Live in Riverside South
Ottawa's fastest-growing community, built from nothing since 1996 on farmland south of the airport, and the one place outside the Greenbelt where the train arrived before the town centre did.
In the early 1990s this was vacant land with a few houses on it. The first homes of the modern community went up in 1996, the 2021 census counted 19,802 people across 28.627 square kilometres, and Wikipedia carries a projection of 24,920 by 2034. What makes Riverside South unlike the other greenfield suburbs is that it got rail. Council cancelled the north-south light rail line on 14 December 2006, the community argued for nearly two decades, and Line 2 finally opened to Limebank station on 6 January 2025. The town centre the plan puts around that station is still mostly a drawing: the secondary plan was approved on 15 May 2024, the community centre and library are in design, and the high school opened only in September 2025. Buying here means buying a place that is still being assembled, with the transit already in.
The rail arrived before the town centre, which is the opposite of how Ottawa usually does this
Leitrim Road to the north, the Rideau River to the west, and the Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport lands beyond the northern edge, with the community reached from Barrhaven over the Vimy Memorial Bridge at Earl Armstrong Road. The figures in this guide are reported for the Ottawa Neighbourhood Study unit Riverside South - Leitrim (946), which pairs this community with Leitrim to the east and does not match the census boundary for Riverside South on its own. The neighbourhood also contains the older Honey Gables pocket, first built around 1950, which predates everything around it.
In the early 1990s this was vacant land east of the Rideau with a few houses on it. The first homes of the modern community went up in 1996, and by the 2021 census there were 19,802 people across 28.627 square kilometres. One older pocket survives inside it: Honey Gables, first built around 1950 down by the river, which predates everything around it by more than forty years. The rest is a greenfield suburb still under construction, and it has been the fastest-growing corner of Ottawa for most of the past decade.
The difference between here and Barrhaven is a railway. Council cancelled the north-south light rail line on 14 December 2006, and this community spent eighteen years arguing about it. Line 2 opened to Limebank station on 6 January 2025: an elevated terminus southwest of Limebank and Earl Armstrong, with two side platforms, forty parking spaces, sheltered cycle parking and a washroom. Downtown trips change to Line 1 at Bayview or Hurdman. One stop north, Bowesville holds the big park and ride for Findlay Creek and the rural south. Barrhaven, across the river and five times larger, still has no train.
What is not built yet is most of it. Council approved the Riverside South Secondary Plan on 15 May 2024 and folded it into the Official Plan. It sets a high-density, mixed-use town centre around Limebank station with a school, a district park, a community centre and a library branch, and forecasts about 9,000 jobs, nearly 1,400 of them in the town centre. Today the community centre and library are in design and nothing has opened. There is no City pool, no arena and no library branch inside the community: the nearest of each is over the Vimy Memorial Bridge in Barrhaven, roughly eight kilometres away. Riverside South Secondary School opened only in September 2025.
The two published population figures do not agree. The Ottawa Neighbourhood Study puts the unit Riverside South - Leitrim (946) at 10,942 people on its Gen 2 estimates. The 2021 census counted 19,802 in Riverside South alone, without Leitrim. Gen 2 is now published as the historical boundary file, so the likeliest explanation is vintage rather than disagreement, and the census number is the one to work from. Wikipedia carries a projection of 24,920 by 2034. That is a projection rather than a count, and it is not the City's.
The practical position. The airport is six kilometres north, which means quick departures and, on some approaches, aircraft overhead. The Rideau River forms the western edge, and the low ground along River Road is worth looking at before an offer. Earl Armstrong and the Vimy bridge are the only direct road link to Barrhaven, so a closure there is felt immediately. On tax, this sits inside Ottawa's urban transit area and pays the highest of the three transit levies, and Ontario has deferred every reassessment since 2016, so the published rate is levied against a frozen assessment rather than a market price.
- No City pool, arena or library branch in the community. The nearest are in Barrhaven over the Vimy bridge
- Limebank is the Line 2 terminus. Downtown means a change to Line 1 at Bayview or Hurdman
- The secondary plan approved on 15 May 2024 is what the town centre gets built against. Read it
- ONS Gen 2 says 10,942 for Riverside South and Leitrim together. The 2021 census says 19,802 here alone
- The airport is six kilometres north, so check the approach paths over the street you are considering
- Earl Armstrong and the Vimy bridge are the single road link west. There is no second crossing
How Riverside South got here
- c. 1950Honey Gables is first built beside the Rideau River. It is the older pocket inside what is now Riverside South, and it predates the rest of the community by more than forty years.
