Some Glebe business owners have greeted city council’s decision to delay the next phase of construction on Bank Street for at least a year with mixed feelings.
Councillors last week approved a motion by Capital Ward Coun. Coun. Clive Doucet to cut $9.9 million in construction costs from the city’s budget. Instead, it will spend $3.5 million on improving sidewalks throughout the city.
“Construction would cause tremendous disruption for a couple of years, so why destroy the area when we don’t even know what’s happening with Lansdowne Park?” says Doucet.
The project would have seen the Glebe’s main thoroughfare fall into the same disarray that plagued the downtown portion of Bank Street for two years.
“Our members support Councillor Doucet’s motion,” says Caroline Vanneste, president of the Glebe Community Association.
Vanneste says the association opposes construction now because the city has yet to lay out a policy on burying unsightly overhead power lines, a main concern of the area’s residents.
“Another concern of the association is that we need to know what’s happening with Lansdowne Park. Until we know what’s happening there in terms of construction and design, it doesn’t make sense to tear up the street,” she says.
The confusion about the future of Lansdowne Park is shared by other business owners.
“I think putting it (construction) off is the only sensible thing to do. I don’t think that the city realizes what the infrastructure needs will be when Lansdowne Park is redeveloped,” says Jose Bray, owner of Joe Mamma Urban Cycles, a sporting goods store that moved to Bank Street three months ago.
“I don’t know which is the better idea – delaying or progressing with construction,” says Linda Wiken, owner of Prime Crime Books, which has been at its current Bank Street location for 24 years.
“We’re definitely in need of infrastructure work in this neighbourhood. Things under the surface are decrepit. But what about my ageing customers who would not negotiate the construction?" she asks. "Every year that the city delays construction is another year of life for small businesses.”
Ian Boyd, owner of Compact Music, knows all about the effects of construction.
His other store, on Bank and Gloucester in downtown Ottawa, was surrounded by barricades, bulldozers and piles of gravel while construction was going on.
“I think if they’re going to do it, they should just get it out of the way,” says Boyd.
“We’ve seen this all before and we’re ready to deal with the effects of construction.”
The construction project will now begin in the spring or summer of 2011 and involve the area between the Queensway and the Bronson Bridge.