The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 57

Pages D1-D24 Classified 1 Comics The Citizen, Ottawa, Saturday, September 29, Trendy neighborhood has Rockcliffe ambience without the taxes By Kathleen Walker Assistant living editor It's the best-kept secret in Ottawa. A tiny pocket of meandering English country lanes, ivy-covered brick or stucco homes and a generous supply of park land. It has all the advantages of Rockcliffe without the village taxes. It has more trees, a more peaceful ambience and is less relentlessly trendy than New Edinburgh. And it's a stone's throw from Beechwood Village, where the In crowd gathers Saturday morning at Jolicoeur Home Hardware for nails and a gossip before dropping off their Polos for cleaning at Mon-son's, stocking up on extra virgin olive oil and Dijon mustard at at Joanisse IGA, and sailing into Pa- quettes for lamb and Italian plum tomatoes.

Those who live in Lindenlea wouldn't think of looking elsewhere. They love the design of the neighborhood, the mix of age groups, the fact that their kids can play quietly in the streets without worrying about traffic, and the area's proximity to downtown. Bordered by HUH II t. 't 'rrv "tesr Vi I I I Bruno Schlumberger, Citizen 1' L'TW'l tifr Shaded area is Lindenlea Above: Street scene in Lindenlea 2 Vl, XjrY 1 Above: Renovated kitchen of the Upper Lindenlea home once occupied by Joe Clark family I oft ipw frnm thp rnnftnn narHpn IT: JSJ Above: Small statue in laneway entrance to Springfield Mews Below: The solarium at Esther and Jerry Waring's Springfield Mews home rirj of Donna Thacker's Springfield r-J Mews home Maple Lane, Acacia Avenue, Beechwood and Springfield Road, Lindenlea is two distinct parts that are sometimes called Upper and Lower. The dividing line is Rideau Terrace.

Upper Lindenlea, a 22-acre site, was bought by the Ottawa Housing Commission just after the First World War for $66,000. The commission's objective was a development of small houses suitable for war veterans and others of modest means. The development plan, one of the first examples of planned residential development in Canada, was conceived by Thomas Adams, who was town planning adviser to the Federal Commission of Conservation. With the exception of Rockcliffe Way, which is 66 feet wide, all streets were designed to be no wider than 20 feet. And the street pattern is not the popular grid form; streets curve, run diagonally across the site and, in one case, dead end.

And all lead to the focal point of upper Lindenlea, the community centre at the top of hill. Since original lot prices were not to exceed $600, the 168 lots in the development are small; the average size, says realtor Bob Eberts, who's sold 46 homes in Lindenlea in the past eight years, is 40 by 85 feet. "Residents don't mind small lots because there's almost five acres of open space and the street layout is so nice. In Lindenlea, children can play in the street without worrying about traffic," says Eberts. In keeping with lot sizes, the original houses were small 1,000 sq.

ft. and basic in layout. Most of the hip-roofed houses have side entrances, a small living room at the front and a dining room immediately behind. The kitchen, says one former resident, was minuscule and awkward with four doors, a window, and less than four feet of counter space. Two of the second-floor bedrooms were modest and the third was pocket-sized.

But that was 60 years ago. Today most Lindenlea homes have additions, some as large as the original house. "The value of the real estate in Lindenlea is so sound," says Eberts, "that residents can make real improvements to their homes and know they'll get their money back." Current prices reflect Lindenlea's growing popularity. On average only four to five houses go on the market each year. Eberts says the few unrenovated houses sell for between $100,000 and $110,000.

"Two that needed work recently sold for $103,000 and $110,000," he says. "Eight years ago, the basic Lindenlea house fetched between $40,000 and $50,000." Put on an addition, and prices climb. One house recently sold for around $150,000. And another on Rockcliffe Way, which was once briefly occupied by Joe Clark before he assumed the leadership of the Tory party, is selling for $185,000. It has not only a living room addition but a redesigned kitchen and dining room that take up the entire ground floor of the original house.

The surprise sale early this year was a home on Elmdale Lane that went for $300,000. But Eberts says the price wasn't out of line. "It's a newly constructed house with 3,000 square feet of living space. The rooms are spacious and there is a main floor family room, which people with children are dying to have and which most older homes don't provide. If you build a new home at $70 a square foot, you're looking at $210,000 for the house plus another $100,000 for the lot." Eberts says Lindenlea has several houses that would bring similar prices if they went on the market.

