APARTMENT BUILDING 322 GARDNER STREET CITY OF OTTAWA TRANSPORTATION OVERVIEW Prepared for: John Howard Society of Ottawa March 13, 2014 114-592 Report_2.doc D. J. Halpenny & Associates Ltd. Consulting Transportation Engineers P.O. Box 774, Manotick, ON K4M 1A7 Tel (613) 692-8662 Fax (613) 692-1945
TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE 1. INTRODUCTION... 1 1.1 Purpose and Scope... 1 2. PROPOSED BUILDING... 1 3. TRANSPORTATION NETWORK... 3 4. SITE GENERATED TRIPS... 3 5. PARKING SUPPLY AND DEMAND... 6 6. FINDINGS... 8 LIST OF FIGURES 1.1 SITE LOCATION PLAN... 2 2.1 CONCEPTUAL SITE PLAN... 4 3.1 TRANSPORTATION NETWORK Sidewalks and Bus Stops... 5 5.1 ON-STREET PARKING SURVEY Available Parking... 7 LIST OF TABLES 5.1 ON-STREET PARKING SUPPLY SURVEY... 6
APARTMENT BUILDING 322 GARDNER STREET, OTTAWA TRANSPORTATION OVERVIEW 1. INTRODUCTION PBC Group Development and Construction Management Inc. on behalf of the John Howard Society of Ottawa have proposed the construction of an apartment building at 322 Gardner Street in Ottawa. The apartment building will be a three storey building containing 34 apartment units. The apartment building will replace the existing buildings on the lands at 318/320 and 322/324 Gardner Street. Due to property constraints and required parking for the intended use of the building, the number of on-site parking spaces provided would not conform the required parking under the City of Ottawa By-law. Figure 1.1 shows the location of the proposed apartment building site. As part of the Site Plan Application for the lands and minor variance for the proposed number of parking spaces, the firm of D. J. Halpenny & Associates Ltd. has been retained to conduct a which would include a parking assessment of the property and surrounding streets. 1.1 Purpose and Scope The purpose of the study was to examine the surrounding transportation network with respect to various modes of transport, and assess the supply of parking in close proximity to the proposed apartment building site and establish the amount of parking which would be provided by the development. The demand for parking by the site would be determined by examining the operation of the John Howard Society apartment building and the individuals which would be staying in the apartment units. The demand would also be compared to the required parking spaces under the City of Ottawa By-law for parking. 2. PROPOSED BUILDING The John Howard Society operates seven residences which provide self-contained apartments for homeless individuals. The plan for the 322 Gardner Street site will be to demolish the existing two semi-detached buildings on the 318/320 and 322/324 Gardner Street lots, and construct one apartment building on the 1,278.0 sq. m. site. The site is zoned GM [2076] H(12) General Mixed Use which will support the proposed apartment building. The Site Plan proposes the construction of a three storey building. The ground floor will contain offices, a common area, and 4 apartment units. The second and third floors will each contain 15 apartment units for a total of 34 apartment units. The site will contain 5 parking spaces which
2 FIGURE 1.1 SITE LOCATION PLAN
3 will include 1 barrier free space, and an outdoor bike rack for 6 bicycles with a rack inside the building for an additional 12 bicycles. Figure 2.1 presents a conceptual site plan of the development. Construction of the facility is expected to be completed by the fall of 2014. The residence at 322 Gardner Street will be operated by the John Howard Society. The individuals staying at the building will not own or have access to vehicles and therefore would not require parking spaces. The apartment building will have support services for the tenants that include a variety of professionals. At various points throughout the day, there may be as many as three support staff which may result in parking for a maximum of three vehicles. Other professionals may also visit the site periodically therefore one or two additional vehicles may require parking. 3. TRANSPORTATION NETWORK The building is centrally located on a local street and is in close proximity to various modes of transportation. Since the residents will not own vehicles, they would rely on a non-vehicular mode of transportation. Figure 3.1 shows the location of pedestrian sidewalks in the surrounding area. Pedestrians would have direct access along municipal sidewalks from the 322 Gardner Street site to retail stores and commercial along McArthur Avenue and Montreal Road. OC Transpo provides transit service within close proximity to the site. Regular Route 14 travels along McArthur Avenue, Route 12 along Montreal Road, and Route 9 along Vanier Parkway. Figure 3.1 shows the approximate location of the bus stops which are accessed along municipal sidewalks. The walking distance varies between 250 m (McArthur Avenue) to 400 m (Montreal Road). The Site Plan provides an outdoor bike rack for 6 bicycles and storage for an additional 12 bicycles within the apartment building. The site exceeds the required number of bicycle parking spaces (17) required under City of Ottawa By-law. The City of Ottawa Transportation Master Plan designates Vanier Parkway and Montreal Road as primary on-road cycling routes. 4. SITE GENERATED TRIPS The operation of the John Howard Society apartment building would have as many as three support staff during the day. The support staff could arrive during peak hours of adjacent street traffic resulting in possibly 3 site generated trips by the site. The proposed apartment building will be replacing two semi-detached buildings which would contain a total of four houses. It is likely that the proposed apartment building would generate approximately the same number or fewer site trips than the existing buildings it will be replacing. It is expected that the John Howard Society apartment building would have a negligible impact on the surrounding roads when compared to the trips generated by the existing land use.
