Your neighbours are building a really big house

Well bonjour, Ottawa. It’s Simone Okafor-Bouchard here, giving you the real deal on what’s moving and shaking, or *pas du tout* shaking, at City Hall. The real story is never on the Hill – it's always just off it.

Let's talk about building permits. While most of us are happy with a new shed or a fresh coat of paint, one permit really caught my eye. According to the recently issued building permits, someone in Ward 1, over at 56 Inglewood Drive, is putting up a one-storey detached dwelling valued at a cool $1,910,124. That’s not a house, that’s a *maison*! For a single-story, too. Makes you wonder what kind of amenities they're packing in there. Maybe a private skateway, eh?

Meanwhile, Ward 5 is seeing a lot of action, with a new solar panel installation on Tomken Road for nearly $90,000 and some significant interior alterations for Co-operators Insurance on Standish Court, ringing in at over $1.9 million. These are the kinds of numbers that make you think about where all this development is actually going.

On the development application front, there’s an active application for a new residential apartment building at 1970 and 1980 Fowler Drive in Ward 8. More housing is always a good thing, especially with the way rent is going these days. We’ll be watching to see how these applications move through the process and what kind of impact they’ll have on our neighbourhoods.

Simone Okafor-Bouchard, MiTL Sports Desk, Ottawa.

Join us on *Le Réveil Matin* — it's where the real conversations happen, live at mornings.live.