- Early 1990sThe area is still mostly vacant, with a few houses on it. The Riverside South Community Design Plan is written for land that has not yet been subdivided.
- 1996The first homes of the modern community go up. Everything east of the river between Leitrim Road and the airport lands begins to fill in from here.
- 2001Amalgamation. The former City of Gloucester disappears into the new City of Ottawa, and Riverside South becomes part of it.
- 14 December 2006Council cancels the north-south light rail line that would have run here. The decision costs the city a settlement and costs this community its train for another eighteen years.
- 2014The Strandherd-Armstrong crossing, named the Vimy Memorial Bridge, opens over the Rideau River. For the first time Riverside South and Barrhaven are directly connected, and Earl Armstrong Road becomes a through route.
- 15 May 2024Council approves the Riverside South Secondary Plan and folds it into the Official Plan. It sets out a high-density, mixed-use town centre around Limebank station, with a school, a district park, a community centre and a library branch, and forecasts about 9,000 jobs, nearly 1,400 of them in the town centre.
- 2025Line 2 begins revenue service to Limebank station on 6 January, ending the community's dependence on the bus. Riverside South Secondary School opens on Spratt Road that September with about 700 students in grades 7 to 10, adding a grade a year until it runs 7 to 12 in September 2027.
A river on one edge, new parks in the middle, and no mature trees for another thirty years
The green here is organised rather than wild, and it is new. Neighbourhood parks, sports fields and stormwater ponds were built alongside the subdivisions, and a district park is part of the town centre plan around Limebank station. The real landscape is on the edges: the Rideau River along the west, with the pathway and the older tree cover at Honey Gables, and the farmland that still runs south and east. The Greenbelt starts north of the airport, with Conroy Pit the nearest of its trail networks.
What the map does not show: the parks are good and the tree canopy is not, because the trees went in with the houses. In a July heatwave that is the most noticeable difference between here and an older Ottawa neighbourhood. The nearest supervised swimming is Mooney's Bay, twenty minutes north, and it is the gap the community centre project is meant to close.
Elsewhere in Ottawa, not Riverside South
22 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 22 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are computed from a representative point near Limebank and Earl Armstrong, using straight-line distance multiplied by a road factor and a tiered speed model. Honest ranges, not routed times. Treat the Barrhaven figures as the free-flow case, because everything west of here crosses one bridge.
Every gym within reach
There is no municipal recreation complex in Riverside South, and every option below is across the Rideau in Barrhaven or Nepean. Minto Recreation Complex on Cambrian Road is the nearest, with two rinks, a pool, a gymnasium and a fitness centre. Walter Baker Sports Centre on Malvern Drive adds a second pool and the Ruth E. Dickinson library branch, and the Nepean Sportsplex is the large regional complex further north.
- One City membership covers Minto, Walter Baker, the Sportsplex and every other municipal facility
- Minor hockey and swimming lessons run out of Barrhaven, which means the bridge twice a day
- The community centre planned beside Limebank station is in design, with no opening date published
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Minto Recreation Complex, Barrhaven open | 3500 Cambrian Road: two rinks, a pool, a gymnasium and a fitness centre. The nearest City complex to Riverside South, and it is over the Vimy bridge in another community. Municipal pricing, and a City membership covers every other municipal facility. | 9–14 min |
| Walter Baker Sports Centre open | 100 Malvern Drive in Barrhaven: a pool, an arena, a gymnasium and the Ruth E. Dickinson library branch. Also across the river, and also busy, because it serves a hundred thousand people of its own. | 9–14 min |
| Nepean Sportsplex open | 1701 Woodroffe Avenue: the large regional complex with arenas, a pool and a fieldhouse, and the venue for a good share of the region's competitive sport. | 11–16 min |
| Conroy Pit open | Not a gym: the Greenbelt off-leash area on Conroy Road, with enough sand trail through pine plantation to walk for an hour. Free. | 12–18 min |
The free option is the pathway network along the Rideau River and the new neighbourhood parks, and for a longer walk, Conroy Pit in the Greenbelt.
