Construction coming to the Glebe, and a Better Lansdowne

In the coming years, Capital Ward will see the most road re-construction projects in the city. This is necessary to improve our aging sewer system, and it also gives us a chance to rebuild our roads so they better suit our needs. While we’re only highlighting two projects in this column, we will keep the community aware of others as they get underway. With each project, there will be a chance for residents to provide their input.

And remember, if you can’t make it to a public consultation and you have any thoughts on upcoming construction projects in the ward, you can send them to us directly at CapitalWard@ ottawa.ca.

Monk, Oakland, Wilton and Woodlawn Integrated Renewal

Last month, the city held an online consultation for the upcoming re-construction of Monk, Oakland, Wilton and Woodlawn, which will include both a re-design of the streets and replacement of the sewers and watermains. We had a great turnout, and there were many thoughtful and interesting suggestions presented by residents to make the streets safer, more comfortable and more welcoming.

One of the most interesting ideas was to have an on-site children’s consultation. City staff, local parents, and their children and our office would meet and do a walkabout where the kids could point out how they use the street –what routes they take, where they hang out, how they move around and use this section of the neighbourhood. As far as I’m aware, this is not something the city has done before, but staff have agreed to the idea, and we’re looking forward to helping to make it happen.

Overall, this will be a big project that will span multiple years. Construction will begin soon on the underground infrastructure. Road re-construction will begin next year. This will be a long project, and staff will be working to make life as easy on residents as possible by providing water hookups, managing traffic flow and maintaining access to homes on affected streets. During this time, discussions can continue on the new designs of the streets.

Glebe Avenue Re-Design

On May 2, the city hosted a public consultation on the re-design of Glebe Avenue, between Bank and O’Connor. At the time of writing this column, that consultation hasn’t yet happened, but I’m confident it will be a worthwhile endeavour.

The initial city plans are good. They maintain all current amenities on the road, but we’ll see a wider sidewalk, a raised bicycle track and an enhanced “floating” bus stop to keep transit users separated from bicyclists.

Over the past few months, we’ve had a lot of input from residents on the designs, and we’ve heard a number of interesting ideas, including adding extra space to connect with Central Park and creating a bi-directional bike lane. I’m sure we’ll have heard more good ideas at the public consultation.

Staff are taking this feedback to see what further improvements can be made. It can be tough, because we have a relatively narrow street (especially with a bus route on it), but we’ll try to make as many improvements to the street as we can.

And we’re always open to some outside-the-box ideas!

Bank Street Canal Bridge

This spring, staff will be re-paving the deck, adding traffic sensors, replacing the expansion joints and re-painting the streets. There will be some day work, and that means traffic may be reduced to one lane at times. There will also be some night work from May 22 to May 25. Work should be completed by June.

A Better Lansdowne

This month, our office has launched a new website: www.betterlansdowne. ca. This site will be dedicated to creating a better vision for the future of Lansdowne Park.

Currently, the city is conducting consultations on the “Lansdowne 2.0” proposal which, in its current format, would see the creation of 1,200 new residential units added in three 35to 40-storey towers, a loss of 58,000 square feet of public greenspace and the addition of 740 new parking spaces, and all at the cost of more than $330 million of city money.

We think there can be a better plan for Lansdowne – something better for our community and for our city. Come to our new website to share your ideas and see some of ours. We’ll have some counter proposals posted as well as a survey you can fill out.

Please, make your voice heard on this issue. Together, we can create A Better Lansdowne.

Shawn Menard is City Councillor for Capital Ward. He can be reached directly at Shawn.Menard@ottawa.ca