a peek inside the fishbowl

Sarah and I spent the morning distributing letters to our neighbors and collecting a few signatures for our petition. If you’re tuning in re: La Maison Jeanne D’Arc on Kenwood in Westboro here is what you need to do.

1) Read the report that will be presented to the Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee (LACAC) meeting on Thursday January 25.

The people I’ve spoken these past few weeks share many concerns. This is a short list of what my neighbors have been telling me:

– There doesn’t appear to have been any unbiased assessment of the building to see if it can be renovated and reused for some other purpose. The people who assessed the building in regards to its fitness/adaptability for reuse are the same ones who bought it from the nuns and are planning on developing it. This is a serious conflict-of-interest issue.  

– The City hasn’t taken any steps to appease local residents. There has been no real public consultation and there is little awareness of what is going on. Very few people have actually seen the developer’s plans for the area and are greatly concerned about the impact of 20 large new homes in such a small area. Why haven’t the plans been made public? How will this development affect traffic/sidewalk safety etc. ?

– many question why the building has not been given heritage designation.

 - many wonder about the the environmental effect of tearing down a building and starting from scratch.   

The overwhelming majority of local residents we have spoken to want to keep the building. There are so many creative ideas out there: retirement home/daycare/non-profit space. Ironically, the City of Ottawa needs all three. Here’s the big question: why can’t the City of Ottawa take a progressive point of view and put the building to good use?
 
2) If you’re concerned about what you read in the report and care about the future of this lovely building, please take a minute and contact the following people today:

Grant Lindsay, Manager 
Development Approvals
City of Ottawa
Tel: (613) 580-2424, 13242 
Grant.Lindsay@ottawa.ca

Douglas James
City of Ottawa Planning and Growth Management Department
110 Laurier Avenue West, 4th floor
Ottawa, ON  K1P 1J
613-580-2424, ext. 13856
facsimile:  613-580-2576
douglas.james@ottawa.ca

Christine Leadman – elected Councillor for Kitchissippi region
613-882-2489
christine@christineleadman.ca

And finally:

3) Consider joining us at the upcoming LACAC meeting.  Your opinion matters!

Thursday, 25 January 2007, 6:00 p.m.
Colonel By Room, 110 Laurier Avenue West