"But newly renovated homes are rarely put up for sale," he says. "People in Lindenlea renovate their homes to live in them, not to sell." When Springfield Mews is completed in 1986 there will be 120 units in eight different phases. In keeping with his philosophy of building low-rise, human-scaled housing, with each unit having as much exterior private space as possible within a medium-density urban environment, Johns has kept common or shared space to a minimum. Lanes are workable but never boring; flower pots line brick walls, small statues on pedestals not only control traffic but add visual interest and lily ponds at the end of cul-de-sacs act as snow collectors in winter. The mood in this miniature village is European and cosy a sense of neighborliness that's been enhanced by the Birdcage, the new pub open for residents and guests only.

El Pinar, a small, 30-seat restaurant, is planned for the last phase of low-rise apartments along Rideau Terrace. Phase I of the Mews consisted of 20 units ranging from 1,800 to 2,100 square feet. Originally priced from $85,000 to $150,000, only one has resold for $25,000 more than the owner paid. Phase II consists of 18 stacked units that average 1,500 square feet. Prices started at $113,000 and went up depending on what extras the owner wished to include, says Johns.

The third phase, now almost complete, has 20 units ranging from pied a terres of 800 square feet to larger units with 1,800 square feet. Prices are $105,000 to $215,000. Phase IV, due to start construction this week, will have 11 two and three bedroom units ranging in size from 900 to 2,400 square feet. Prices, says Johns, start at $115,000 and climb to $225,000. Next year Johns expects to start on two of the last four phases of Springfield Mews: four apartment buildings with 48 units, each averaging 1,800 square feet and selling for between $120,000 and $250,000.

There will also be another unexpected Ian Johns touch. When he discovered the annual common area lawn maintenance cost amounted to $5,000, he decided to buy two or three sheep. "They're considerably cheaper and will be contained within the mews by either walls or by a Texas gate at the Springfield Road entrance. A few refineries near Toronto keep sheep around the tanks to avoid any possibility of sparks setting off an explosion," he says. But Springfield Mews is not the only new development in the area.

At Rideau Terrace and Springfield, just outside Lindenlea's boundaries, John Doran of Domicile and Don Stewart, president of Victoria Island Realty, have an option on a chunk of land owned by the Sisters of Charity. They're proposing to build a mix of doubles, stacked townhouses and apartment buildings with a total of 141 units. Ottawa architect Barry Hobin will design the development, says Doran. In contrast to the planned beauty of upper Lindenlea, the area south of Rideau Terrace is a melange of boxy 1950s brick apartments, a few good-sized brick or stucco homes, and more modest houses, many covered in aluminium siding or Insulbrick. But in the last year, the white-painters have arrived, thanks primarily to the area's largest development, Springfield Mews.

The four-acre site was purchased by Ian Johns of Hab-Com from Campeau Corp. In 1982. Campeau had received site-plan approval from Ottawa to build two 22-storey apartment buildings with a total of 420 units. jlThe White House as a place to live: the real estate factor in U.S. election By John Betz Angeles Times lease on the White House, one of this city's oldest federal buildings.

It was rebuilt after being burned by the British in 1814. Is the White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. really a great place to live? Millions of visitors each year from Maine to Southern California know It's quite Imposing. Security is excellent and it has an unrivaled location on 18 gorgeous landscaped acres just north of the Potomac River and the famed Lincoln and Jefferson memori als. There's also a beautiful church and a fine old hotel just a step across Pennsylvania Avenue.

And the U.S. Treasury is next door, The White House has a large private living area on several floors for the president and his family and visitors. And the famous East Room (for major entertaining and state dinners) Is 40 by 82 feet. That's twice as large as the total square footage in the average American house, which is about 1,600 square feet. It also has some disadvantages, like being on a busy street, having little privacy from both visitors and the press and being only three blocks from one of the seediest porno districts of Washington.

If he should lose his option on the White House, Ronald Reagan will not be out on the street. He and Nancy still own that famous 688-acre ranch west of Santa Barbara, where they spent an August vacation. Their Rancho del Cielo has red draperies and Mexican- cial cachet for unpretentious Washington notables, doesn't quite have the clout of the White House. Mondale's running mate, Ge-raldlne Ferraro has had a rented apartment on Capitol Hill while serving in Congress. The family home for Ferraro and husband John Zaccaro is in a nice dwelling in the fashionable Forest Hills area of Queens, New York City.

They have a vacation home and four adjacent vacant lots on Fire Island American furnishings and a realty tax bill of about $2,000 a year. It's no White House. But it has more privacy, and Ron and Nancy like it. Why are Fritz and Joan Mon-dale so anxious to forsake their friendly Cleveland Park neighborhood in Washington and that large but unpretentious frame house in North Oaks, where they raised their three children? Cleveland Park, even though it was named for a former president who summered there and still has a spe WASHINGTON One nice thing about being president of -the United States is that you can walk to work without going the roof under which slept. From a residential real estate viewpoint, Ronald Reagan like most other U.S.

president before him recognizes that he has had a great place to live for the last four years. Naturally, he wants another four-year.