By Brian Jackson
Ottawa residents will have to park their SUVs in the garage and start riding the bus to work if the city is to be successful 100 years in the future, according to a long-term planning group.
The City of Ottawa invited the B.C.-based Sheltair Group to present a two-day conference intended to educate local businesses and city officials about long-term urban planning Nov. 1 and 2. This expands on the Ottawa 20/20 plan – a guide to develop the city over 20 years.
“The biggest impacts that people living in Ottawa can have are in transportation and housing,” said Sebastian Moffatt, president of the group. People should be “locating close to where you work if possible, and if not … walking or cycling.”
Moffatt was the leader of Cities Plus, and created Canada’s first 100-year plan for the Greater Vancouver Area. The team won the grand prize in an international competition hosted in Tokyo in June 2003.
Cities need to condense if they want to still be working in 100 years, said Moffatt. Urban sprawl results in the waste of non-renewable energy sources like fossil fuel as people drive to work from the suburbs.
“People are driving trucks and SUVs around when they are highly unnecessary in terms of safety, convenience or anything else,” said Moffatt. “We are far too subject to advertising by corporations that don’t share our long-term values.”
According to Ned Lathrop, deputy city manager for planning and growth management, the city is in line with these changes.
“We’re radically changing the way the city is currently being used by residents,” said Lathrop. “We’re moving away from a car-based economy to a transit-based economy.”
Both Lathrop and Moffatt gave an emotional edge to the presentation, asking city employees and others attending the second day of the conference to think of the benefits for future generations.
Lathrop took credit for bringing the group to present, saying he was motivated by his five children and his grandchildren. Moffatt also alluded to the younger generation.
“We are taking more than our earth provides,” he said. “We are stealing from our children and our children’s children.”
One way to achieve the vision of a condensed city that doesn’t require the use of fossil fuels is to design buildings with multiple uses in mind, said Moffatt. City employees consider building with variety in mind has been poorly done in Ottawa.
Diversity in the buildings a city offers is important, said city director of housing Russell Mawby.
“We are very good in Canada at building a neighbourhood with a 15-year shelf life,” said Mawby.
“Kids come in and you build a school and 15 years later, guess what? The kids are grown up and what do you do with the school?”
Moffatt had the solution.
“Instead of schools doing one thing all day and being quiet at night,” he said, the school could be used for “adult classes, theatre and community meetings.”