Hundreds from outside city among 8,000 comments on Flats plans

Nearly 8,000 Canadians provided written feedback on two redevelopment proposals for LeBreton Flats during nearly two weeks of public consultations that ended at midnight Monday.

The National Capital Commission disclosed the final tally in a news release Tuesday. In all, 7,939 Canadians responded to an online questionnaire posted by the NCC between Jan. 26 and Feb. 8.

More than eight in 10 of the respondents were from the National Capital Region, with the rest from other parts of Canada, the NCC said.

In addition, more than 3,000 people attended the LeBreton Flats open house and presentations at the Canadian War Museum or via webcast, and there were about 11,600 interactions on social media.

“The high level of civic engagement and serious debate on the redevelopment of LeBreton Flats will help guide this historic project to a successful conclusion,” said Mark Kristmanson, the NCC’s chief executive.

A report summarizing the public input will be provided to a com- mittee that will spend the next few weeks evaluating the competing proposals from the Devcore Canderel DLS Group and the Rendez-Vous LeBreton Group.

The NCC revealed the full composition of the committee Tuesday. It includes Kristmanson; architect A.J. Diamond; land economist and planner Mark Conway; and two senior NCC executives: Stephen Willis, executive director of capital planning, and Marco Zanetti, director of real estate transactions and development.

The evaluation committee will get advice from more than 20 subject matter experts from the NCC, the City of Ottawa, the private sector and academia.

It will present its findings and recommendations to the NCC’s board of directors this spring, triggering months of negotiations aimed at reaching an agreement on the future development of 21.6 hectares of land at LeBreton Flats.

The NCC said there will more opportunities for public engagement and input as the project advances.