Council OKs controversial LRT route despite loss of 120 homes
Council has endorsed the controversial route for the Barrhaven LRT extension, with the majority of members agreeing to wipe out homes to make way for the rail infrastructure.
The city has no intention of building the $3-billion LRT extension anytime soon, since it doesn't have the money, but council's approval of the route and direction to complete the environmental assessment is the first step. The city would require all project funding from the two upper governments.
It's a Stage 3 LRT project, along with extending LRT to Kanata and Stittsville. The city isn't even halfway through building the Stage 2 O-Train extensions.
Council on Wednesday voted 18-4 in favour of the functional design of the LRT line and new road and LRT overpasses over the Via Rail line in Barrhaven.
Councillors Riley Brockington, Rawlson King, Catherine McKenney and Shawn Menard were in opposition. The four councillors were concerned about the project's impact to rental homes.
The approved corridor would run from Algonquin College to Barrhaven, first on an elevated guideway on the west side of Woodroffe Avenue as trains leave the college station. South of Hunt Club Road, the rail line will be built on 7.6 kilometres of the existing southwest Transitway. There would be seven stations, including three new ones and four converted from bus stations.
The corridor requires expropriating land that currently has 120 rental homes between Knoxdale Road and Hunt Club Road. The Manor Village community has been vocally opposed to the project taking out homes and displacing residents. Residents protested outside Mayor Jim Watson's house this week.
A working group will be struck to assess how to help residents who will be forced from their homes.
The matter is further complicated by a new property owner's plan to redevelop one of the sites in Manor Village before the city begins the Barrhaven LRT project.
“It's a discussion I'm already engaged on with the new ownership,” Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Keith Egli said.
He called for the city to develop a tenant support and assistance strategy to help displaced residents.
The city had previously considered 1005-1045 Greenbank Rd. as a future site for affordable housing, but the Barrhaven LRT project requires the land for a train storage and maintenance facility. The city will search for other suitable sites across the planned Phase 3 routes.
Council voted in favour of staff looking at a city-owned property at 40 Beechcliffe St. for the potential to build affordable housing. The site is north of Knoxdale Road near Woodroffe Avenue.
On a separate matter, council voted in support of the City of Gatineau's plan to run electrified rail into Ottawa. Both potential routes — a surface tram on Wellington Street and a tram tunnel under Sparks Street — received council's endorsement, with the tunnel identified as the “optimal corridor.”
Gatineau and the Société de transport de l'Outaouais is planning a new transit system between Aylmer and downtown Ottawa using the Portage Bridge as the interprovincial connection point.
The Wellington Street option would cost $3.032 billion, while the Sparks Street tunnel option would be between $3.532 billion and $3.899 billion.
Gatineau needs financial help from the Quebec government and the federal government to build the transit system. No City of Ottawa money would be used.
Council backed a call for a federally funded study on a transit “loop” connecting Ottawa and Hull.