South Keys to Blossom Park, Bank Street Community Design Plan

Bank Street is one of the primary north-south routes in the City of Ottawa. It runs from Wellington Street, in the heart of Downtown at the Parliament Buildings, through many historic neighbourhoods that range in character from The Glebe to Alta Vista to Hunt Club. It travels through communities like Blossom Park and Greely before exiting the city limits. Symbolically and physically, Bank Street connects the urban, suburban and rural communities of Ottawa.

In 2015 Bank Street in the South Keys to Blossom Park Community Design Plan has a 'suburban feel', characterised by lower density development and wide roadways. Bank Street, south of Johnston Road, will see change and growth over time that ultimately transforms it to a denser, more compact, pedestrian-friendly area in the future.

Study Area

The study area for the South Keys to Blossom Park, Bank Street Community Design Plan (CDP) is approximately 150 ha and extends approximately 3.5 km along Bank Street. It generally developed after 1945. The Study area includes properties that abut Bank Street from the Ottawa Central Railway tracks near the Greenboro Transit station to south of Queensdale Avenue. It also includes properties on Albion Road north of Sawmill Creek, on Moutain Crescent, on Dazé Street, a small light industrial area on Sieveright Road and properties along Hunt Club Road (see Figure 1). The Study area is in Ward 10, Gloucester-Southgate, and is surrounded by the established communities of South Keys, Greenboro West, Upper Hunt Club and Blossom Park.

The urban fabric in the Study area is comprised of varying lot sizes, buildings with varied setbacks and lower densities in an automobile-oriented environment. Parking lots are often located between the buildings and the street. The predominant existing land uses include offices, box stores, strip malls, small businesses and several properties that currently accommodate apartments, townhouses or single detached-dwellings. The CDP study area captures several notable properties and physical features. These include the Greenboro and South Keys Transit Stations, South Keys Shopping Centre, Sawmill Creek, the large intersection of Bank and Hunt Club and the Jewish Memorial Gardens.

With the extension of the Trillium Line, and the natural evolution that occurs for large suburban shopping centres into denser, mixed-use nodes, the Study area may first experience development pressure around Greenboro and South Keys transit stations.

South Keys to Blossom Park, Bank Street Community Design Plan [ PDF 11.238 MB ]