Light rail realignment at Cleary

Yesterday, stakeholders in the immediate vicinity of the proposed Cleary LRT station and media were briefed on a proposed change to the LRT route around Cleary Avenue. The new route will turn south sooner to the east, which effectively makes it possible to have a proper station fronting onto Richmond Road, and takes the line out of the Unitarian campus property. There's a lot of media attention being focused on this, so I won't get into a lot of the details. For our ward, there are some key considerations that bear mentioning. Read more here. There are some details that still need working out, but I'm very supportive of the change.

Development proposals now online for drive-thru, Scott/McRae

The full proposals for both the Main and Main drive-thru proposal and Scott/McRae proposal are now online, and the comment period is in progress for both. You can find the full Scott/McRae documentation here, and Richmond drive-thru here. At both links, you'll find instructions to send comments to the application lead City planners. The favour I'd ask is that you also send me any comments you send to the City by copying and pasting your feedback into a separate email. While I've been very clear on my opposition to the drive-thru proposal, I'd really like to hear your thoughts for and against the Scott/McRae proposal. 

Parkway lane reduction trial balloon

I was fascinated, and significant media ink was spilled, to hear the trial balloon floated Wednesday night by the NCC about potentially closing two of the four lanes on the Parkway in the mid- to long-term between Carling and Island Park. I'm intrigued and open-minded to it. The NCC is touting an increase in green space (74% more), more space for segregated cycling infrastructure that gets commuting cyclists off paths also used by pedestrians, and a reduction in speeding as benefits. Residents can probably guess that I have a lot of sympathy for doing all three. But, and I heard your early feedback at the consultation and have seen the discussion generated by this idea, there would need to be a lot more thinking and consultation about it before it becomes something I'm comfortable supporting. The Parkway is a critical piece of our tranportation network, carrying something over 9,000 cars per day. The NCC's proposed geography would still see the parkway at four lanes from Island Park downtown - a clear nod to the commuting traffic it carries to and from Quebec. But, we'll be taking 2500 buses a day off the Parkway when LRT opens. When LRT begins phase II operations, there will be significant new capacity to replace cars with transit. Could it work? I am following keenly the discussion.

At the same consultation on Wednesday night, the NCC showed some potential development visions in keeping with the deal they have with the City to preserve part of Rochester Field as parkland that came out of LRT negotiations. It has evolved significantly since the NCC and City first proposed a (now on-hold) Official Plan amendment to implement the deal. I encourage everyone to take a look at the consultation materials available here, and to fill out the NCC's survey.

Spencer rebuild progress

I don't have any major update for residents with whom I'm working to achieve a safer Spencer Street after the re-build this summer. I'd just like to offer that my discussions with staff continue, and I've received some very well-articulated community input about taking this once-in-decades opportunity to slow down traffic and offer safer cycling infrastructure. It's an active discussion at City Hall at the most senior levels. After some key meetings next week, I'll be in a position to offer some further insight into progress. In the meantime, this is an issue on which I and my staff continue to work nearly daily.

Pop-up on March 30th

A quick reminder that our next pop-up is March 30 from 1-4, at Simply Biscotti in Westboro.

Clare/Hilson proposal

As noted previously, a re-worked application went to the Committee of Adjustment recently for the southwest corner of Clare/Hilson. The developer had planning approval for multiple townhomes at the corner that I and the community opposed. Apparently unable to sell those, a new application was instead made to the Committee for six semi-detached units. Those would normally be allowed as-of-right, but the variances were sought to allow a much smaller rear-yard. I objected in writing to that reduction both with the City and with the Committee. However, I'm told that the Committee has passed those. No objection was made at the Committee hearing.

Rosemount Library consultations

We held two consultation sessions last week about the future of the Rosemount library branch. Both were very well-attended, and our Tuesday night session saw Library CEO Danielle MacDonald and Library Board Chair Tim Tierney join the discussion. I've put a significant financial investment into these consultations, co-hosted by the READ Rosemount, including for a facilitator and to provide child care (thanks Dovercourt!). Thus far, I think that's paying off. We heard at the sessions a lot of discussion about various improvements that could be made, and our priorities for programming. It came through loud and clear that if the Library is going to serve all the needs we heard, it will be important to find more space. That may or may not be possible in the near-to-mid-term, but the prioriities we heard are of help to the Library as they move ahead with at least a renovation in the near-term. I was very interested to hear ideas about land swaps to give us more space in the immediate neighbourhood, and potentially using other community facilities to serve as annex programming space. Our facilitator, working with READ and I, will take these ideas to the Library for discussion, seek further information, and get us to a point of discussing the ideas in greater depth at our next set of consultations to be held April 16 and 19.