A high school that opened in 2025, and a library branch that has not
Riverside South Secondary School at 4601 Spratt Road opened in September 2025 with about 700 students in grades 7 to 10, and adds a grade each year until it runs 7 to 12 in September 2027. Before that the only high school in the community was St. Francis Xavier Catholic High School, also on Spratt. Steve MacLean Public School and St. Jerome Catholic School are the elementaries, both built alongside the subdivisions they serve.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Riverside South Secondary School | OCDSB | 4601 Spratt Road, opened September 2025 with about 700 students in grades 7 to 10, adding a grade a year until it runs 7 to 12 in September 2027. |
| Steve MacLean Public School | OCDSB | The public elementary in the community, named for the astronaut and one of the schools built alongside the subdivisions it serves. |
| St. Francis Xavier Catholic High School | OCSB | The Catholic secondary on Spratt Road, and until 2025 the only high school inside the community. |
| St. Jerome Catholic School | OCSB | The Catholic elementary in Riverside South. |
| Ottawa Public Library, Riverside South branch | Library | Not open. The branch is part of the community centre and library project near Limebank station, which is in design. Until it opens, the nearest branches are Greenboro and Manotick. |
In the fastest-growing part of the city, catchments move and portables appear. Confirm the current assignment for a specific address with the OCDSB or the OCSB before you buy, because last year's answer is less reliable here than anywhere else in this guide. The library branch is part of the unbuilt community centre, so for now the nearest are Greenboro and Manotick.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- A daily mean of −10 °C and about 59 cm of snow in an average January
- Farmland on three sides and young street trees mean genuine drifting on Limebank, Spratt and Earl Armstrong
- The first winter test of the new commute: Line 2 to Bayview or Hurdman rather than a bus down the Airport Parkway
- Minor hockey runs out of Barrhaven because Riverside South has no arena of its own
- The coldest fortnight, and Ottawa averages about 16 nights a year below −20 °C
- Outdoor rinks appear in the neighbourhood parks when the cold holds
- The Rideau River rises along River Road and the western edge of the community
- March break, and the recreation programmes families use are all on the Barrhaven side of the bridge
- Grit and potholes on Earl Armstrong, which carries the construction traffic as well as the commuters
- The building season restarts across the town centre lands and the truck traffic comes back with it
- The Rideau peaks, and the low ground near the river is the part to look at before you buy
- The pathway network dries out and the cycling season begins
- The best cycling weeks of the year, south along River Road to Manotick and Watson's Mill
- Sports fields open, and in a community this young most of them are newer than the houses around them
- Garden season on lots where the topsoil is still settling
- Sunset near 8:50pm and the parks stay in use well past eight
- School ends, and Earl Armstrong traffic halves overnight
- Manotick's Dickinson Days runs on the first Friday and Saturday of the month, fifteen minutes south
- A July daily mean of 21.2 °C, with humidex regularly past 35
- Young street trees mean very little shade, which is the single most noticeable thing about a new subdivision in a heatwave
- The nearest supervised swimming is Mooney's Bay, twenty minutes north, and it is the community's clearest gap
- The federal government empties for the month and the trains run half full
- Peak humidity, and the busiest weeks at the Barrhaven shopping centres
- Moving season in a community where a large share of the houses are less than ten years old
- Schools, the public service and Line 2 all come back in the same week
- The best weather of the year, and the best weeks on the Rideau River pathway
- Riverside South Secondary School adds a grade each September until it runs 7 to 12 in 2027
- The farmland still surrounding the community is harvested, and the outward views change for a month
- First frost usually lands in the first half of the month
- The mature trees are all along the river at Honey Gables rather than in the new streets
- Dark before the evening train, and the walk home from Limebank is the part to try before you commit
- Snow tires go on, and out here that is not optional
- The overnight winter parking ban starts, though nearly every house has a driveway
- Ottawa takes about 232 cm of snow in an average year, and the first serious storm usually lands this month
- Earl Armstrong and the Vimy bridge approaches drift before the highways do
- The federal shutdown between Christmas and New Year gives the community its quietest fortnight
2 more photographs of the community and its surroundings
All freely licensed, via Wikimedia Commons. Filter by category.
Showing 1–2 of 2 photographs.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images geotagged in or near Riverside South, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. Inline photos elsewhere on the page may still come from the site's shared Ottawa library.