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Good morning!

I recently came across an older photo of Ottawa and was stunned by how much the skyline has changed. What surprised me even more was realizing the picture was taken less than 20 years ago.

Crane-filled skylines, high-rise towers and sprawling suburban communities have become the new normal across Ottawa as the city experiences one of its biggest building booms in decades. Over the next few decades, the city’s population is expected to grow by half to 1.5 million residents. That means a lot of new units are needed to house the future residents. 

In recent months, there has been no shortage of major development applications coming forward. Westboro and Wellington West continue to see new mixed-use projects proposed almost weekly. Downtown, older buildings are increasingly being demolished to make way for taller density. Meanwhile, the east end is experiencing a wave of growth around Petrie Island, Orléans and future light-rail corridors.

Last week, plans were unveiled for a new commercial plaza in Orléans South that would include a grocery store and additional retail space. But alongside excitement about new amenities came renewed concerns about traffic congestion, recreation facilities, transit and whether infrastructure investments are keeping pace with the rapid growth happening in Ottawa’s east end.

I sat down with Orléans South-Navan Coun. Catherine Kitts to discuss where some of the community’s biggest projects stand and why the Cumberland BRT remains decades behind schedule. 

Let’s get to it!

— Charlie Senack, Ottawa Lookout managing editor

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WEATHER

Monday: 11 🌡️ 2 | 🌧️

Tuesday: 14 🌡️ 3 | ☁️

Wednesday: 9 🌡️ 7 | 🌧️

By Charlie Senack. Read the story online here.

A long-awaited commercial development could soon bring a grocery store and other retail amenities to a rapidly growing neighbourhood in Orléans, and while the news has been well-received by the community, residents are also pushing for more investment to keep up with intensification. 

A Site Plan Control application has been submitted to the City of Ottawa for 226 Mer Bleue Rd., at the corner of Brian Coburn Boulevard and Mer Bleue Road. The proposal would see a new multi-building commercial plaza constructed in two phases as part of Richcraft’s ongoing Trailsedge development.

According to documents released by Orléans South-Navan Coun. Catherine Kitts, the project would include approximately 8,757 square metres of commercial space, including a grocery store, anchor retail and smaller shops and restaurants.

Phase 1 would include the grocery store and anchor retail uses, totalling roughly 5,256 square metres, while a second phase would add another 3,501 square metres of retail and commercial space.

For many residents in Orléans South, the project represents more than just another shopping plaza. It is being viewed as one of the first major steps toward creating what planners often refer to as a “complete community”. 

Kitts told the Ottawa Lookout she was pleased to see commercial space integrated directly into a newer subdivision.

“With this development, I was pleased to see that there was a commercial component at a corner where there’s not really anything close by that people can walk to,” said Kitts. “We don’t know who the grocer is going to be yet, but it also looks like some spaces for restaurant-type amenities, perhaps a cafe.”

The proposal is also being welcomed by local business leaders, who say the growth underway in Orléans is helping change perceptions of the east-end community.

“The rise in development across Orléans is a strong sign of confidence in the future of our community,” said Tannis Vine, executive director of the Heart of Orléans BIA, in a statement. “We are seeing increased investment, new businesses, residential growth, and expanded amenities that are helping transform Orléans into one of Ottawa’s most dynamic and economically important districts.”

Vine said that momentum aligns with the BIA’s #WhyNotOrléans movement, which aims to encourage people to view Orléans as more than a suburb.

“It is a destination for business, culture, dining, entertainment, and innovation,” she said. “As development continues, we have an opportunity to intentionally shape a community that is connected, welcoming, and economically resilient while maintaining the unique character that residents and businesses value.”

Kitts noted the proposal comes as Orléans South continues to experience some of the fastest residential growth in Ottawa.

“It’s mainly greenfield development,” she said. “The density that South Orléans is built at is much higher than the northern part of Orléans, where I grew up, where the lots are bigger. There’s a lot of townhomes, stacked towns and low-rise apartment buildings.”

But with that density, Kitts says the city has failed to deliver the transportation and community infrastructure needed to support it.

“You need the whole package,” she said. “You need the mobility options. You need the transit, the walkability, the amenities. We are flush with parks, but we are missing some of the ingredients that make a complete community.”

That concern was echoed online after the plaza announcement, where some residents raised fears about worsening traffic congestion around Brian Coburn Boulevard and Mer Bleue Road.

They’re frustrations that Kitts echoed, arguing that infrastructure has not kept up with growth in Orléans South.

“Our housing density has really outpaced the infrastructure required to support it,” she said. “There’s a chronic underinvestment in the east end when it comes to road infrastructure.”

The councillor said she exposed those gaps through a city inquiry conducted last year, which compared road-related investments in Ottawa’s east end to other suburban growth communities.

“It proved to the tune of over $100 million that we had received over $100 million less than comparable growth communities like Barrhaven and the west end,” she said.

Kitts said that data became a major part of her advocacy during the city’s Transportation Master Plan update approved last year. It sets a roadmap for which transit-related projects should take priority over the next two decades. 

One project that is now one step closer to moving forward is the long-discussed widening of Brian Coburn Boulevard between Navan Road and Mer Bleue Road. The project was elevated into the city’s priority infrastructure list through Ottawa’s updated Transportation Master Plan.