Kitchissippi parking strategy open house

A reminder that the City will be making a final presentation wrapping up our Kitchissippi parking strategy study on March 30 from 6-8:30. Residents will have a chance to review the data that has been collected and potential recommendations that will be made to the City later this spring/summer. The open house will be held at the Hintonburg Community Centre from 6-8:30 pm, with a presentation and Q&A session from 6:30-7:10.

Westfest presents Homemade Jam lineup

Westfest unveiled its lineup this week: Homemade Jam! I'm beyond excited that Executive Producer Elaina Martin is bringing Luther Wright & The Wrongs to headline the Sunday night show for the June 3-5 festival. Of local ward note, the Churchill School of Rock will take the stage on Saturday, June 4, and my longtime community partner Lucky Ron performs on the Sunday. I know where I'll be that weekend. My apologies to Elaina and community for not being able to host the launch this week as planned - the LRT re-alignment announcement and briefings took priority. I'm told by the Mayor, who was able to attend and speak, that it was an amazing time. Check it all out at westfest.ca.

Let's speed up investments in cycling infrastructure

I was pleased to co-sign a letter to the City with Councillors McKenney, Nussbaum and Fleury asking it to speed up planned investments in cycling infrastructure and take those off the hands of property taxpayers when we apply for funding to the new federal Green Infrastructure Fund. Read our letter here.

At City Hall

The March Break calm was definitely broken this week, despite its shortness. On Monday, I participated in a marathon seven-hour Community and Protective Services Committee meeting looking at banning the sale of pets from commercial sources in pet stores. I don't sit on the Committee, but am thankful that Councillor Chiarelli introduced two motions on my behalf for debate. City staff had recommended exempting the three pet stores currently selling dogs, cats and rabbits from a new ban on selling dogs and cats from sources other than shelters, rescues and other non-commercial sources. They also recommended that rabbits do not need to be included in that ban. My motions would have removed that exemption to make the ban total, and to include rabbits in response to the massive community support I heard for both directions. Councillor Taylor, who also does not sit on the committee, made a compromise motion through Councillor Fleury to enact the staff-recommended ban across the board, giving those stores still selling commercially-sourced pets five years to transition out. After seven hours of public delegations and debate, Committee ultimately passed Councillor Taylor's motion. It's not the immediate ban many were seeking, but it's a significant positive departure from the staff recommendation. My motion on the inclusion of rabbits was also defeated. This will now come to City Council for debate. 

We had a City Council this week at which photo radar enforcement for speeding was briefly discussed. As I'm sure residents are aware, Councillor Brockington had a motion this week asking the City to ask the Province for permission to use photo radar in response to the overwhelming volume of requests we get to deal with speeding in residential areas as well as school and community zones. I and Council voted in favour, however, of a motion to refer the issue to the Transportation Committee. The issue will be dealt with in May. The advantage of dealing with the issue in Committee is that we'll be able to hear from public delegations. I urge everyone to come out and make a 5-minute presentation to the Committee when it discusses the issue.

Also at Council this week, I voted against a proposed development on Hazeldean Road that I had supported at Planning Committee. It was proposed at Council to amend the approval with a condition that would see single-family homes back against only single-family homes - and not semi-detached as originally proposed. At Committee, we heard from residents that they were concerned about aesthetics and property values if the proposal were allowed to go ahead. I couldn't support this change at Council given that so little regard is often given to compatibility issues in the core when we're dealing with 15-, 20- and even 30-storey towers next to or very close to our low-rise residential areas. The proposal passed, but I and Councillor McKenney, who also voted against, made our point. Councillor Chernushenko voted in favour, but I have a lot of respect for his intervention. His point was clear: he hopes similar regard for compatibility will be extended the next time we consider an application that proposes to put a mid-to-high-rise on a residential street of low-rise homes.

Next week is just as packed. There are a flurry of new issues coming to my office from staff in various meetings, and the IT sub-committee of which I'm vice-chair will be meeting. One of the key meetings to which I'm looking forward will be to discuss the Van Lang field house. We are fielding more questions about it as the snow melts. It is very, very close to opening. I and my staff have been working for months to get some key kitchen upgrades in place, and that has held up opening. We're working now on finalizing the operating agreement between the City, Ottawa Community Housing, Dovercourt Recreation Association, the Carlington Community Health Centre and Westboro Beach Community Association. Everyone has essentially the same vision of how the field house will be run with Dovercourt overseeing day-to-day operations - we just need to get signatures to paper.