Councillors say yes to scooters, no to airport land

Electronic scooter rental companies have the green light from city council to operate this year.

The city will select three rental companies to operate in Ottawa from April 1 to Nov. 30, with 1,200 to 1,500 e-scooters available in central areas. An undetermined community outside the greenbelt could also offer e-scooter rentals this year.

Accessibility advocates warned councillors that the e-scooters present barriers for people if they're parked and operated on sidewalks.

E-scooters must be parked on their kickstands in the “furniture zone” of sidewalks or dedicated parking areas marked by the city.

The National Capital Commission doesn't allow e-scooters on its pathways. GPS technology powers them down when they enter forbidden zones.

Ontario allowed municipalities to run e-scooter pilot programs starting last year. The provincial pilot lasts five years, but the City of Ottawa is operating on a year-to-year basis with its own trial program.

Coun. Catherine McKenney was the only council member on Wednesday to vote against continuing the pilot project, noting the concerns about accessibility barriers.

OC Transpo will allow personal e-scooters to be guided manually onto trains starting this year. The city believes transit customers could use e-scooters, either their own or rentals, to reach O-Train stations.

Council has given staff the goahead to remove the city's property rights at the Carp airport.

The city sold the airport land in 2011. West Capital Development (WCD) now has the property and operates the small airport, but the city retained a 10-year option to reacquire some airport land.

With the 10-year deadline approaching, the city decided to waive the option and receive $4.4 million from WCD, which would have more opportunity to pursue financing for its development vision for the airport lands.

Under a revised deal with the city, WCD would transfer core airport operations back to the city if the company can't financially operate the airport over the next 40 years.

Council voted to have the company produce a performance bond for the first 20 years.

Mayor Jim Watson said “it's just common sense” for the city to get out of the airport business, as it has previously done with a golf course and an equestrian park.

West Carleton-March Coun. Eli El-Chantiry won council's support to use the initial $700,000 payment from WCD to support affordable housing, road renewal projects in the ward and rural economic development, including broadband internet.

Jumping off the topic of rural economic development, El-Chantiry also successfully lobbied council to waive fees for road cuts needed for internet service providers to install infrastructure in the rural area in 2021. The city estimates it would mean about $10,000 in lost revenue.

Coun. Jeff Leiper raised concerns about giving fee breaks to big internet companies, like Bell and Rogers, and urged the city to direct the help to smaller service providers. Staff said the city couldn't choose which companies received the fee break.