Street Community Development Plan and other land-use strategies . It has been included in three public consultations since 2015 and is in keeping with the city’s Official Plan policies, including intensification and use of existing infrastructure, according to the NCC .

The proposal is still at the conceptual stage, but it doesn’t sit well with many area residents .

“The lands are an iconic green space in the neighbourhood,” says Lorrie Marlow, president of the Mechanicsville Community Association . “It’s very popular with bird lovers . There’s a horned owl that’s beloved . There are 75 trees on the property . The long grasses, the wildflowers . So, it’s quite precious to us .” She says she’s received hundreds of emails objecting to the plan .

The commission’s proposal includes a park on the eastern side of the property . However, Marlow and others are concerned about the trees and wildlife habitat — frequented by, among others, 63 bird species — that will be destroyed .

The NCC’s zoning request is supported by a planning rationale from Fotenn Consultants, which identifies the creation of “new, green pedestrian/active transportation connections from the Mechanicsville neighbourhood to a new pathway along the Sir John A . Macdonald Parkway .” But Marlow would like to see the entire property preserved in a natural state . “We don’t want it manicured with fancy little paths . We like it the way it is .”

The potential loss of green space in a neighbourhood experiencing infill and where many residents have no backyard isn’t Marlow’s only concern .

She says tight security surrounding diplomatic missions means they aren’t usually “community friendly .

“They’re usually very hardened . They’re walled, they’re fenced . . . we want residents that are engaged in the neighbourhood .” She also wonders about having to evacuate the area in the event of a terrorist or other attack on one of the missions .

Jeff Leiper is councillor for the area and would like to see the proposal paused . He believes the city should, instead, be addressing housing and environmental concerns in keeping with its declarations of housing and climate emergencies .

Like Marlow, he’s also concerned about the loss of green space in his intensifying constituency, a point driven home by the restrictions of the pandemic . “We’ve learned in the course of the past year how important it is in intensifying neighbourhoods like Mechanicsville to have as much open space as possible . Putting embassies in open space doesn’t strike residents as a particularly wise choice . ”

Leiper held an online public meeting about the plan in February, and more than

There are several streets that house embassies and ambassadors’ residences — Island Park, Acacia Avenue, and Range Road in Sandy Hill, seen here.

The National Capital Commission sees this and neighbouring green space as a potential area for a series of embassies, though no countries have been identified to occupy what's being called Embassy Row.

200 people showed up . He says there was “highly consensual opposition” to the plan .

He adds there are other potential locations for more embassies, including LeBreton Flats, and he would like the NCC to re-examine those options .

The NCC proposal will likely go to planning committee this spring before heading to council for a final decision, Leiper says .

The NCC’s plan for the space comes from “a general need for diplomatic missions in the capital,” says Andrew Sacret, chief of long-range planning and transportation . “Our plan for Canada’s capital has policies that state the need to have that inventory at the ready so we’re not caught flatfooted as a nation when a foreign mission needs something like this . ”

No countries have yet been identified to occupy what’s being called Ottawa’s embassy row, a term that calls to mind, albeit on a far more modest scale, that section of Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D .C ., where multiple diplomatic missions are based . Many missions already have gracious digs in Ottawa, but others are currently using downtown office space and may need to expand their facilities in the future, Sacret says .

As to Marlow’s concerns about security, Sacret responds that ambassadorial residences and chanceries already exist in some Ottawa neighbourhoods and that each has its own security plan .

What will the NCC do if the city turns thumbs down on its plan for the Mechanicsville space?

“That would be very unfortunate,” Sacret says . “We would have some appeal rights . . . [and] we have the authority to plan on federal lands, which these are . Our hope is that the city can follow our lead in approving that land use .” D