Preston Street repaving

Final topcoat of asphalt being applied to Preston Street north of Beech.

The finished landscaping sections of the street look great. Unfortunately, while two sections are finished, work is just commencing on the other three sections, and major construction will continue until late December. But the finished sections will encourage residents and businesses and visitors to have courage, better times are coming.

Final landscaping and decorative intersection pavings will be done in 2010.

Landscaping Goes In, Dow's Lake pathway

Recall that in late fall, 2008, the NCC reconstructed the pedestrian and cycling path along the south side of Dow's Lake (along Commissioner's Park). The new path is wider and in many places a foot higher, which should reduce puddling. There are more bench sitting areas too, set back from the path.


Workers are busy this week cleaning up the unfinished details, including laying cobblestones between the path and the Queen Elizabeth Driveway.

City Centre Tower

The City Centre Tower, constructed about 1965, lost its red letters around the roof line last week. Nothing was left but the dirt on the brickwork. Yesterday and today workers on scaffolding were cleaning the brick. In the photo, the north wall to the right has already been cleaned; and work continues on the east wall.

Double click on the picture to see it up close.

Parole Office Shuffle (2)

"NO! I think not." That was the answer. You'll find the question further below.

The Parole Office has been controversial for some years now, since it opened at its Gilmore/Elgin location. Where was it before then?

For a long time it was located on Kent St at Albert, where the third tower of Constitution Square was recently completed. Back then there was a small office building there, occupied by the National Film Board. Apparently the NFB arty-types didn't exactly appreciate the Parole Office's clientele in the lobby. After that, the Office was located at Bank and Queen, above Laura Secord's. I am unaware if they had any friction with the AIDS Committee offices and The Living Room co-located there. From there, it moved to the Elgin site, which my source tells me their clients find too far from the transitway routes on Albert and Slater.

About 16 parolees come into the offices daily. On some days there is additional traffic to the offices because the clientele has to give urine samples which used to be collected by half-way and three-quarter way houses. Apparently the houses are retiring from this function and so its off to the parole office.

My source also opined that the Somerset location was too far from the transitway, which most of their clients use to access the offices. In addition to the distance, there isn't a direct enough route from the transitway to the offices. Interestingly enough, the Hull Parole Office is a storefront operation with an illuminated sign on the front of the building and has no (known) neighborhood association objections to its location.

My source thought that the previous locations on Kent and on Bank were ideal - anonymous, downtown, on the transitway. As for my last question, it was "would you want a Parole Office located within a block or two of your house?"

DOTT - Tunney's Pasture Transfer Station

DOTT refers to the Downtown Ottawa Transit Tunnel project. I sit on the public advisory committee, with a particular interest in the LRT project from Bronson to Tunney's. Under the current plan, Tunney's will be the main place for bus users from the west to transfer to the LRT trains which will run roughly along the current transitway alignment to Bayview, LeBreton, and the downtown. Eventually the LRT train service will be extended further west to Lincoln Fields.

The City has come up with two concepts for how the bus users will transfer to the LRT trains. Keep in mind the size of this operation: we are looking at a station as big and busy as Hurdman, Lincoln Fields, or Baseline. Thousands of buses will arrive at Tunney's every day, discharge or pick up passengers, and after a time stop, cycle again back to the western suburbs. The station will be in use for a number of years, maybe decades. Both plans have the buses come up out of the transitway cut on the north side of the station (there is an existing exit ramp there).

Concept one is termed the Parallel alignment, with a Hurdman style station located to the north of the transitway; the Linear option circles the buses around to put some of the stops along Scott Street.

My preference is for a Parallel station design, ie north of the transitway. The volume of buses will be huge, and in place for an undetermined number of years or decades. In Ottawa, and for transit plans, ‘temporary’ can often turn into ‘forever’. It is important to get the buses off the street and into a contained area away from cycle and pedestrian traffic. Noise barriers and landscaping is also possible if the bus lay-by areas are off Scott Street. This will be a major transfer station; we do not see any other major stations such as Baseline, Hurdman, or Lincoln Fields built on the shoulder of a busy road with adjacent residential land uses.

Preston Construction Starts Soon

The Preston Street streetscaping project starts up again soon. Preliminary work by Rogers, Bell and Enbridge is already underway. Heavy construction begins on the sections south of Oak Street on April 14 (after Easter weekend).

