Students have a Pinecrest Creek plan

Plan would close part of the parkway, restore the creek and add parkland

Twelve graduating architecture students at Carleton University have come up with an ambitious proposal for a new park around a restored Pinecrest Creek, a partly buried waterway that empties into the Ottawa River near Mud Lake in the city’s west end.

The plan, which has no official status, presents a strategy for what the students’ instructor, Brigitte Desrochers, calls “one of the most interesting and least-discussed land parcels that’s left for development” in Ottawa.

Among other things, the plan would take the National Capital Commission’s idea of potentially eliminating two lanes of the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway west of Island Park Drive a major step further.

The lane reduction is one option for a future linear park the NCC is planning along the river. The agency wrapped up a survey seeking public comment just last week, but has yet to release the results.

The students’ plan adopts the idea of reducing the parkway to two lanes, but would end it at Woodroffe Avenue and convert the section between Woodroffe and Carling Avenue into parkland.

The Woodroffe-Carling stretch of the parkway “pours commuter car traffic in and out of Carling, an unnecessary ordeal with the coming of (light rail transit),” the students say.

“This stretch is most problematic, because it overpowers the meeting of the creek with the Ottawa riverfront. An emblematic statement can hardly be created without removing this stretch of asphalt.”

The plan would also strike “a different balance” between nature, people and cars on Richmond Road and Carling Avenue by reducing the number of traffic lanes, broadening sidewalks and adding trees, swales and dedicated bike lanes.

The students say the traffic changes, revived creek and new park would be a catalyst for the renaissance of the surrounding neighbourhood of highrise apartments and single-family homes, largely developed in the 1950s and 1960s and now stagnating.

Desrochers says the area’s demographics offer “the perfect picture” of Canada’s major public policy issues.

Seniors make up 30 per cent of the population, 43 per cent of residents live alone, more than half reside in highrises and one-third of the community’s children are from low-income families.

Bringing the creek back to health is the cornerstone of the students’ plan. Its ability to absorb and filter rainwater has been crippled because a kilometre-long stretch of the creek has been buried and its watershed has been largely sealed off by concrete and asphalt, they say.

The surrounding park will be developed to better support human, animal and plant life, transforming the area from a transportation corridor for cars, buses and bicycles to an area of segregated pathways for low-speed cyclists, cross-country skiers, pedestrians and people in wheelchairs.

“It will become a good place to slow down and linger,” the students say.

At the edge of the Ottawa River, the students propose a boardwalk with shade, easy chairs, pools and splash pads, akin to urban beaches in Paris, New York and Copenhagen.

Instead of ending the boardwalk at Mud Lake, the students propose to veer it along the creek to entice visitors to explore the new park. Viewing platforms, cafés and “welcoming ramps” at Richmond and Carling would add to the park’s visibility and accessibility.

Other features include garden plots and protected indoor and outdoor spaces for seniors and those with special needs. In adjacent areas, the plan envisages assisted-care facilities in refurbished apartment towers, daycare facilities paired with day centres for seniors and a major all-abilities sports centre.

In developing their plan, the students received feedback from professionals from the NCC and the City of Ottawa and presented the final version to them last week.

“They thought it was very professional and very well done for a group of students,” Desrochers said.

“They are curious to see what the public reaction is, because it’s just one tiny step removed from what they’re doing.”

The students will present the project at a public consultation at Regina Public School Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.