Public and private developers’ role in bad planning
Let’s put it to voters in the upcoming provincial and municipal elections
By Ken Rubin
In the upcoming provincial and municipal elections, private developers’ stranglehold on building more high-rises, upsetting neighbourhoods and creating urban sprawl will feature prominently. But so should the role played by municipal, provincial and federal institutions in partnership with private developers.
For instance, not many people assume The Ottawa Hospital, whose main money comes from the province, is a developer, but it is. It is building a large hospital on sensitive parklands at the Experimental Farm that it got for free. The tender bid has just gone out for construction of the controversial parking garage.
Yet the hospital, with a $500-million fundraising campaign underway, sees no need to pay for and build a transportation extension from the O Train to make their ill-chosen site more accessible to its clientele. Those costs will exceed $200 million. It should not be the taxpayers of Ottawa who bear the costs to ease traffic congestion and to help patients get safely to the hospital.
Then there’s the City’s claim that taxpayers will not pay a cent for selling off Lansdowne Park air rights for condo towers. The site is already full of high-rise condos and box stores. But now Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG) wants the city to push through a plan before the October municipal election to build more high-rises while extending its time to pay back the City.
But it’s the National Capital Commission (NCC) who for years has been the one selling off the most public land to private concerns, claiming they are surplus lands. It started big-time when area developer Marcel Beaudry became the powerful NCC chair and continues under the current chair, former city councillor Toby Nussbaum.
It includes the unelected NCC going ahead with privatizing the last remaining large downtown public space at LeBreton Flats. First to be sold off cheaply was land for Claridge Homes’ high-rises. Then a setback occurred with the collapse of the RendezVous proposal by the Ottawa Senators and the Trinity Development Group for a combination arena and massive condo project. So the NCC moved selfishly to divide the land into sectors so more area developers could benefit, meaning more lucrative revenues would come their way.
The first such sector, just sold to the Dream Company, is between the Pimisi LRT station and the misplaced “downtown” library, a condo area the NCC cynically calls the Library District. Final negotiations for that deal, though, must include the NCC and Dream sharing in and paying for an enclosed, winterized, moving sidewalk between Pimisi station and the Adisoke Library for library clientele.
As well, the NCC is going to be “voting” next month to turn the area between Pimisi and Bayview LRT stations into a resurrected sports entertainment arena to be sold to an area entrepreneur. No serious consideration has been given to using this high-traffic area for a national and local public meeting space and wellness centre, with the rest of the tract set aside for a grand central park.
The myth that the damage to Ottawa’s landscape is being done solely by private developers must be dispelled. It’s the City, for instance, that gave the unconditional approvals at no cost to private developers building large towers at LRT stations. Public institutions, however, like the Central Library and the Civic Hospital got secondary treatment nearby but no direct LRT entry.
Add to the equation Premier Ford, now up for reelection, who has helped developers and urban sprawl immensely by passing laws to get rid of unwanted local zoning and planning regulations. While the City of Ottawa is dissatisfied with Ford’s intrusion into its planning turf, the City and Ford share similar goals of not wanting any substantial, restrictive, planned and public-led sustainable urban growth.
Two upcoming elections – one provincial and one municipal – are the time to debate these cozy developer relationships and the role played by public agencies, and to choose candidates to fight back against such detrimental partnerships.
Ken Rubin lives in the Glebe and writes on local planning issues. He is reachable at kenrubin.ca.
