Many good things happened in our neighbourhood this past year. Perhaps the most noticeable is the significant level of public investment in our community services that is taking place. With both the community centre and our public library branch undergoing extensive renovations, representing in total about $5 million in investment, we are seeing an unprecedented improvement in our community institutions. In addition, the City has launched the Sunnyside traffic study to look at ways to improve safety on one of the main connector streets in the community.
All of these developments are welcome and will make a significant contribution to improving the quality of life in Old Ottawa South. And I think it is safe to say that none of these things would have happened if it were not for the level of community activism we have shown in demanding improvements to our community infrastructure and actively fund raising towards that goal.
We have also managed as a community association to maintain a fairly high level of community programming and community events even though we have been operating in temporary facilities while our community centre is being renovated. Indeed, we have managed to keep our operating costs sufficiently under control so that, despite a more expensive operating structure necessitated by renting facilities, we have not suffered any of the financial losses that had been forecast.
So we are starting off a new year in good financial shape and with major new facilities in the community opening up. The challenge we will face will be to capitalize on these opportunities to deliver more and better community programming for our residents.
But there are clouds on the horizon. As I have outlined many times since last summer in this column, the impacts on this community of the potential redevelopment of Lansdowne Park are likely to be very negative. The potential for consistent traffic congestion and the impact on our local merchants are major concerns. Council will review the project in June when critical studies on traffic and retail impacts will need to be carefully assessed.
The irony we face is that the very substantial progress we have made over the past few years in improving our community could be negated by an ill considered and inappropriate commercial development on one of the City's largest public spaces.