Weekly newsletter: July 8, 2025
Hi everyone!
It was great to have seen and met so many familiar and new faces at Canada Day in Barrhaven. Even the Prime Minister made an appearance!
Amazon sortation facility
News articles incorrectly reference location as Fallowfield/Woodroffe. The site, at 99 Bill Leathem, is about 750 metres south of Fallowfield/Merivale.
Last Friday, Amazon publicly confirmed for the first time that they are the tenant of the future sortation facility at 99 Bill Leathem Drive, in the South Merivale Business Park.
As shared in the November 19, 2024, newsletter, Broccolini (the developer) are aiming for a construction completion timeline in 2026. The facility will become a major employer in the area.
The facility will have about 295,000 square metres (3.1 million square feet) of floor area across five storeys, though the building footprint will be about 60,715 square metres (653,500 square feet).
(Note: The newsletter from November incorrectly uses the building footprint as the floor area.)
According to the site plan, there will be 1,185 employee parking spaces, 59 loading docks, and 415 trailer parking spaces. The site also includes a stormwater retention pond at Bill Leathem/Paragon and 6,900 square metres in parkland dedication near Merivale/Leikin, likely to be a fenced dog park.
The site plan application was approved on November 26, 2024 by City staff, rather than City Council.
Provincial changes to planning legislation in 2022 means the authority to approve or deny an application is delegated to staff where the proposal conforms with existing zoning. Those changes also removed all consultative elements of the process.
However, I will be hosting a public information session, with Broccolini, the City Planner, and Amazon, to better inform residents of the development. It will also be a chance for residents to communicate their expectations of the new, large neighbour.
The details of that session are being discussed and will be shared here and on social media once available.
According to the application documents, trucks will access the site via Fallowfield and the 416 in the west and Prince of Wales and Hunt Club in the north. No truck traffic is planned to use Merivale and Prince of Wales south of the site, and no truck traffic will use the residential portion of Leikin.
Given the current legislative context, the only thing I can do is try to mitigate the development’s impacts. I am supportive of the employment it will bring, the potential community partnership, and the parkland dedication, but I know transportation is a primary concern based on the feedback I’ve received so far.
As with all development, it’s up to the City to respond to transportation impact data provided by a developer. In this case, I partly used it to successfully push for the inclusion of the widening of Prince of Wales north of Fallowfield in the Transportation Master Plan two weeks ago (with final Council approval in late-July).
Separately, I started discussions with City staff about improving the intersections of Fallowfield/Greenbank, Fallowfield/Woodroffe, and Fallowfield/Merivale before the application was active, but it ties in nicely.
Permanent signage prohibiting trucks on Leikin south of Bill Leathem will also eventually replace the construction signage currently there.
Hydro Ottawa will also repair the two road cuts south and west of the roundabout at Longfields/Bill Leathem in the coming days.
As shared earlier, once the details of the public information session are available, it will be shared here and on social media. We’re currently aiming for August, but we may host additional sessions in the autumn as well, depending on the turnout and overall interest.
The development application, along with all related documents, are available on Ottawa.ca↗.
O-Train Line 2 July service disruptions
Throughout July, the frequency of trains on Line 2 will be halved on most evenings to allow for the installation of axle bearing monitoring equipment which was recommended by the public inquiry and is required by Transport Canada.
Trains will operate every 24 minutes from 8:00 pm to the end of service on the following dates:
July 7, 8, 9 (this week)
July 14 and 15 (next week)
July 21 to 25
July 28 to August 2
Stay cool and enjoy the week ahead!
-Wilson