By Katie Donnelly O’Neill
The new Canadian War Museum is expected to attract around 300,000 visitors annually once it opens in 2005, but it’s how they all arrive that has some local residents concerned.
Construction on the $105.75 million museum began last November as part of the initiative to develop LeBreton Flats.
Centretown residents are worried that traffic from tour buses could congest nearby streets like Wellington, Booth, and Preston, says Somerset Ward Coun. Elisabeth Arnold. About a dozen residents attended a site plan meeting at City Hall on Feb. 11, to voice their concerns to museum officials and the city.
Although residents see the museum as a welcome development, they are concerned about the feasibility of off-site parking for buses, Arnold says.
The site plan gives no indication as to where the numerous tour buses will park.
“Right now it is all loosey-goosey, and the plan is to have them park ‘somewhere,’” she says.
Linda Hoad, an Ottawa resident, has been following the development of LeBreton Flats since 1974. She sees the museum as an exciting new development, but says Centretown residents should be wary of the increase in traffic and the lack of bus parking. The only way for people to get to the museum will be to travel through the nearby residential neighbourhoods, Hoad says.
The museum’s underground parking garage will have 310 spots but will not be able to accommodate any tour or school buses.
The structure of the parking garage was not designed to allow for buses to enter and park. “It is short sighted of them not to have underground bus parking at the new site,” she says.
Centretown resident Chip Bowness says he is pleased with the expanded size of the new museum and is eager to see a mix of displays, but he worries the museum won’t do well financially if it’s not tour bus friendly. “People are coming to learn and appreciate but they won’t come if it is difficult to reach parking,” he says.
Traffic flow to the museum will be nothing but a “pimple” on the centre core, says Joe Geurts, CEO and director of the Canadian War Museum.
Geurts says there is no tour bus parking at the old war museum and that has never been a problem.
“They drop them off, leave and go to another area, wherever that may be and then come back for them,” he says.
Museum officials could not estimate the number of buses that will be coming to the new museum.
He says Centretown residents should not worry that buses will be parking on their neighbourhood streets.
The plan put forward by museum officials is for the buses to park in Gatineau, at the Robert Guertin Arena, or another location.
Bus drivers will be unwilling to travel to Gatineau to park as it will mean accumulating too many miles for no good reason, says Guy Laframboise, a bus driver for M&O Bus Lines.
Drivers will look for a place to park that is closer to the museum, he says.
“We will probably park our buses on the nearby side streets unless the parking control officers give us too much trouble,” Laframboise says.
Museum officials should have consulted the bus companies that will be servicing the museum before they decided not to have on site parking, he says.
Arnold stresses that this issue is one that needs to be examined more closely by the city.
“The city needs to resolve the issue prior to the site plan approval.”