Ottawa West News, By Adam Kvetion

A developer’s proposal for an “upscale coffee house” with a drive-thru is getting a firm no from the community and the local councillor, Jeff Leiper.

However, the idea of adapting the unused heritage building at the southwest corner of Island Park Drive and Richmond Road into some kind of restaurant is something he and the community could get behind, Leiper said.

The building has served as a gas station and used car sales centre in the past.

It’s the traffic issues a drive-thru could cause that’s the major issue, said Leiper.

“It would be a traffic gong-show,” he said.

“The community has responded actually fairly well to the proposal to put some kind of a restaurant use in there. I think we are all kind of excited about the notion of having that terrace out front. It could be a really lovely spot.

“But there has been fast and furious objections that I completely share against putting a drive-thru at the corner of Island Park and Richmond Road,” said Leiper.

The site is currently zoned as a traditional mainstreet, which does not permit drive-thru facilities, said the city’s notice about the proposal.

“Our goal for the entire Somerset, Wellington, Richmond strip is to make it a walk-able, inviting pedestrian and cycling environment,” said Leiper.

However, that vision is already muddied at Island Park Drive, which Leiper said “is approaching being a failed intersection for the traffic that is moving north-south between the interprovincial bridge and the Queensway.”

A drive-thru would only make things worse, he said.

“Inviting hundreds of cars an hour into the neighbourhood, increasing congestion, having cars idling and – maybe most important – the cars going back and forth across our sidewalks, really does nothing to make it an inviting pedestrian environment,” he said.

However, the rest of the developer’s plan, which includes a 65-square-metre addition to the building – making it 170 square metres total – seems like a pretty good idea, Leiper said.

“It looks like they’ve put a lot of thought into making that addition sensitive to the heritage gas station,” he said.

The city’s planning committee plans to make a decision on the application on June 14, though Leiper said he thinks city staff will recommend against the proposal, and that council will ultimately reject it.

But that doesn’t mean the site will remain unused, he said.

“I am absolutely confident that something will go in and I am patient enough to wait for that appropriate use to be proposed.”

To submit comments on the application, contact city planner Andrew McCreight at 613-580-2424, ext. 22568 or by email at andrew.mccreight@ottawa.ca.