By Tara Foslien
Some Ottawa residents are angry as plans for a wheelchair-accessible route connecting Sussex Drive to Mackenzie Avenue are up in the air because of possible construction problems.
The NCC hoped the route would be included in its $1.7-million project to refurbish the York Steps, located on Sussex near the new U.S. Embassy. But the 45 steps, measuring 11 metres wide at the bottom and seven metres at the top, are not wide enough to accommodate a ramp, says Catherine Schellenberg of the NCC.
Schellenberg also says the site is too steep — it has an eight-per-cent grade, when five per cent is the maximum incline allowed to build a ramp by Ontario’s building code standards. If it’s any steeper, she says, it’s too difficult for people in wheelchairs to use.
“It’s something that we definitely looked at when designing the plan,” says Schellenberg. “But, unfortunately it wasn’t possible given the circumstances.”
Some members of the community are looking at the situation differently.
“It’s just a matter of having the political will,” says Howard Walker, a retired architect who believes it would have been possible to conform the site to meet the standards.
“It’s just a matter of being prepared to pay for it. Do you want to have expensive granite and fancy landscaping? Or do you want to provide access to a large portion of the population who can’t walk up the steps?”
Walker says it was irresponsible that the social need wasn’t dealt with and he’s anxious to see how the situation progresses.
Schellenberg says there are plans for a wheelchair-accessible route on the Daly site, farther south on Sussex. But its developer isn’t so sure.
“The NCC has asked us to include a wheelchair-accessibility route in our project,” says Glenn Duncan, vice-president of Canadian Gateway Development Corporation, the company responsible for building on the Daly site. “But, we’ve run into the same challenges in our plans as they did with the York Steps.”
He says the Daly site is expected to be completed in July of 2001. It is to include an aquarium, a retail component and parking.
Duncan says the Daly site is just as steep as the York Steps and his only option may be to include an elevator in his plans.
“But it’s not as simple as just building an elevator,” he says. “Do you make it open to the public 24 hours? If so, how do you maintain a public elevator that’s open 24 hours?”
Duncan says they have to look at things from a long- term perspective and that they haven’t yet found a workable solution.
“If the commitment and the resources are there, almost anything is possible,” says Boyd McBride of the Canadian Paraplegic Association. “But, if there’s no commitment, then no amount of resources will do.”
McBride says that any publicly funded project should be usable by all members of society and shouldn’t exclude the mobility impaired.
“There are many factors to consider with something like this,” says Kim Kruk of the Disabled Persons’ Community Resources (DPCR) organization. “For instance, you can’t make a really long ramp because people in a wheelchair will get exhausted.”
The DPCR talked with the NCC about how to make the York Steps wheelchair accessible back in Dec. 1994. Kruk says they agreed it wasn’t possible there, but that the Daly site would be able to accommodate the route.
“I think they were comfortable that something would be done there,” says Kruk. She also says she understands the developers for the Daly site are faced with the same scenario as were the planners for the York Steps.
Kruk hasn’t seen any plans for the Daly site but says the DPCR wants to meet with the NCC and the developers to start working together to try and find a solution.