Robert Henry Cowley and the Ottawa Board of Improvement

On the 9th of February 1922, the precursor to the National Capital Commission - the Ottawa Improvement Commission - and Robert H. Cowley entered into an agreement. The Commission granted Cowley the parcels of land adjacent to what is now Island Park Drive, subject to a number of restrictive covenants governing how those lots would develop. The covenants prohibited commercial traffic, largely gave the Commission design control over buildings, forced services to the rear of the lots and prescribed laneways.

Those covenants have been passed down through title to this day - and will expire in 2020/2021, one hundred years after they were put in effect. That's a big deal.

I've been working closely with the NCC and with Island Park residents, as well as the City, as we begin to envision a post-covenant Island Park Drive. There's a fair bit of time, but it behooves us to get ahead of what comes next.

In the meantime, though, I know there are a number of area historians and chroniclers in Kitchissippi. Just for fun, I've posted the original document scans to Dropbox here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ekhr0xhm3bas2qm/AAAJ0CHz5vfkP5ggoh6kr1O2a?dl=0.