The City of Ottawa has finalized the community design plan for the Bayview Community, proposing mixed-use urban development in and around the northwest corner of Centretown, an area long identified as an urban wasteland near the intersection Scott, Albert, and Bayview streets.
While city planners and developers have described public reaction as positive, the CDP is not without its critics. Eric Darwin, former president of the Dalhousie Community Association, outlined his personal concerns recently in a post on his community blog, West Side Action.
“While it (the CDP) calls for mixed use development, there is no plan to quantify that,” he wrote. “There are no intensification targets for jobs, residences, population, or even a dog count. So there is no plan for more recreation facilities or parks since the eventual buildout is still unknown.”
The post also sees Darwin question the CDP’s effect on the main arterial road, Albert Street, saying that the plan is “silent on how wide it could or should be, and when it might reach that status.”
He added: “The bridge has a speeding problem now, how will that be addressed?”
Kitchissippi Coun. Katherine Hobbs said she’s pleased with the plan.
“It’s kind of a shock sometimes to go from seeing 16 hectares of nothing to seeing a fully constructed neighborhood,” she said. “The challenge is to make sure this enhances the surrounding neighborhoods in addition to meeting the needs of the city.”
The design plan was first proposed in 2005 with the city looking to build on the light rail system, but was soon shelved due to the transit plan’s cancellation by city council two years later.
The concept was then redefined and proposed a second time, gaining approval in 2009.
Planners envision the current Bayview transit station becoming “a community landmark, enhanced with pedestrian and cycling access as well as more greenspace.”
Further south, mixed-use buildings would be constructed to front onto the Somerset bridge in hopes of creating “more active street fronts” and “an enriched pedestrian experience.”
Mobility is also a concern for the planners, whose graphics — unveiled at a March 5 open house — detailed the aim to create more “efficient, safer ways to navigate the area and surrounding neighborhoods.”
New street designs will include new shared use and cycling lanes, with the plan also showing the installation of bicycle parking areas in high traffic areas.
“These big parcels of land around Bayview station don’t provide any sort of connectivity in terms of pathways, sidewalks, or even vehicular routes,” explained Taavi Siitam, a community planner with the city’s urban planning and design unit. “We’ve looked at the best way to create new streets and block sizes that are walkable. That can also provide pathways that go from one side of the O-Train tracks to the other, and go right across that big, empty, underutilized parcel.”
Hobbs also praised the plan’s emphasis on mobility.
“I like the idea that we have a lot of mobility built into this,” she said. “We’re concerned about having people be able to move through this area that today we cannot get through effectively. I like that we’re reclaiming this for our communities to use.”
Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes was unavailable for comment.
Community members are still encouraged to provide feedback through the city, with the final CDP to be presented at a planning committee meeting on March 26.
“The great thing about the knowledge that the community has is that they have already applied to the local locations they walk every single day,” Siitam said. “They have a really good sense of where the refinements need to be made.”
Siitam said that light rail construction in the area should be completed by 2018.