Hampton Iona Looks 4ward to the Future

Think about the qualities that drew you to live in the neighbourhood of Hampton Iona and/or the surrounding Westboro and Wellington Village areas.  What made this part of Ottawa a place in which you wanted to live, raise a family and retire?   How do you feel about the way your neighbourhood is developing now?  What concerns you?  What excites you?  How do we retain the qualities that make this a special part of the city in which to live, while dealing with issues such as intensification and opportunities such as the LRT?

Come and join us for a “big picture” conversation concerning the future of our corner of Kitchissippi Ward.    With significant new development, infill and changing transportation systems, Hampton Iona and the rest of Kitchissippi Ward will look significantly different in 10 or 20 years.  How can we have a voice in what our future will look like?  What role can citizens play in designing our neighbourhoods and city; and coping with change?  How can we make sure that our social and physical infrastructures keep pace with our population growth?

On October 18 from 7 pm to 9 pm, the Hampton Iona Community Group (HICG) will be holding a public conversation with Councillor Jeff Leiper:   Ward 15: Looking 4ward.  Facilitated by our own professional facilitator, Ken Hoffman of One World, Ward 15: Looking 4ward will be an opportunity to learn more about what is envisioned by the City of Ottawa for our area, and for us to work in small groups to discuss what is important to us.  From population projections to the impact of the LRT on our neighbourhoods, this will be an opportunity for all of us to learn more about the future, the role we can play and that of our community association in helping to make decisions. 

While we have all had concerns and complaints about both the impacts and implementation of intensification, we recognize that growth is going to happen.  The purpose of this event is to spend a productive evening learning more about how Westboro and Kitchissippi are expected to grow, what are our key issues and how we can better control our future.

For a number of years we have had a Secondary Plan for Westboro and Richmond Road which has sadly not worked the way we intended.  On October 18^th, we will learn more about what we need to do to get the City to revise our Secondary Plan so that it has teeth and, what our role is in revising the Plan.

While the Ward15: Looking 4ward event is intended for residents of the Hampton Iona area, if you care about the future of Westboro you may be interested regardless where you live in the ward.  Ward15: Looking 4ward will be held in the second floor demonstration kitchen (handicap accessible) at the Loblaws Superstore (Richmond Road and Kirkwood).   For details or questions, please contact HIGC at webmaster@hamptoniona.ca.    We look forward to seeing you on October 18^th.