Kitts said the redesign would transform Brian Coburn into a “complete street,” adding additional road capacity while also incorporating transit priority measures and segregated multi-use pathways for pedestrians and cyclists.

“It would unlock capacity for the buses that are plagued by chronic reliability issues due to congestion,” she said.

The city has already begun design work on the project, though Kitts expressed frustration at how long municipal infrastructure timelines continue to take. The design phase currently takes two or three years, she said.

Recently, Kitts successfully passed a motion at a joint committee calling on city staff to rethink how Ottawa delivers major infrastructure projects in rapidly growing communities. The motion asks staff to review how approvals, design and procurement processes could be streamlined so infrastructure delivery better aligns with housing construction.

“We need to better align how fast we’re moving on the housing side of things to what we’re seeing on the infrastructure side,” she said.

Beyond road widening projects, Kitts said one of the most important transportation files for Orléans South remains the long-promised Cumberland Bus Rapid Transit corridor — a project that has existed on city planning maps for decades but has never advanced into construction.

“The plans have literally been around since I was nine years old,” she said.

The Cumberland Transitway was first approved through environmental assessments in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The corridor would run through Orléans South largely along an existing hydro corridor stretching east-west through the community.

Kitts said the transitway has long been used as the planning justification for allowing higher-density housing developments throughout South Orléans.

“Developers have been able to rationalize to planners that there should be higher density here because there’s going to be future transit,” she said. “But if the transit never gets built, then you’re in the situation that we’re in now, where congestion has taken over because people don’t have reliable alternative options.”

She described the situation as an “emperor has no clothes” problem, where communities were designed around future transit that still does not exist decades later.

Under Ottawa’s updated Transportation Master Plan, the Cumberland BRT corridor was ranked as the city’s second-highest transit infrastructure priority behind only the Baseline BRT project in the west end.

The city has also submitted the project to the federal Canada Public Transit Fund seeking funding for the design phase — a move Kitts says could finally push the corridor out of “no man’s land.”

The project would eventually connect to Ottawa’s expanding east-end rail network, which is currently nearing completion through the Stage 2 O-Train extension to Trim Road. The eastern rail extension will add new stations at Jeanne d’Arc, Convent Glen, Place d’Orléans and Trim.

Kitts argues that future suburban growth should increasingly focus on those transit corridors rather than continuing to sprawl outward into newer suburban communities.

“We need to be building transit-oriented development near the LRT stations,” she said. “I don’t think these far-flung suburbs like South Orléans, parts of Barrhaven and Stittsville can continue to carry the city in terms of growth.”

Transportation is not the only area where residents say Orléans South is falling behind. Kitts acknowledged residents are also pushing for more recreation infrastructure, including a community centre, library and swimming pool.

The city’s Parks and Recreation Master Plan already identifies that South Orléans requires a future community centre, but the project has been complicated by the stalled Eastboro subdivision development.

The project, previously owned by Ashcroft Homes, entered receivership after running into servicing challenges involving water and sewer infrastructure. Kitts said the city is waiting for someone to purchase the large parcel before restarting the process. 

While that uncertainty has delayed long-term recreation planning, Kitts said some projects are still moving ahead.

A large new district park is planned beside the François Dupuis Recreation Centre, while discussions are continuing around a possible future library expansion near the recreation complex.

While progress is happening, Kitts said it should have come much faster. She believes that since amalgamation in 2001, the east end has been overlooked for improvements that benefit western suburbs like Barrhaven, Kanata and Stittsville. 

That provoked Kitt’s colleague Matthew Luloff, Orléans East-Cumberland councillor, to be one of just a few councillors who voted against the 2026 city budget. Kitts voted in favour and said there has been some progress, but she’s still pushing for more. 

She said she believes much of the problem stems from the city’s previous Transportation Master Plan approved in 2013, which failed to prioritize many Orléans South transportation projects despite rapid suburban expansion already occurring in the area.

The Transportation Master Plan update itself was delayed for years because the city was unable to complete major travel-pattern studies during the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing off new infrastructure planning even as development accelerated.

Kitts said she spent much of the last several years organizing residents and pushing city staff to recognize the scale of the mobility challenges facing Orléans South.

While she believes the city is now beginning to respond, Kitts said Orléans remains in a difficult position where population growth continues to outpace infrastructure delivery.

“We’re behind already,” she said. “And by the time these shovels get in the ground, there’s going to be that many more units built. So it feels like we’re constantly playing catch-up.”

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A Business Improvement Area (BIA) is more than a network of local businesses. It reflects the neighbourhood it serves. When a BIA is active and thriving, it signals a vibrant, connected community where people take pride in where they live, shop, gather, and even sing and dance.

BIAs support local businesses and communities through promotion, events, and improvements to shared spaces. This helps create main streets that are welcoming, safe, and full of life. Strong BIAs also build relationships with residents and community partners, listening and responding to local needs.

The result is a symbiotic relationship. When businesses succeed, they bring energy, jobs, and services that benefit residents. When residents support local and take part in community life, businesses grow.

A thriving BIA and a vibrant neighbourhood go hand in hand, each strengthening the other, and vice versa.

Learn more at OCOBIA.org

14 million

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