Pay attention to our green space

Re: Fix housing for the aging population, and you’ll fix it for others too, March 9.

I agree with much of Daniel Buckles’ opinion piece — especially his encouragement to all of us to pay attention to Ottawa’s new official plan and a city-sponsored study of R4 zoning to promote apartments and to think about how to promote healthy aging of our population.

I agree that we need more multi-dwelling buildings in the city, but recent development along the Wellington-Richmond Road corridor is an example that discourages me. Virtually none of it is lowrise, little of it promotes affordable housing, much of it has created a concrete corridor and driven out independent businesses, social organizations and the arts with high rent — even when some are initially integrated into the new buildings.

I see too little evidence of rooftop gardens, or changes in bylaws to ensure adequate setbacks that protect or create green space and protect natural light that create walkable neighbourhoods and fight pollution. I am not a fan of the policy that permits developers to avoid integrating green space in these development sites by supporting green space elsewhere in the city boundaries. It seems to me that decreasing green space in a neighbourhood while increasing the population density dramatically is a poor policy in an era where we need trees and green space more than ever.

Finally, the city has ongoing concerns about participation in its recycling and green bin programs. I believe there is good participation by single residence dwellings but that highrises aren’t yet pulling their weight with regard to green waste. I hope that this gets addressed in future development.

Green space near my dwelling is important to me and I worry that we risk eroding this precious resource with too many highrises that do not address the issues above.

Linda Murphy, Ottawa