By Rebecca Lau
City officials want to transform Bank Street into an Ottawa attraction by completely renovating the area within the next five years, but area residents and businesses already anticipate traffic woes and interruptions.
Nearly 200 people attended the first public open house earlier this month for reconstruction slated between Lansdowne Park and Wellington Street.
City officials were on hand to answer questions about the status of Bank Street, its problems and possible solutions.
David Rose, co-owner of Herb and Spice Shop at 375 Bank St., did not attend the meeting but says he is worried construction will make it difficult for customers to visit Bank Street stores.
“We’re very concerned,” he says. “We know it was very disruptive in Ottawa South — a lot of businesses really struggled because nobody could get there.”
But Richard Holder, the project manager for the city, says the project is very preliminary and he can’t estimate what the impact of construction will be.
He says the project team is still gathering feedback on the public’s priorities, which include replacing watermains, upgrading sewers, improving roads and planting more trees.
Holder says Bank Street is a unique project because it is important to improve the street’s appearance.
“There’s a definite intention to provide many beautification measures to recognize the importance of Bank Street as a key street in Ottawa and to make it more attractive to people coming from around the city and around the country who want to come shopping,” he says.
He adds he has been asked by many community members to bury hydro lines under the street in order to remove the clutter of poles, but says it is not part of this particular round of renovations. Hydro Ottawa estimates the project would cost $8 million.
“That money is not available as part of a regular rehab job,” he says.
Wendy Tobin of Optical Excellence at 779 Bank St. says she fears the city will choose to bury power lines but do construction in stages because of lack of funding.
She says this would prevent access for customers and hurt the commercial district.
“I don’t want them ripping up Bank Street twice and disrupting everybody’s business,” she says.
“That means a loss of business and we may not recover from that. That’s our bread and butter.”
Tobin does agree, however, that the hydro poles are eyesores.
“Dogs use them, poster people use them,” she says. “It would be nice to have them gone because that’s what Old Ottawa South did when they renovated that area.”
Jim McKeen, whose family has run a grocery store at the Loeb Glebe location since 1907, says the renovations are long overdue.
McKeen, who is also a member of the Glebe Business Group, says its members are optimistic about the city’s plans.
They want to see the hydro lines buried, sidewalks widened, unsightly parking metres removed and more trees planted.
He adds that he’s happy his group is “in sync” with residents in the Glebe Community Association.
“It’s an old area. [Renovations] have to be done and we understand that. We want to make sure that we have an input and it’s done on a very timely basis,” he says.
“There’s a financial stake [as a business owner] as opposed to a resident. We certainly want to see things done but it’s from a different perspective.”
McKeen adds his group would also like to increase business by having all-day parking available on both sides of the street, even during rush hours. This would reduce heavy traffic during peak hours, he says.
Martha Bowers, an area resident, says she came to the public meeting to voice her concern for increased traffic.
“It’s really important that it doesn’t become a freeway for traffic to barrel down from the south to Parliament Hill,” she explains.
“We residents have to have our say in what we want our street to look like.”
For business owners, however, the issue of time is most important.
Tom Steiner, who co-owns The Camera Trading Co. in the Bank Street Promenade shopping district, says the renovations will benefit his business, but some disruptions are inevitable.
“That’s the necessary evil,” he says. “[They] have to do it as quickly as possible.”
Suggestions from the open house, along with past comments from public meetings, will be used over the next three months to develop more specific plans, says Holder.
These recommendations will be presented in the next open house meeting in June.