By Ryan Baker
The National Capital Commission has once again outraged local politicians, this time with its latest plans for the downtown core.
At a press conference earlier this month, NCC Chair Marcel Beaudry revealed plans for various sites around the capital, including one to create a pedestrian plaza directly south of Parliament Hill, along Metcalfe Street.
“The nonsense on Metcalfe Street continues,” says Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson. “I would have thought they had got the message (last year), but obviously they didn’t. Trying to create a plaza, in my opinion, doesn’t make a lot of sense and it’s just going to cost a lot of dollars.”
One variation of the plan requires the two heritage buildings on the west side of Metcalfe between Wellington Street and Sparks Street be moved behind the newly-acquired heritage building, the former U.S. embassy on Wellington. It also calls for the demolition of 100 Sparks St., owned by the NCC, and the Bank of Hong Kong building at the corner of Metcalfe and Queen streets, owned by the Truscan Property Corporation.
The NCC says it’s negotiating to buy the corner building from Truscan and an adjacent property on Queen Street where a residential building is slated to go up. Truscan declined to comment on the issue or to confirm whether negotiations were underway.
The new plan, known as “Metcalfe Light,” is much less ambitious than its predecessor, which was scrapped last year due to a fierce public backlash. The original proposal was designed to widen Metcalfe and called for the demolition of buildings along the west side of the street, from Wellington all the way to McLeod Street.
“We want to create a people place, an active place, something where there’s activity 14 hours a day, seven days a week,” says Diane Dupuis, a spokesperson for the NCC. “And a place where people can live, can work and can play.”
Dupuis says it’s too early to predict when the projects will be finished or the costs of each plan.
But she says development will rely on private sector funding. The federal government gave the NCC $40 million last year to buy the property it wants developed.
Watson calls the idea to move the heritage buildings ludicrous, adding that moving them would ignore the historical significance of their location in the capital.
“Not only is it extremely costly,” he says, “but I don’t think this kind of plan is going to help revitalize Sparks Street, it’s going to simply put it in greater chaos and limbo for many more years.”
Watson’s not the only one concerned about the plan.
“I’m delighted that they are putting money into the downtown because they have pretty well ignored it for the last 25 years,” says Somerset regional Coun. Diane Holmes. “But I’m certainly not in favour of them picking up and moving heritage buildings either.”
Holmes says Stop the Metcalfe Nonsense – the community organization that successfully pressured the NCC to scrap its plan to widen Metcalfe – will be meeting soon to organize its response to the latest proposal.
The Metcalfe plan has also prompted local politicians to reiterate their reservations with the NCC’s decision-making practices. Watson says the public shouldn’t be excluded from the process.
Public consultations are scheduled to run until June. Presentations will be made to the planning committees of local governments later this month. Documents should be available in local libraries in the end of the month. And an open house will be held at the Capital Infocentre at 90 Wellington St. on April 11.