Ottawa approves permit to store its property at former glass factory

The city of Ottawa has its own permission to use the old Peltier Glass building for storage. Before the City Council’s vote on the conditional use permit tonight, neighbor Joann Jones said the site cleanup has been taking too long. She wanted to make sure no one else will go in, use it, and leave it a mess too.

Mayor Dan Aussem assured her, no one else is interested. And he says the city will clean up. He says the city is looking for grants for environmental cleanup to remove contaminants left over from more than a century of glass making.

It’s been a decade since glass making stopped and the Peltier site’s residential zoning took over. Victor Peltier started the glass making operation there in 1886. By the time the city adopted zoning in 1941, homes surrounded the factory. The city zoned the entire neighborhood residential and allowed glass making as a non-conforming use. As such, when the glass making business had ceased for six months or more, it would not be allowed to resume.

View of the former Peltier Glass building from the southeast

View of the former Peltier Glass building from the northwest

View of the former Peltier Glass building from the southwest