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MANOR PARK CHRONICLE
JANUARY
2007
Election 2006
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for
expressing your confidence in me once again. I pledge that I
will continue to keep you informed, partly through the
‘Chronicle’, and to work on your behalf and in the interest of
the greater public good. THANK YOU.
J’aimerais remercier tous mes commettants de m’avoir signalé
leur confiance le 13 novembre dernier. Je promets de vous tenir
au courant de l’évolution des dossiers qui vous préoccupent, en
partie par l’entremise du ‘Chronicle’, et d’œuvré pour vous
ainsi que pour le bien commun. Un grand MERCI.
The Demise of ‘this’ LRT Design – What Lessons Can Be
Learned?
Readers may be most interested in knowing how their
representative voted and why. The following is a short synopsis
of recent events:
1. Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2006 – Mayor O’Brien proposed (actually
moved by Councillors Harder & McRae) an amended LRT, removing
the problematic downtown section. That proposal, conditional on
senior government funding for the truncated system, narrowly
passed 12-11. I supported it since it removed my own objections
to the system design. Council’s decision was derided in the
daily media (partly because it was viewed as a flip-flop by the
mayor given his statements during the campaign). Personally, I
felt that it was a courageous position taken by the Mayor, now
in possession of all of the facts, to attempt to fix the major
defect of the system accepted by Council in July. The
substantial criticism however was - “how can a system, not
serving the downtown, clearly the destination of choice for most
transit riders, make better sense than a system actually
reaching downtown?”
It’s a very good question. I had voted against the full system
in July because of the way it got riders downtown and the effect
that this would have on our downtown. It proposed to do so on
the surface, adding trains to the already congested Albert &
Slater Street bus corridors. That approach was doomed to poor
performance and most certainly would have continued the abuse of
those downtown streets. Anyone familiar with the streets today
will admit that they are unpleasant ‘traffic sewers’ in our
downtown. One only has to move one block away, or even look at
the cross streets, to see the difference. The system proposed in
July would have continued to sacrifice these downtown streets,
at great expense, and still have a system susceptible to
disruptions for a host of reasons typical of busy downtowns. We
have a goal of making our core a more desirable place to live,
work and do business yet we were proposing to continue abusing
the area. It was counter-productive.
The ‘truncated’ system kept the best of the earlier system and
removed its major flaw. Of course, the North-South LRT will need
to connect to the downtown. But remember that the N-S line was
to be the first of an entire system of LRT lines serving Ottawa,
east-west as well as north-south. Those lines will also need to
get commuters to the downtown. Revisiting the downtown leg
allowed Ottawa to build on a stronger foundation for the future.
We were finally going to take a serious look at putting that
downtown link underground. There are plenty of examples of
cities that have neglected their downtowns and paid a heavy
price. We should learn from their experience.
2. Thursday, December 14, 2006 – Council reconvened to consider
whether the conditions regarding the truncated system had been
met. It was my belief that they had. The province had agreed and
the federal Treasury Board Minister, the Honourable John Baird,
had given his personal written assurance, on December 12th, in
the following terms – “I am pleased to reiterate that the
Government of Canada remains committed to providing $200 million
to the City of Ottawa for public transit infrastructure, even in
light of this new direction (i.e. excluding the downtown
portion). You have my full support.” I voted against abandoning
the LRT proposal. Council disagreed and terminated the agreement
by a vote of 13-11.
Where do we go from here and what lessons should we learn? It is
my firm belief that we had the right mass transit technology for
the future. I believe that LRT will be back with a better system
design. A future design ought to deal with our major system
bottleneck – the downtown – as a starting point. Council should
never again agree to so much secrecy surrounding a major public
works decision. Also, Council should insist on being presented
with all of the options put forward by the firms responding to a
clear ‘request for proposal’. The public, and their
representatives, ought to see all of the choices available.
100 Landry
Regrettably, City Council has now given its approval for the
development at this site in the former Vanier. The impact of
this decision will be felt throughout Ottawa, well beyond the
bounds of the ‘east end’. How so?
The decision, if allowed to stand at a presumed upcoming OMB
hearing, will mean that the City of Ottawa’s Official Plan
(Ottawa 20/20), adopted in 2003, contains a flaw that will have
major consequences for the way that Ottawa will intensify.
Make no mistake, intensification is important. It is a crucial
element of containing urban sprawl – of ‘growing in, not out’ as
the RMOC’s last Official Plan (1997) put it just prior to
amalgamation. We hear constantly about the need to control City
spending and checking tax increases, however, the economic (and
tax) benefits of properly conceived intensification are too
often ignored. Yet there is probably no more important single
factor responsible for the cost of local government, driving the
expenditure of 100’s of millions of dollars in our budget
discussions every year! We usually end up wringing our hands
over expenditures in the 10’s of millions of dollars (or less!)
and yet the really ‘big stuff’, and what has led to the need for
those costs, is given little attention and none at all once the
budget is decided.
To be very clear, intensification is the way to make Ottawa and
its quality of life affordable and keep it affordable in the
long term. The result of properly conceived intensification
ought to be a higher quality of life – public parks, public
institutions (libraries, pools) and other services become more
affordable, the Transit system and other infrastructure would be
more cost-effective, business districts more vibrant.
Effectively, everybody wins. This is what Ottawa 20/20 was
supposed to mean. It would appear, if this decision is allowed
to stand, that the sections of Ottawa 20/20,
(e.g. 2.5.1 Compatibility of Development
The City's growth management strategy includes intensification
of development in the urban area over the next 20 years ….
Introducing new development in existing areas that have
developed over a long period of time requires a sensitive
approach to differences between the new development and the
established area, in terms of building heights, setbacks, and
other characteristics. This Plan provides guidance on measures
that will mitigate these differences and help achieve
compatibility of form and function. – emphasis added)
intended to put some constraints on intensification, are not
stated with sufficient strength or clarity. I fear that this
approach to unconstrained intensification will eventually drive
us to abandon the concept entirely. What ought to happen is that
a clearer and more reasonable definition of intensification
needs to be incorporated within our Official Plan. It appears
that someone in our planning department has finally been tasked
to examine this question.
I encourage my constituents and all citizens of Ottawa to think
on the issue because it is so very important that we arrive at a
collective acceptance of the limits of a reasoned approach
before it is too late.
CFB Rockcliffe
The appropriate redevelopment of CFB Rockcliffe, by far the
largest parcel of land within the urban core, is certainly
driving some of my pre-occupation with getting ‘intensification’
right. Canada Lands Corporation (CLC), the crown agency charged
with developing an urban renewal plan for the site, held its
second open house and public consultation session on November
29th. Estimates are that some 750 attended. I remind my
constituents that they may wish to consult
www.rideau-rockcliffe.com or CLC’s web-site (www.clc.ca) for
updates on this issue.
Season's Greetings
I take this opportunity, on behalf of my family and myself, to
extend to all, Best Wishes for Health, Prosperity and Personal
Serenity in 2007.
Meilleurs vœux
Je profite de cette occasion pour vous souhaiter mes meilleurs
vœux pour une année de santé, prospérité et sérénité.
Jacques Legendre
Councillor, Rideau-Rockcliffe
You can communicate with me at (please include a telephone
number):
City of Ottawa
110 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa ON K1P 1J1
Tel: 580-2483, Fax: 580-2523
E-mail: jacques.legendre@ottawa.ca
Web Site: www.rideau-rockcliffe.com
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