Protect Ottawa’s residential streets
The City of Ottawa has moved swiftly to promote intensification, targeting areas near rapid transit to manage growth in a sustainable way. The communities around Little Italy will be next to witness their skyline punctured by towering condos; almost too many to count. Except that when you do stop to count, the heights and numbers are staggering and surpass targets set to be achieved decades from now.
In the Preston-Carling District, new towers ranging from 10 to nearly 50 storeys tall will create thousands of new units that will be home to as many as 10,000 people — and their cars. This is where the rubber hits the road. Literally. Because consistent with common sense and contrary to developers’ promises, when all is said and done, there will be an impact on traffic.
Condo dwellers, and the developers who stand to reap the rewards, are flocking to Little Italy for precisely the same reasons as the families who live on the mature residential streets next door. Its central location, eclectic mix of shops, services and restaurants, and close access to green space, parks, bicycle paths and water are, quite simply, unique.
An influx of new residents will be a new source of richness for the community — bustling sidewalks are good for the soul and local merchants alike. And without a doubt, this level of density will demand more green space, a sought-after public good. With so many people, Little Italy might even finally attract its own local grocer.
But now, at the eleventh hour, the city is working with consultants to figure out how all these new people — that is, cars — will move through the area. Communities directly impacted by such developments find themselves once again trying to elbow their way into the planning process to determine how they figure into the grand vision fashioned by developers and consultants leading the charge for the area.
Controversy has recently erupted over the Preston-Carling Public Realm & Mobility Study, which was initially silent on the subject of Bayswater Avenue. Without explanation, the study was revised after the initial round of focus group meetings to include a recommendation that Bayswater Avenue — home to 50 kids and a route to school for many more — be turned into a collector road. According to the consultants, Bayswater Avenue will and should move traffic.
These are not mere words. Contrary to reassurances that such a designation would not result in a wider street with more lanes, the study specifically says that the roads would be rebuilt. And while residents welcome the invitation to work with the city to divert vehicles and calm traffic, such initiatives are fundamentally at odds with the stated purpose of re-designating the Bayswater — to move traffic.
Neighbours on Bayswater quickly joined forces to unanimously oppose the proposal to re-designate Bayswater Avenue and have made this view known to the city planner, Councillor Katherine Hobbs and Mayor Jim Watson. In response, Hobbs has acknowledged that intensification cannot come at the expense of the desirability or livability of the established communities. This recognition is welcome and, frankly, long overdue.
The councillor has also called for the removal of the proposal from the Preston-Carling Study. This is an excellent first step, but provides no guarantee given that there are five different Community Design Plans under development in the immediate area. In fact, Bayswater was already identified as a “collector” on the Scott Street CDP presented by the city to Hintonburg residents on Nov. 13. Fortunately neighbouring communities are working together to bridge the gap created by a consultation process that is either tragically flawed or deliberately shrewd — note three related consultations are scheduled for Dec. 3.
The bottom line is that intensification needs to occur in a way that takes communities with it, which requires meaningful consultation. Unfortunately, this basic precept has escaped all those in the planning process, notwithstanding repeated interventions by neighbourhood associations and members of the community.
Bayswater is a residential street, and our home. The safe, family-oriented streets that anchor our thriving urban communities do not have to become thoroughfares. It would be cheap and easy for the city to flip the switch and use Bayswater as a rapid north-south route, never mind the hundreds of kids, cyclists, pedestrians and dog-walkers. But there are always alternatives. Those who had the vision to usher in a majestic new skyline for Little Italy must also have the vision to include residents as the community seeks to blend the old with the new. Bayswater Avenue, and streets just like it, should not be targeted as a conveyor for cars but rather developed in a manner that respects the families who came to live here.