GCA:Leave park off Lansdowne design
Posted Mar 5, 2010 By Desmond Devoy
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Tweet ThisEMC News - The Glebe Community Association (GCA) is asking that Sylvia Holden Park be removed from the design plan maps for the Lansdowne Park redevelopment.
"We decided we would write the City and say that we were concerned that staff and the design panel are not following council's direction," to keep Sylvia Holden Park out of the Lansdowne Live plans, said the GCA's Lansdowne Park committee chair, June Creelman. "Update the visuals to make sure that the community park is not part of Lansdowne Live."
As of last week, the GCA had yet to hear back from the City.
Ottawa City Council had voted in favour recently of asserting that Sylvia Holden Park "is a legal, separate entity that is not to be included as part of (the plans for) Lansdowne Park," said Creelman during the GCA's monthly meeting at the Glebe Community Centre, on the evening of February 23.
However, she charged that "it is the design panel that says that you have to integrate (the designs for Lansdowne Park) with nearby green space," and that they want to "integrate the baseball diamonds into the larger civic agenda of Lansdowne Park."
"If a motion says it, whether you agree with it or not, you must do it," agreed GCA President Caroline Vanneste.
Ward 17 (Capital) City Councillor Clive Doucet stated at the meeting that, from his point of view, there has already been a great deal of "damage that has been done by conflating the green space with the asphalt," in the current plans. "By including the ball diamonds (in the plans) they give a total misrepresentation."
Earlier that same day, Coun. Doucet said that he would not be attending any of the public consultations on February 24 and 25 at the Canadian War Museum and Ottawa City Hall respectively, because he did not want to be seen to legitimize a process that he does not have faith in.
"It really bothered me when I saw those huge pictures showing green space," in the newspapers, that were not actually part of the plan. "I don't trust the process," Coun. Doucet said, adding that, even after a council directive, the design panel and City staff "refuses to honour it. That's how little control we have and we haven't even leased it yet."
Creelman suggested that, along with seeking legal advice on the matter, the GCA may also hold a media event at the park, with dog walkers, baseball players and other residents expressing their views.
At the end of the meeting, the GCA board voted $200 towards the costs of hosting a "meet-and-greet" at Vanneste's house with the design team on the evening of Thursday, February 25, to welcome them to The Glebe.
"We really want them to look at the whole place," Creelman said, even if it is outside of their mandate. "It's not their fault that the process is flawed."
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