Op-Ed article
Published on May 30, 2025
Sussex Blocks: A Dynamic Frame for a Dignified Street
This article is provided in response to the column titled “Sussex Drive deserves better from the NCC” (Ottawa Citizen, May 27, 2025).
The National Capital Commission (NCC) is in the process of updating its 2005 Core Area Sector Plan, a strategic planning document intended to guide the future evolution of the 9 km2 at the centre of the Nation’s Capital for the decades to come. The proposed three big moves—turn towards the water, make great spaces and create connections—are already evident in new NCC projects such as the NCC River House, Kìwekì Point, and the soon-to-be-opened Westboro Beach Pavillion.
In order to respond to the directive of our shareholder, the Government of Canada, to contribute to solving the housing crisis, we are also re-examining how NCC lands in the core of the capital can be used for housing, an approach that has the added advantage of increasing the resident population and dynamic nature of our downtown areas. One of many such sites, two blocks on Sussex Drive across the street from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and the French Embassy, is currently zoned in our 2005 plan for institutional use, with the intention that those sites will be developed for diplomatic or other public buildings.
NCC staff are proposing that these sites could instead be imagined in the revised 2025 plan for a wider variety of building uses, including for housing, but also for commercial and retail uses. Such buildings, with a height of no greater than five storeys (reflective of the New Edinburgh Heritage Conservation District and the dignity of our ceremonial route), could serve a variety of functions, including residential apartments or townhomes, offices, and ground-level services such as cafés and restaurants that integrate into the surrounding neighbourhood and workplaces. Our proposed idea would be consistent with the City of Ottawa Official Plan, which permits housing in these blocks as part of the Parliament and Confederation Boulevard Special Districts.
Interestingly, although the blocks in question are now vacant, as recently as the late 1960s, they housed apartment houses, a fire station, a hotel and various shops. In hindsight, we know that the demolition of these places, like at LeBreton Flats, was a mistake that led to too many decades of vacant lands that deprived the Capital of housing, energy and built heritage.
As part of the visioning, the NCC offered hypothetical renderings of tastefully designed and beautiful new buildings, townhomes and, in place of the current grass field, a manicured, formal landscaped garden, to match the dignity and gravitas of this highly symbolic location. The vision of the Core Area Plan is, however, only directional. To bring such an idea to fruition, a specific development plan would need to be created, complete with future public consultation.
At a time involving critical housing shortages, shared efforts to revitalize our downtown cores, and the need for boldness in building the infrastructure our country needs, the revised Core Area Plan offers a key opportunity for the NCC to contribute to the public interest while building a beautiful, dignified and inspiring Capital for all Canadians.
Alain Miguelez, Vice-President, Capital Planning, National Capital Commission