4 FIGURE 2.1 CONCEPTUAL SITE PLAN
5 FIGURE 3.1 TRANSPORTATION NETWORK Sidewalks and Bus Routes
6 5. PARKING SUPPLY AND DEMAND The parking survey comprised of counting the number of parking spaces provided along the streets in the vicinity of the site, and documenting any time restrictions placed on the parking. Figure 5.1 shows the on-street parking survey within approximately a 350 m walking distance of the 322 Gardner Street site. The survey determined that during the weekday hours of 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM there were only 31 available parking spaces within a 350 m walk of the site. Of the 31 parking spaces, 25 were pay spaces along Montgomery Street and Selkirk Street, and 6 spaces were 1 hour parking along Palace Street. All of the spaces limited the duration of parking. During the evening hours (after 6:00 PM) and overnight there were 58 available parking spaces. Table 5.1 summarizes the available parking spaces with a 350 m walk from the site. TABLE 5.1 ON-STREET PARKING SUPPLY SURVEY STREET SEGMENT NUMBER OF AVAILABLE PARKING SPACES DAYTIME 7:00 AM 6:00 PM EVENING/NIGHTTIME 6:00 PM 7:00 AM Gardner north of Selkirk 0 8 Gardner south of Selkirk 0 8 Selkirk east of Montgomery 0 8 Selkirk west of Montgomery 8 (pay) 11 Montgomery south of Selkirk 17 (pay) 17 Montgomery north of Selkirk 0 0 Palace north of Selkirk 6 (1 hr.) 6 Mayfield south of Montgomery 0 0 Dundas south of Selkirk 0 0 TOTAL 31 58 Under the City of Ottawa By-law for parking, the apartment building site would require 0.5 parking spaces per dwelling unit, or 17 parking spaces for the 34 unit building. The Site Plan proposes to provide 5 on-site parking spaces which will satisfy the demand for staff and professionals. The residence will not own cars and therefore would not require parking spaces. This is in line with new parking regulations by the City of Ottawa which will generally reduce the amount of required parking needed on-site and maximize the use of on-street parking.
7 FIGURE 5.1 ON-STREET PARKING SURVEY Available Parking
8 Visitors to the site (not related to the operation of the facility) can take advantage of on-street parking. As shown in Table 5.1 there are 31 available short term parking spaces within a 350 m walking distance of the site during the daytime hours of 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM. During the evening and night time hours there are 58 available parking spaces. 6. FINDINGS The John Howard Society has proposed the construction of a 34 apartment unit building at 322 Gardner Street. The proposed building will replace the two existing buildings on the lots of 318/320 and 322/324 Gardner Street. The John Howard Society building will provide apartments to homeless individuals. The building will provide 5 parking spaces which includes 1 barrier free space. The building would be staffed twenty-four hours per day with a maximum of three staff during peak times. In addition to staff there may be one or two professionals visiting. The five parking spaces would be sufficient to meet the demand of the staff. The residents would not own or have access to vehicles. Most often there would only be one or two parking spaces occupied. The findings of the study were that the supply of on-site parking is sufficient to meet the expected demands of staff and administrative visitors, resulting in a negligible impact on the on-street parking in the surrounding neighbourhood. A survey of available parking in the surrounding area determined that there were 31 available parking spaces during the day within a 350 m walking distance of the site. The parking was short duration parking controlled through payment or limited time parking. During the evening and overnight hours there were 58 available parking spaces which had no limits on duration. The on-street parking could be used by non staff visitors to the site. The parking survey also determined that during the day most of the designated on-street parking was not occupied. The study determined that the site was well serviced by a municipal sidewalk network which would provide the safe movement of pedestrians to commercial buildings and retail stores, and to OC Transpo bus stops. OC Transpo provides regular bus routes along Montreal Road, Vanier Parkway, and McArthur Avenue with bus stops within walking distance of the site. The number of site generated trips for the John Howard Society apartment building is expected to be approximately the same or less than the existing land use it will be replacing. Prepared by: David J. Halpenny, P. Eng.