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A city councillor accused the planning committee on Tuesday of killing the “goose that laid the golden egg” for approving an eight-storey seniors’ residence on Bank Street in the Glebe, an iconic Ottawa mainstreet characterized by shorter buildings and a mix of shops and restaurants.

Capital Coun. David Chernushenko told committee members the biggest problem he and other opponents have with the proposal from partners Canderel-Amica is the “steady march” of building height and mass on mainstreets “we feared would happen but were over and over assured wouldn’t.”

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“It would be the kind of fundamental change that would have people saying, ‘Yeah, I used to go the Glebe ’cause it had that kind of funky atmosphere, but I don’t go there anymore because it doesn’t have that anymore. It’s not actually a traditional mainstreet. It used to be but it’s not,” he told the committee.

“That’s what this project represents to me.”