Work on the section from Spruce north to Albert Street begins the beginning of May.

The intersections of Preston and Albert, Somerset, Gladstone, Beach, and Carling may not be given their decorative paving until 2010.

The City is holding a public briefing to remind residents and businesses of the scope of the project and what is being built where, on March 31st at 7pm at Plant Recreation Centre. That meeting will also cover the planned detour routes.

Trees Along the Albert St path

From today's Ottawa Citizen: "OTTAWA — The city is so serious about getting 100,000 trees planted that it’s now willing to deliver the trees right to your house. All you have to do is go to ottawa.ca/TREE or call 311, and you’ll be able to select the species of tree you want to plant on your property. They aren’t saplings, either: Each tree delivered under the program, aimed reforesting and enhancing tree cover in the city, is 1.5 to two metres tall. The trees are available on a first-come, first-served basis for June 2009 delivery. If the city runs out of trees, you can be placed on a list for delivery in the fall." [bold text added by me -- eric]

This is an interesting offer. Unfortunately I don't have room on my city lot for another tree. But I do spy an interesting spot on city land that begs for trees. Readers familiar with Albert St will have noticed the landscaping along the new multipurpose path built last year from Bronson to Empress. It is wide, asphalt, and has trees planted on both sides of it. Nice trees too: a number of them are oaks and other hardwoods. Potentially, this path will look very nice as the trees grow and provide shade and separation from the commuter cars and buses. The path is even supplied with decorative pedestrian scaled path lighting, although they havent been turned on yet. That may have to wait until the politicians assemble for an opening ceremony and photo op.

Unfortunately, the treed section ends at Empress. Is this because they were only beautifying the sight line from the luxury condos built at the corner of Bronson, The Gardens? Or is it because this path was sketched in on the City's Escarpment Community Development Plan and the water works folks delivered on what the plan dreamed of? In either case, they didnt plant any trees from Empress to Booth to Bayview.

I wrote to the City's tree planting guru last fall suggesting planting along at least the north side of this section of path, but got no reply. I made the suggestion because acquaintenances at City Hall had said the city was having a hard time finding places to plant trees to meet their quota.

Despite the lack of answer, the probable answer will be "NO" because this section of Albert is subject to reconstruction (promised every few years since 1980), lacks a long term plan (darn, there's the need for a CDP again ... although the section from Booth to City Centre Ave is subject to the NCC's LeBreton Flats master plan, not that that seems to help). I have no doubt that if this path was in the Glebe, there'd be trees there today.

So, back to the City offer of trees. Can a neighborhood association, volunteer group of gardeners, or the BIA actually get a few dozen of these trees to plant along the Albert St path? Anyone interesting in greening the City?

Cycling along Albert / Scott -- path vs road

In my earlier blog on the proposed 801 Albert St condo development (corner of City Centre Ave, opposite Tom Brown and opposite Bayview Station) I mentioned I thought the site plan would be improved with the inclusion of a new multipurpose path set back from the curb. Most residents will be familiar with the Scott St multipurpose path, and the Albert St one built last year. I personally find both these paths very useful and cycle or walk on them every week. That is not to say they are perfect. The Albert path detours at every bus stop to pass between the bus shelter and road, a cyclist-pedestrian accident just begging to happen. The Scott St path does this bizarre bus stop thingy at Tunney's and Westboro Stations too, where the planners didn't seem to be able to think of way to get the path past the bus stop (which shows that not much thought or consultation goes into these things...). Of course, I and others complained about the City's design for the Albert St path months before it was actually built ... but alas, City Hall proved unable to accept suggested improvements (the excuses were creative, especially the one to post signs instructing cyclists to get off and walk their bikes at the approach to every bus stop or intersection).

Despite their inadequacies, I find both paths useful (and so do the cyclists that use these paths daily). And I much prefer them to cycling on the edge of the road, with or without a widened lane supposedly shareable by cyclists and commuters and buses. I have never have taken my young children on these roads, either on their baby seats, tag-a-longs, or own bikes. We used the sidewalks.

One day last November, I started cycling west along the Scott St path from the Bayview intersection. Parallel to me, on Scott St, was a bike commuter. Nifty tight suit, big colourful face shield, multi speed bike (I was on my heavy clunker six speeder). At green, the commuter was off like a bullet, swerving around the unsmooth catchbasins, passing the line of cars at each red light. And I caught up to him at each light, and we started off even again. I didn't race, I am incapable of that, I just plod along. We were still parallel at Parkdale, Holland, Island Park. Then at Lanark, he made the light and I caught the red. By the time he turned at Churchill I was still a few hundred feet behind. In my humble opinion, he gained nothing in speed or safety by riding on the road.

