City files re-zoning application for Ottawa Hospital Civic campus

The city has filed an application to re-zone five hectares of land on the Central Experimental Farm to be used for the future Civic campus of the Ottawa Hospital.

In a filing on Friday, the city said it wants to amend the Official Plan to re-designate the parcel of land from "agricultural research area" to "general urban area" and relinquish the green space from the farm.

If approved by city council, it would pave the way for the next step in construction of the $2-billion facility.

The hospital is ironing out these land-use details and identifying the health needs of the community before it begins designing the new Civic campus, according to the filing.

New site to be close to LRT station

The city noted that "due to the city wide draw" for facilities like hospitals, the new Civic campus needs to be located near arterial roads and rapid transit stations. The future hospital site will be within 100 metres of the Trillium Line's Carling LRT station.

The federal government announced last December it would make the old Sir JohnCarlingsite available for the new Civic.

Building a new hospital on the agricultural lands has been a thorny issue for the city ever since the previous Conservative government offered 24 hectares of land across the street from the current location. The new Liberal government asked to reassess the location before eventually settling onthe northeast corner of the experimental farm.

Since the federal government announced the new location, this new filing Friday is one of the first steps the city has taken to get the project moving ahead.

• Civic hospital land transfer begins with OK from NCC

In April, the board of the National Capital Commissionapproved transferring the land from the NCC and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to Public Services and Procurement Canada. The vote, however, wasn't unanimous as some members were concerned about the process of decontaminating the land, the number of parking spaces, and other issues.

The NCC included a condition to ensurethe hospitalsets aside parking for 200 vehicles and seven tour buses for visitors to Commissioners Park, the Rideau Canal andDow's Lake pavilion, even if that parking moves fromits current location.