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The proposal for 339 Cumberland St. requires a zoning bylaw amendment. The maximum height allowed currently at the site is 18 metres, but Yateman wants to build up to 33 metres.

He also wants to reduce the required distance between the building and the street.

The building would have shops or a restaurant on the ground floor, eight storeys of residential units, each one averaging about 400 square feet, and a rooftop terrace.

As for parking, Yateman said the company will have a car lot outside of the core for residents who own cars or for visitors, and the building would have some kind of chauffeur service to take people to and from their cars.

He’d also like to work with the car-sharing company Vrtucar to explore the possibility of adding some more vehicles to the neighbourhood.

The units would be priced between $179,000 and $199,000, and be targeted at well-educated professionals who are highly mobile and connected and want to be close to restaurants and shops in the ByWard Market area, he said.

Yateman said the car-free aspect of the proposed building is its most important environmental feature. He’ll aim to match LEED criteria, a green-building certification, but is not seeking such a designation.

Some concerns have been raised about the lack of visitor parking and the request for more height, but Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury said he welcomes the proposal.

“I think it’s important for our city to test the real estate market,” he said. “For us, it’d be a first, but I’m sure it won’t be the last.”

One possible solution to the visitor parking issue would be for the developer and the city to reach an agreement that would designate some spaces in the city-owned lot at Dalhousie and Clarence for the building’s exclusive use, Fleury said.

mpearson@ottawacitizen.com

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