The city’s transportation committee has unanimously approved a recent report that suggests turning Queen Street – between Elgin and Bronson – into the “Showcase Street” of the downtown core, replete with “more space for culture, community, and vitality.”
Known as Downtown Moves, the 18-month-long study was delivered to the committee on March 4, cost $575,000, and will be considered for inclusion in the city’s Official Plan later this month.
“Our goal was to plan and design (Ottawa’s) downtown streets to integrate with, and capitalize on, the investment of light rail in the city,” says municipal planner Nelson Edwards.
According to the report, “Queen will have enormous demands to carry pedestrians to the Confederation line stations entrances along it and will do so by the construction of generous wide sidewalks, amenities to provide safe and comfortable walking, and buildings that will eventually become more street-oriented.”
Aside from the proposed Showcase Street, the report also recommends a structural overhaul of the downtown’s “main streets” (Rideau and Bank) and its “plaza streets” (Sparks and William).
However, it was the Queen Street plan that was the most hotly debated by committee members.
With two of the three downtown stops for the planned LRT located on Queen, tens of thousands of pedestrians are expected to pour onto the street each day.
“The Confederation Line is probably the most transformative engineering project in the history of Ottawa,” says Edwards. “We have a unique opportunity to transform downtown Ottawa for all users.”
The Downtown Moves study recommends revamping the current street by widening sidewalks, constructing bicycle lanes, and making the street more pedestrian-friendly.
But Edwards told the committee his vision did not stop there.
“It’s about more than a sidewalk, more than a bus stop. It’s the quality of the urban experience that is going to change people’s opinion about our downtown core,” he says.
Kanata North Coun. Marianne Wilkinson greeted the plan warmly, saying the lack of imagination and life in the city core is a major downfall of the city.
“The downtown streets I call dead. Dead walls,” Wilkinson told the committee.
Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Diane Deans agreed.
And while she thought the Downtown Moves proposal is a step in the right direction, Deans said she feels there is still a whole lot more work to be done.
A great number of concerns were raised, ranging from lack of funding, to spiraling cost, to loss of parking spaces, height restrictions, and implementation issues.
But Craig Stevenson, the general manager of Hy’s Steakhouse – located on Queen Street – welcomes the idea with open arms.
He says he doesn’t think that the loss of parking spots will be as big an issue as some of the committee members have made it out to be.
“Parking is already so limited here,” Stevenson says. “The more people that walk mean more exposure and ultimately more people walking into the restaurant.”
But people need a reason to walk on the street, and Barrhaven Coun. Jan Harder isn’t so sure they currently have one.
“This is an aggressive plan to create an exciting downtown, but putting cycling lanes and wider sidewalks are not going to make it that way,” she says.
What the plan lacks for Harder is a complementary plan to attract people to the downtown core.