As soon as I saw the tweets flying this morning I thought WHAT NOW. Whenever someone breathes the words ASHCROFT and CONVENT in the same sentence it makes my hair stand on end in a mixture of rage and disappointment.
How is that the capital of our country can be such a political backwater? How can we be shackled by a municipal council that seemingly has no clear vision of how to keep things ticking along? How can the city I love so much be so consistently shortsighted about issues like growth, transportation and development? it boggles my mind and drives me absolutely koo-koo crazy.
It’s so f’d up I can’t even begin to describe it all. For starters, there is a document called the Community Design Plan that hundreds of people, including City of Ottawa staff, poured hundreds of hours into. And I quote: “This document is the Council approved guide to the long-term growth and development of the Richmond-Road/Westboro area. The Community Design Plan provides guidelines for the day-to-day decision-making on land use planning and sets out the community’s priorities for the future.”
The CDP makes recommendations on acceptable height and density along the Richmond Road corridor. It was adapted as a secondary plan yet it does not seem to be worth the paper it’s printed on. Residents can’t build a porch without proper permits and variants and inspections yet new condo development are ROUTINELY allowed to go above and beyond what is set out in the CDP.
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Turns out the hubbub on Twitter was in regards to an article in the Citizen about it this morning. (Online here.) It made my heart sink to see what our Councillor had to say about it. First, some backstory. I’m quoting the Citizen here :
“The idea of a special community levy to pay for a park arose out of a controversial Westboro convent redevelopment plan that most area residents oppose.
Ashcroft Homes bought the 2.25-hectare Les Soeurs de la Visitation property on Richmond Road for $12 million last year, and proposes to build a mixed-use residential and commercial complex of 600 units, including a seniors’ residence.
To assuage opponents of the development, the city floated the idea of buying about 0.6 hectares of the southern portion of the site for a park.
The idea was that people in the immediate vicinity would pay for it through a special levy, and would have four months to decide. The deadline is March 31 and any decision would have to be approved by council before that.”
How can the cost of this sliver of land be worth nearly half of what Ashcroft paid for the whole thing? They’re estimating it will cost $5 million.
The Councillor insists that people don’t want to pay a levy. I get that some people might not want to pay a levy but (a) how does she know since there hasn’t been a vote or a meeting about it and (b) is this REALLY the only way the city can control the proposed development on this unique and rare parcel of land?
The whole process for this site has been deeply flawed from the outset. When there were rumours of the land going up for sale the City should have ponied up.
I am sad to think that City may have blown it and blown it good.
(There are more photos online here. Look at the trees that will be lost.)
Did you know that this is the second largest development in the City of Ottawa? It will add over 600 residential units to an area that is already surrounded by newborn condos … each with their own set of people and parking and car woes.
I am sick and tired of the people in wider Ottawa calling us a bunch of NIMBYS, insisting that we’re moaning and groaning about a whole lot of nothing. Nothing can be further from the truth. In my view the vast majority of residents are ok with infill and development. People are not ok with getting stuck in traffic jams as they try to cross their own neighborhoods, their kids getting sideswiped as they try to walk to the (overcrowded) swimming lessons along a residential road that has no sidewalks.
To those who cry NIMBY I say this: would you want to live in the shadow of a monster and then not be able to back out of your own driveway because of the traffic pouring out of it? Would you like to lose what little greenspace is left in your neck of the woods? I think the answer would be no.
Coincidentally, someone emailed me about this yesterday, and I so I’m posting it here with her permission, along with some photos. Read on:
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