The OSCA Board accepted the analysis below at its meeting on September 15, [2009] and passed this following motion:
“Lansdowne Live is contrary to Smart Growth and represents poor use of prime city land. It will have a negative effect on traffic, businesses, and the overall quality of life in Old Ottawa South. The OSCA Board will actively oppose this proposal.”
Analysis of Lansdowne Live by OSWATCH for the OSCA Board
Lansdowne Live is contrary to Smart Growth and represents poor use of prime city land. It will have a negative effect on traffic, businesses, and the overall quality of life in Old Ottawa South. OSWATCH recommends that the OSCA Board opposes this proposal.
The project is sole sourced and does not follow a process of open competitive bidding, which is a basic principle of good governance.
The limited capacity of the surrounding road network (limited to Bank Street and Queen Elizabeth Drive) and its constricted ability to accommodate public transit will not allow the project to absorb the large numbers of people it is intended to attract, and who will come from various parts of the city, whether to visit the commercial mall complex or to attend special events such as sporting games or concerts. Moreover, the 1,200 – 1,500 parking stalls proposed for the site (which already is very high for a site of this size and in this urban location) will not even begin to satisfy the parking requirements for the activities envisioned for the project.
The project proposes the development of about 400,000 square feet of retail space on the site. This will double the amount of retail space already available in the Glebe, all of which is traditional main-street retail space, and will suck commercial activity from the street into an anti-urban mall setting. The results of such an arrangement on the existing retail facilities along Bank Street in both the Glebe and OOS will be devastating.
The noise pollution levels that the activities envisioned for the site - whether sporting events or concerts - will be too high for the urban residential areas surrounding it (Glebe and OOS), and which house approximately 18,000 residents.
The project also provides very limited green space. The developers moreover are misrepresenting parking areas with green strips of grass between paving units as “green areas,” which simply is unacceptable. The project will convert too much of a cherished open public space in Ottawa into built-up areas and leave too much as parking surfaces at the cost of needed green spaces.
Sunday, September 20, 2009