Survey on Parks in the Neighbourhood

Please consider taking the time to complete a survey on Reid, Fairmont and Ev Tremblay parks for the Civic Hospital Area Parks and Recreation Committee (CHAPaRC). Click on the following link:

Parks Survey

Your feedback will help target improvements to facilities and programs in our neighbourhood parks.

CHAPaRC is a non-profit volunteer organization with charitable status dedicated to revitalizing and preserving the parks within our neighbourhood boundaries, building community participation through recreational activities, and encouraging year round park usage with quality facilities and programs.

For more information about historic Reid Farm House and CHAPaRC , go to www.ReidFarm.com

Letter to Katherine Hobbs on $$$$ from 125 Hickory Street

March 27, 2011

Dear Councillor Hobbs,

Re: CNHA Executive Decision relating to 125 Hickory Street Site Plan Approval Process

I am pleased to inform you that the elected officers of the CHNA Executive Committee have decided to endorse the recommendation of CHNA Planning and Development Committee and Traffic Committee representatives to put the $30,000 for traffic ameliorations towards a traffic study of our area. We understand that you favour using this money to combine and fund existing traffic study requests for our area and facilitate a larger study of the neighbourhood. We will be putting the CHNA executive recommendation to a vote at our next membership meeting.

If the membership agrees with our recommendation, we would like the City to commit to implementing the recommendations of any traffic study in a reasonable time period.

In addition, we would like to ensure that any consultants hired to implement this study were not previously hired by developers to do traffic impact studies in this area. We would also like to have a voice in the choice of the consultant, and preference given to consultants who specialize in promoting green forms of transportation.

As well, the CHNA would like to make it clear that we intend to pursue traffic amelioration measures such as the no entry during rush hours signs for residents nearest the developments.

You have stated that “my office and the city will seek further contributions from new developments for this traffic study estimated to cost between $100,000 and $150,000. Given the pace of development in the area it is possible that this could be secured in the near future.”

Would you be able to tell us if your office and the City are seeking contributions from new developments such as 855 Carling and 100 Champagne or are you hoping to get the $100,000 to $150, 000 from additional developments?

As you know, it would take some time to obtain the necessary $100,000 to $150,000 dollars required to do a traffic study and even longer to complete the study. We are probably looking at a minimum of two years. Given the amount of development in our neighbourhood, we strongly believe the City should be working with the association on some immediate traffic amelioration measures.

In closing, we were very happy and surprised to hear that developer Mastercraft Starwood has secured a grocery store at 125 Hickory Street. We knew that the developer was trying to get a grocery store to occupy space on the first floor, but this was not a certainty. Would you be able to tell us what store will be occupying this space? The grocery store is great news and we look forward to hearing more about it.

Yours truly,

Katherine Steinhoff

VP, Civic Hospital Neighbourhood Association

CHNA reps respond to City's "options" for 125 Hickory Street $$$$

March 27, 2011

Dear Mr. Miguelez,

We are writing to inform you that the CHNA will be following up to let you know where we think the money for traffic ameliorations should be spent. You have indicated that the $30,000 for traffic ameliorations could go towards taking a few, small immediate measures or be put towards a larger traffic study of the area, noting “there is presently no budget and little prospect of obtaining budget any time soon”. You have also provided options for our consideration.

We would like to respond to the options that the City’s planning committee has provided to CHNA Traffic Committee and Planning and Development Committee representatives.

(1) We think a right turn restriction at the exit from the parking garage of 125 Hickory would cause a lot more traffic diversion than the proposal we have made. We recognize that there would be some minor traffic diversion as a result of our proposal but we also think that the neighbourhood would get a net benefit by diverting traffic (over 1000 vehicles) from the new developments to Carling during rush hours.

Also, we would like to thank you for your map illustrating our proposal for the a.m. but also point out that it does not appear to reflect the revised proposal we gave you in our email dated January 18th.

(2) We think the proposal to spend the $30,000 implementing an intersection modification at Sherwood Drive and Bayswater Avenue, as identified in the 1997 Parkdale Area Transportation Study, is an interesting one. However, we don't think it adequately addresses the many concerns we have.

(3) We think the proposal to implement a pilot project permitting on-street parking on both sides of Sherwood is not appropriate at this time. As you know from our email dated January 18^th, we intend to canvass the membership and Sherwood residents for their views regarding on-street parking and other options.

We will follow-up on the matter of the $30,000 for traffic ameliorations as soon as possible. We will be consulting with CHNA members on this matter in the days to come.

Katherine Steinhoff

VP, CHNA and co-chair of CHNA Planning and Development Committee

Alayne McGregor

Secretary, CHNA and co-chair of CHNA Planning and Development Committee

Peter Eady

Chair, CHNA Traffic Committee

Community Design Plan Coming to Carling

The City of Ottawa is doing a study to prepare a Community Design Plan (CDP) for the area along the Light Rail Train (LRT) corridor from Carling Avenue to Bayview.

A Public Advisory Committee (PAC) and Technical Advisory Committee have been established to assist and provide guidance during the study. The PAC includes representatives of BIAs, major property owners, affected advisory committees, Councillors Holmes, Councillor Hobbs and affected community associations, including the Civic Hospital Neighbourhood Association (CHNA).

The PAC has been looking at the Bayview station district. The Carling station district is next, followed by the area near the Gladstone station.

The study area for the Carling portion of the CDP includes properties within 600 metres of the O-Train Corridor. Roughly, this includes land within the following boundaries: Lynwood on the west, Lebreton on the east, the
Queensway on the North and Carling on the South (Exception: the Agriculture Canada lands west of O-train and south of Carling). However the primary focus of the study is the land identified as underutilized (the shaded area on the map) located immediately adjacent to the LRT corridor. Click on the map to get a closer look.

The Carling portion of the CDP includes lands that fall within the CHNA catchment area. Watch for updates in the coming months.

For more information, go to: http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/public_consult/carling_bayview/intro_en.html

Big trucks, big problem

Two 53-foot flatbeds tried to squeeze their way down Hickory Street on Thursday around 8:00 a.m. They had a hard time getting through because of all the construction workers parked on the street. The construction workers have encroachment permits allowing them to park on one side of Hickory and other people are legitimately parking on the other side until 8:00 a.m. This didn’t leave much room for the flatbeds so one driver started honking.Yes, honking.

In addition to the flatbeds, residents on Hickory and nearby streets get to regularly enjoy dump trucks and a large palette lifter that carries heavy loads from Domicile’s 100 Champagne site to its Breezehill and Carling development.

The situation is dangerous, noisy and also worrisome since most of the new development in the area hasn’t started.

CHNA has contacted the City about the problem. We will keep you posted.