No Rezone Playfair

FYI, you will find the City’s “Transportation Impact Assessment Guidelines” which was approved in October 2006 at:

http://ottawa.ca/calendar/ottawa/citycouncil/occ/2006/09-27/arac/ACS2006-PWS-TRF-0021.htm

Thanks to a concerned neighbour who forwarded the link!

I was told today “hey, there’s nothing new on the blog”. So, here’s a new posting on the blog:

• We are lining up our ducks in preparation for using the generous contributions to-date (almost $2,000 or 40% to our goal!) for our urban planner and legal counsel.  More details will be publicly disclosed once all the contracts have been signed and all parties are comfortable.
• KEEP ON CONTRIBUTING AND GET YOUR NEIGHBOURS INVOLVED! $25!!! The more contributions now, the easier we can move forward as a neighbourhood with our issues to the City of Ottawa and the developer.
• On Sunday, we can fully embrace the month of June. June, already?  Where has the time flown? It feels like only 2 months ago I was going door-to-door handing out flyers to the Alta Vista community regarding the proposed rezoning in frozen winter conditions…. Oh wait, it was 2 months ago.
• Councillor Hume committed to a community meeting on the rezoning proposal back in April.  He was prepared for this meeting to take place in June. To-date, I have not received any literature, an email or a telephone message from Councillor Hume’s office regarding the June meeting, but I am ever the optimist that one is being planned and all residents who have emailed/written/faxed/called Councillor Hume or the City of Ottawa will be given the appropriate notice.
• The interest in neighbours wanting window or lawn signs has been tremendous (beyond our expectations).  The first batch of signs is prominently displayed around Alta Vista and we are hoping to put together the second wave of signs (with a slightly bigger font size) closer to the end of August.
• Direct people to the blog (www.norezone.wordpress.com) for updates and comments.  My posts are only valuable if we have maximum readership.
• There should be a piece about NOREZONE’s effort in June’s VISTAS.  Take a look, clip it out, and share it with others.
• If anyone has any interest in canvassing the neighbourhood for contributions, let me know.
• On a completely unrelated note, I very much enjoyed last night’s season finale of “Lost”.  Not quite as good as last year’s season finale, but it does set the tone for the remaining two seasons.  If you have not joined the “Lost” caravan, now’s the time – an entire summer to catch up on 4 seasons of DVDs. : )
• Have a great weekend!

Two recent scenes that remind us that the owner of 1701 Kilborn Avenue is not necessarily minding the store.

(1) Last Tuesday, the apartment decided to place the furniture on the curb that would be picked up by the City of Ottawa garbage trucks.  The problem? Well, the only problem is that Monday was Victoria Day and garbage pickup is always pushed back by one day (that’s why we get those beautiful handy-dandy calendars from the City).  That meant that the eyesore was there for an extra 24 hours.  Can’t the apartment do something about this and train its staff on when to put out the garbage?

(2) Yesterday (Monday), someone decided to put out the furniture garbage – again well before any possible garbage pickup.  It’s there now and it will be until Wednesday morning at the earliest.  I realize that some of this dumping is technically out of the apartment’s control (sometimes done by good samaritans in the complex), but this is getting ridiculous.  The apartment should be proactive NOW by  (1) setting up a policy of no dumping at all and (2) removing the dumped material until garbage day comes around.

FYI, the bonus item this time is a mattress that was dumped on the curb closer to the condominium.  I’m sure they are thrilled by this new “furniture art” as they leave their homes.

Last Saturday (May 24^th) @ 5:00 a.m., an Ottawa fire truck made an appearance at the entrance way to 1695 Playfair Drive.  The reason? A fire had broken out in a grey City of Ottawa recycling container that had been left out overnight by the apartment complex. The recycling container was filled with metal cans and the fire was extinguished very quickly, but the root (independent of possible neighbourhood mischief) cause of the fire has to be the fact that the container was exposed and waiting for trouble.  I believe that the container was out there because of a recycling pickup on Saturday morning, but wouldn’t it be more logical to have the container brought out in the morning and returned indoors in the afternoon?  Is that too logical?

Hi.  It has come to our attention today that there is at least one other neighbourhood defence fund TD Canada Trust account that has been set up at their 1785 Kilborn Avenue branch.

In order to minimize the confusion for you and the bank tellers, envelopes can be dropped off 24 hours/day to:

McGuinty Law Offices, 1801 Kilborn Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario  K1H 6N1

(attention: No Rezone) 

All envelopes will be deposited into:

Account: NO REZONE

Account #:  0577-5210242

Account location: TD Canada Trust, 1785 Kilborn Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario  K1H 6N1

Thanks and have a great weekend.