So ... why do I want a wider path on the south side of Albert in front of the new condos? Simply to provide a safe access to the Bayview Station for residents and workers on the south side of Albert. To someday, hopefully, connect to the maybe-someday-path from Dow's Lake to the Ottawa River. To provide safe, grade separated path to the river when the LRT blocks access across the Flats. Until we get the city to actually build paths, we gotta make due with the little that we've got or can get.

Shuffling the PAROLE OFFICE to Somerset St

The present location of the Parole Office on Elgin Street has been subject to a lot of complaint from area politicians and community groups. Corrections Canada has suggested addressing their unhappiness by relocating the office to 1010 Somerset (pictured above) conveniently located between the Plant Recreation Centre and Devonshire Public School.

They are holding a public consultation meeting at the Bronson Centre at 7pm on Monday, March 30th. Comments can also be sent to www.csc-scc.gc.ca/consultation.

The office will serve about 200 federal offenders a year. It employs about 36 parole officers and others.

Advantages of the proposed location (compared to the Elgin site) include the relative absense of senior bureaucrats living in our neighborhood [invaluable for throwing up bureaucratic roadblocks], the lower income profile of the area, and perhaps the on-street amenities. They also chose a spot that's almost out of each local councilor's ward, being on the boundary of Hintonburg and Somerset wards.

For Lack of a CDP - Community Development Plan

There is a deliberately vague planning environment for the two 30-storey condo towers proposed by Phoenix DCR for 801 Albert Street (the vacant lot beside the City Centre tower and opposite Tom Brown Arena and the Bayview OTrain Station ). The City has signalled that it wants development to be significantly better than the industrial zoning common along the Bayview to Carling rail corridor. Yet it lacks a comprehensive plan for developing the area. A Community Development Plan (CDP) was begun several years ago, and considerable progress was made. The Phoenix development in a number of respects honours the incomplete CDP, but the city shelved the plan process in favour of other priorities.

Residents are left with the worst of situations. The current zoning cannot be relied on. The new zoning is hinted at in the incomplete CDP but there is nothing official. We can now only look with envy at the Escarpment CDP recently approved by the city (for the lands running from Ottawa Tech site down Albert to Booth) or the Lebreton development agreements. The existence of a CDP allows developers to propose projects that fit into a larger neighborhood wide plan, which will make their projects more marketable and a result in a better neighborhood over time. Meanwhile Dalhousie residents, and those in adjacent Hintonburg, are stuck with ill-defined underdeveloped lands that become prey for any developer or politicians’ bright idea – including three (!) outdoor stadium-and-concert-hall proposals just last month. LRT train yards? Highest condo in the city? Parole office? Anything goes!

We must, yet again, nag the councilors and city to get the neighborhood CDP reactivated: neighborhood plans are supposed to be in place before developments are proposed.

[The Escarpment Plan, passed by the City last year, calls for a number of neighborhood benefits, including a bike/pedestrian path along the north side of Albert, and burying the LRT track underground starting at Booth St so that the City-owned development sites won't be looking into an open cut. The multipurpose path appeared like magic in 2008 as part of the new watermain project along Albert; the Downtown Ottawa Transit Tunnel plans all start with the buried section of track right at the edge of the City's development site. Would Bayview-Carling corridor residents be so lucky as to have an effective CDP in place to guide developments!]

Woodpecker on Primrose

Saw the pictured woodpecker on Primrose St in front of St Vincent Hospital around 1pm on March 17th. He had created a significant litter of woodchips on the lawn and sidewalk, which is how I spotted him, since his pecking was silent. It was bigger than a robbin, smaller than a crow; much larger than the woodpeckers I normally see in this neighborhood.

LeBreton Flats: landscaping in winter time

The much-criticized condo tower on LeBreton Flats near Wellington and the War Museum is the first new residential building on these brownfields in 25 years. The view of the building is not helped by its isolation and strip-mined surroundings. Until the condo apartment market heats up again, we won't see the second half of the first building (yes, second half: the first building is L shaped; the second joins onto it with another 7 storey yellow brick base and a 14 storey tower, making the whole building look like one, shaped in a U with the open end facing the valley).

