Official Plan is just another tall tale

Re: Council approves 65-storey tower, July 13.

Regarding Mayor Jim Watson’s comment that community design plans are not cast in stone: That is certainly an understatement.

As far as I can determine, over the past few years city council has gone overboard in discounting any community input to proposals by developers. It makes me wonder just how much influence these people hold over the planning committee. Certainly in my experience, whenever there have been plans submitted to community associations for their approval and they have gladly made suggestions or objections to proposed designs, these have been ignored by both developers and the planning committee.

Ottawa’s Official Plan seems to change with the wind. I was under the impression that when this was created and improved, it was to remain as the iconic base for the city’s future. This apparently is not the case. Planning manager Stephen Willis speaks of dealing with “outdated secondary plans” and keeping up with the “evolution of main plans.” This is a way of saying whatever a developer wants, it will get, and “evolution” is such a slippery word.

We are told that apparently the trend across Canada is toward taller buildings. So what? Why do we as a city need to follow such a trend? Has consideration been given to dealing with fires in such buildings? Has consideration been given to the fact that we lie on an earthquake fault? Why can we not have reasonably tall buildings designed with originality and elegance instead of following the trend of the usual box towers, especially when they are so close to the magnificent Canadian War Museum?

It is time we had a council with a mayor who has a sense of community designs and is willing to listen to their input. These communities have to adjust to the traffic, ugliness and lack of sunshine, among some of the results of imposing these monstrosities upon them.

Jennifer Zelmer, Ottawa

Ottawa’s Official Plan seems to change with the wind. I was under the impression that when this was created and improved, it was to remain as the iconic base for the city’s future. This apparently is not the case. Jennifer Zelmer, Ottawa

Readers are questioning city council’s approval of plans for a three-tower complex with buildings of 65, 56 and 27 storeys that exceed height restrictions for the area in the city’s Official Plan.