Many of you have asked what our next steps should be in our efforts to restrain this proposed development. While the grassroots campaign has taken off and the community’s energy is marshalled, we are in need of some professional advice. I have spoken with some of you about the idea of hiring a lawyer and urban planner— experts in municipal law and policy. We need an independent assessment of our rights and of the feasibility of this development. We need someone to look at the plans and tell us what is possible. We need to channel our spirit to a professional plan of action.

So what will it cost us? At this point, we are asking for 25 dollars.

How would you like peace of mind over the future of this piece of land for the price of a few cups of coffee at Starbucks, 1 night out at the movies, 3 hours of babysitting or 1 extra-large pizza? That’s what we are looking for… $25 (or more, if you see fit) from at least 200 concerned neighbours. This should give us enough to consult a lawyer and fund a couple of independent studies of the proposed development and its traffic, congestion and other consequences.

With the assistance of TD Canada Trust, the”NO REZONE” in-trust account 0577-5210242 has been set up at 1785 Kilborn Avenue for the neighbourhood defence fund. All funds will be dedicated for the representation of legal counsel and an urban planner

All contributing members will receive a copy of the legal opinion, urban planning assessment and all other related documents.

Any unused funds will be donated to the Pleasant Park Public School, on behalf of the neighbourhood, for the restoration and revitalization of the outdated and overworked playstructures, which have been and will be used by countless children in the community.

It’s win-win-win and it’s only going to set you back $25.

Cheques or cash can be dropped off or mailed to:

TD Canada Trust, 1785 Kilborn Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario K1H 6N1
(attention: NO REZONE account 0577-5210242)

In the alternative, envelopes can be dropped off 24 hours/day to:

McGuinty Law Offices, 1801 Kilborn Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario K1H 6N1
(attention: No Rezone Playfair)

While we will continue to accept funds indefinitely, we ask that you try and make your contribution by Monday, June 2, 2008. We would like to hire the lawyer and get some preliminary opinions before the June public consultation meetings that Counsellor Hume is organizing (still no word on date or location!).

If we all give $25 AND canvass our neighbours and friends, we will certainly raise the required funds in no time at all. If you cannot afford $25, please give what you can. If you feel able to offer more, we welcome all contributions. Though we cannot offer charitable tax receipts, rest assured that all the money will be put to good use to better our neighbourhood.

Thanks in advance for your help and support.

As always, feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Though Randall Denley deems the Kilborn/Playfair redevelopment a “modest plan” (see definition of “modest” below), it was at least discussed in his Ottawa Citizen article today titled “Transit will determine if we’re a city or suburbs – Council and staff have done a poor job of selling the idea of a dense, vibrant, transit-dependent core that all ‘real’ cities have”.

“People love the status quo, and don’t want their neighbourhoods to change. In Alta Vista, a developer has proposed to add two four-storey buildings and an 18-storey apartment building to two similar buildings that have long stood at Kilborn Avenue and Playfair Drive. The community is in an uproar over this modest plan.”

Contact Randall Denley at 613-596-3756 or by e-mail, rdenley@thecitizen.canwest.com

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/columnists/story.html?id=636973c2-c422-4b42-845a-acfa0b09450d

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

modest

adj.

4. Free from showiness or ostentation; unpretentious. See Synonyms at plain.

5. Moderate or limited in size, quantity, or range; not extreme: a modest price; a newspaper with a modest circulation.

From The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

modest

Adjective

2. not extreme or excessive: a modest increase in inflation

3. not ostentatious or pretentious: a modest flat in the suburbs

MODEST

Adj.

1. marked by simplicity; having a humble opinion of yourself; “a modest apartment”; “too modest to wear his medals”

2. not large but sufficient in size or amount; “a modest salary”; “modest inflation”; “helped in my own small way”

3. free from pomp or affectation; “comfortable but modest cottages”; “a simple rectangular brick building”; “a simple man with simple tastes”

5. low or inferior in station or quality; “a humble cottage”; “a lowly parish priest”; “a modest man of the people”; “small beginnings”

7. limited in size or scope; “a small business”; “a newspaper with a modest circulation”; “small-scale plans”; “a pocket-size country”

Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2008 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

As of tomorrow morning, residents of the City of Ottawa will allegedly be able to access all the development plans in their neighbours via the website:

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=4d59fe34-3eda-437a-a023-88ceccdbe536

This has no impact on the Playfair/Kilborn redevelopment since the rezoning application went in prior to the start-date of this initiative.

Just something to keep in mind down the road to track the growth of Alta Vista.

I was driving along Main Street yesterday heading downtown when I noticed an awful 3-storey condo unit near the corner of Lees/Main that has almost no setback at all from the street.  It just looks terrible.  I pointed this out to my wife and she also noted what I call the “lack of understanding of setback”.