The building is well set back from Wellington Street (replacing the old Ottawa River Parkway) to preserve the sight lines of Parliamentary precinct. Amongst other uses, the land is to eventually be the site of the Fallen Fire Fighters Monument. Until a few weeks ago, the site was a rubble-strewn depression about 3-5 metres deep. Freezing winter temperatures doesn't discourage the NCC however, and they have been busy landscaping the area. They filled the depression with packed-down fill and are topping it off with topsoil. I wonder where they get the so many truckloads of dry, unfrozen topsoil they are putting on the planting beds. I love the way they plant trees too: on Tuesday last, they dug a trench about 1 metre deep, 3 metres wide, all along the edge of the property facing Wellington, to make a deep planting bed. By today it too was filled will topsoil. They have also laid the gravel bed for the pedestrian and bike path that will (someday) extend between the new condos and the tailrace.

The photo is taken today from the sidewalk on Wellington looking South along the east side of the new condo building, it shows the new bike path curving as it goes toward Pooley's Bridge. The segments behind the condo are to be installed by Claridge, not the NCC, so we probably won't have a open path for several years when the second condo tower is finished. I am curious to see if the NCC will seed the grass or move in trees while the ground is still frozen.

Now, if only the NCC would address itself to the eyesore on the west side of the new condo. It's another open pit, about 3 metres deep, supposedly reserved for two office towers in the eleven storey height range. But with no construction in sight, they should fill it in and green it now.

City Centre Office Tower Loses Roof Sign

The City Centre office and warehouse complex, 250 City Centre Avenue, opposite the Bayview OTrain station and Tom Brown Arena, is often referred to as the ugliest in the city. While not pretty, its not so bad either. I should know, I look at it from my house, and until I sold my business a few years ago, was/is the largest tennant in the industrial bays.

The night time picture was taken at 2am a few weeks ago from a window on the third floor of my house, looking across the roof of the Just Rite Storage building, aka the former Champagne Streetcar Barn and aka the former Vimy House ateliers for the War Museum. The large red sign lettering above the eighth floor has not been illuminated for several years. Curiously, the Y in City was actually a V.

The daytime picture is taken from the Somerset Viaduct (bridge) today and shows that the sign letters facing east have been removed. Presumably the ones facing south, still visible, will go too.

Removing the letters doesn't really improve the view, as the very dirty brick spells out the name in absentia. I kinda liked the letters when they were illuminated: they reminded me that there is more to Ottawa than bland office towers full of cubicles, ie there are some industrial and manufacturing activities still here. The letters added a frisson of excitement to the skyline. Sniff.

801 Albert St Condo Towers - Bayview Station area

There is a vacant triangular plot of land at the corner of City Centre Avenue at Albert, just across from the Bayview OTrain Station and Tom Brown Arena, and beside the existing 8 storey City Centre office tower. The land has been owned by Phoenix development for some years. They have applied for rezoning for two 31-storey condo towers and a four storey office building. Each tower would be similar in height and size to the Metropole tower built further west on Scott near Westboro Station. The Metropole development, with townhouses clustered at its base, turned out well, despite its scary height. (I have an instictive distrust of developers bringing high towers).

How tall is enough? The City-owned lands to the northwest (now site of the snow dump) are planned for high rise apartments in the 23 storey range. The Escarpment plan, recently approved by the City for the lands along Albert between Booth and Bronson, calls for 23 storey (75 metre) heights. The site immediately south of the Phoenix property has been approved for similar heights for about 15 years. LeBreton Flats itself is zoned for 7 to 14 story buildings. This site should not be zoned any higher than 75m in my opinion.

The small office building component proposed at the City Centre Avenue/Albert St intersection does relate to the pedestrian on the street, but the set-back towers do not. We need to enhance the pedestrian environment, perhaps by structuring the towers more as a podium of town houses and having set backs as the tower goes upwards.

A wider multipurpose path, treed on both sides, should replace the current sidewalk along the curb. The development should also promote direct cycling and pedestrian access to the transit hub at Bayview and the NCC Ottawa River parklands, by integrating links along the O-train line under Albert and the transitway bridges. There is too much surface parking in the current proposal; putting all resident parking underground would improve the landscaping greenspace and promote walking and transit use.

(note: this post is based on my column for the March edition of the Centretown BUZZ community newspaper)