Take a look around the city and notice how buildings are placed near and far from the curb.  Now try and imagine that type of building on Playfair Drive.  Ick.  It sends shivers down my spine.

I have to admit that I now pay a lot more attention to “setback” and 4-storey buildings now that the issue has come up in Alta Vista.  I actually look at buildings and try and analyze the pros and cons of that type of structure on Playfair Drive.  No matter which way I look at these buildings, I cannot find one that makes me go “hey, that would look fabulous on a street with 1 and 2-storey single family homes”.

Take a look. Note it. Be afraid.

Conceding to a setback rezoning could have significant effects.

There was a fire alarm last night (approximately 3 a.m.) at 1705 Playfair Drive (the Vista on the Park condo which has its entranceway connected to the apartment complex) and I hope no one was injured and nothing was damaged. I think the fire service in Ottawa is excellent and I am always pleased that they are super punctual (due to their proximity on Alta Vista Drive).

I am not sure what a “3 alarm chili” actually is, but I certainly can tell you what a 3 a.m. fire truck sounds like on Playfair Drive. Once the fire trucks were summoned to the condominium, it became painfully obvious that the firetruck drivers could not figure out how to access the building from Playfair Drive. There was a lot of that “backing up ‘beep beep beep’ and a lot of retrying to figure out how to get in.

This is not a first time occurrence of this problem, nor is it a laughing matter since every second that goes by puts another person at potentially serious risk. When you consider how large these apartment buildings are and the number of people potentially involved, it does require a pause to think about what the future might be like in the neighbourhood if changes are not made.

It all comes back down to seriously poor original planning of the entrance/access roads to the apartments and condo from Playfair Drive. It is confusing at the best of time in broad daylight, but it is completely incomprehensible at night. A separate clearly marked entrance way for the condominium should be put in place.

I hope this is noted in the Fire Marshall’s log since it is very relevant to the issue of increasing capacity by 217 units and 3 additional buildings in the small area.

Again, I hope no one was injured last night and nothing was damaged. Here’s to a firetruck-free night tonight and for the nights ahead.

Top 10 things I love about Alta Vista

10. No need to use the Queensway to access the downtown core

9.  The Alta Vista library – great staff for adults and children

8. The community garden

7. The Kilborn traffic circle

6. Mature trees everywhere

5. Canterbury Community Centre – activities for all

4. The great neighbours – a real sense of community

3. Pleasant Park Public School

2.  The hanging plants in summer/wreaths in winter on Alta Vista Drive (I think this is an Alta Vista Community Association venture)

1. Grasshopper Hill and all the other wonderful sources of greenspace

Happy Mother’s Day to one and all!

Here’s a little update to questions that have been raised over the last couple of days. Click on the link called “FAQ” in the top right corner to access the information.

There’s lots of talk in the neighbourhood about the rezoning and the proposed redevelopment. Number one question I get asked is “what are our rights as a neighbourhood?”. Number 2 question is a generic one that is all encompassing – “where is the information and/or facts from the developer/City to justify any of this rezoning/redevelopment?”. I wish I had these magical answers. I do not. I don’t think you do either. The developer is deliberately providing the bare minimum of information to the City of Ottawa. They know how the game is played. Their goal is to ensure apathy in the neighbourhood over time. One way of doing it is to minimize the information/facts. They are smart. Very smart. However, the neighbourhood is collectively just as smart and, I believe, up to the challenge.

What I do think is that the next step is to bring in independent legal counsel knowledgeable on real estate/urban planning/the City of Ottawa bureaucracies and the developer and get us the information (if it exists at this point) in order to be able to debate these issues properly at the upcoming June (TBA) community meeting with the City of Ottawa and Councillor Hume. We as a community need to know our rights, we need to know what can and cannot be done and we need to have all the facts spread out in front of us. I could put out a “call” for a neighbourhood meeting and I bet 500 of you would show up (based on the emails/telephone calls/on-the-street communications), but we should not do a meeting until we have FACTS We need them now. What do you think? Comments please.

It’s not directly on point with the proposed development, but why oh why can’t the current braintrust at 1701 Kilborn Avenue and 1695 Playfair Drive get their act together when it comes to such basic weekly issues as garbage removal or moving trucks? Should this concern the neighbourhood about the possible future of the site? Here’s my photo of the week: The famous Wednesday garbage pile on Playfair Drive (we should sell tickets to the show). Runner-ups this week included (1) THE famous brown dumpster (with yellow highlights, no less!) that sat overflowing with garbage in the middle of the parking lot for six (6!!!) straight days. It looked awful, it smelled awful, it took up parking spaces and it was a traffic disaster and (2) the scene when too many moving trucks and 2 school buses try to take up too little space. It’s a little slice of heaven, I tells ya.

If you have not seen it yet, the proposed redevelopment made it into an article in this month’s VISTAS (norezone_vistas_may20081). Hopefully, the neighbourhood concerns have now made it onto the radar of most Alta Vista residents.

*** disclaimer: I am not an architect or urban planner by trade or education, but I do know how to read piles of documents and try and make sense of them ***

Councillor Peter Hume and Julie Sarazin of the City of Ottawa agreed to meet this week in order for the divergent views of the neighbourhood to be brought forward on the redevelopment proposal. I was pleased to finally talk face-to-face with Councillor Hume and Ms. Sarazin. I was also pleased to note that they had already met with the residents of Rosewood Estates (Featherston/Kilborn) and are to meet with the Vista on the Park condominium board of directors on May 7^th.

Prior to the meeting, I provided Councillor Hume with this shopping list of questions from the neighbourhood and he provided me with this response. (I will attach these in either a separate blog post or directly via email shortly)

After 90 minutes of discussions, here are the facts:

     1. COMMUNITY MEETING: A community meeting will be organized at the end of June, but time and place are not in place. I was disappointed that this detail was not cleared up since I know how many of you have contacted me to find out the next stage in the process. When I know, you’ll know. Thank you for your patience.

     2. NEW PROPOSED CONDOMINIUMS: It may seem obvious to all of you, but it was not obvious to me that the proposed 18-storey and 4-storey buildings are to be condominiums. I suppose it is only logical, but I never saw the word “condominium” in the documents from the City or the planner. Anyway, it’s a fact.

      3. OLD APARTMENTS TRANSFORM INTO NEW CONDOS: However, it appears to be a done deal that the “classic” Playfair Towers apartments (1701 Kilborn and 1695 Playfair) are going to be turned into condominiums. The good news for current tenants of the apartments is that, under provincial law, if you were tenants prior to the legal transition, you will be afforded the right to be tenants of your unit in perpetuity (which is a really, really long time).

      4. ALTA VISTA’S FUTURE FOR RENTERS: I am sad to say that the developer’s proposal will eliminate the “renter” from the Alta Vista community since Playfair Towers was one of the last liveable spaces in the area for individuals looking for affordable rental housing. I am not sure what that says about our neighbourhood as a whole, but I doubt that, from an urban planning perspective, it is a good thing.

      5. SITE PLAN: Many of our questions were not answered or could not be answered at the meeting since the information (i.e. parking spaces, in/out access points, garbage, recycling, deliveries, moving trucks, noise) has not yet been made available to the City of Ottawa from the developer. Obviously, this is quite frustrating. Most of these technical questions were pushed off to the site plan meeting (which has not yet been scheduled). However, here are some tidbits of information:

      6.GREENSPACE: Councillor Hume’s independent review of the proposed development was provided to an urban planner (Mr. George Dark of Urban Strategies, www.urbanstrategies.com) who provided the feedback that greenspace should not be used to make a parking lot (I think Joni Mitchell sang a song about that once upon a time). Councillor Hume appears prepared to request that the greenspace be left intact. Of course, that will likely mean the above-ground parking will simply be shoved directly below the current greenspace and will require bulldozing and digging up of that site.

      7. a. PARKING – part I: Ms. Sarazin explained that due to the “grandfathering” of Playfair Towers’ parking requirement when it was built, the developer will only be required to fulfill the current 10 and 9 visitor parking spaces (that’s a total of 19) for these two buildings. This results in a total of 704 parking spaces for 652 units (current and proposed buildings) or, to look at it another way, not enough parking spaces.

b. PARKING – part II: I requested – when available – an actual count of the 704 available parking spaces when the proper document is provided by the developer. I will count every single last parking spot.

c. PARKING – part III: We discussed current on-street parking issues and the options (no parking, 3 hour limited parking, permit parking), but again this will be a battle for another day.

      8. a. TRAFFIC: PLAYFAIR DRIVE – part I: We discussed the fact that over the last 40 years, Playfair Drive has been distorted from a local road into a local collector road (there’s a big difference) even though Kilborn Avenue is the proper local collector road for the neighbourhood. The volume of traffic that gets shunted onto Playfair Drive as a result of the current 2 apartments and the condominium has increased traffic volumes, non-commuter vehicles (delivery and moving trucks, garbage & recycling trucks) and careless speeding on the street.. The neighbourhood’s demand to retake Playfair Drive as a “local road” was put forward to Councillor Hume by requesting that all or almost all traffic flow for the proposed development be diverted to Kilborn Avenue (“local collector road”). I marked up Councillor Hume’s architect plan with the appropriate traffic flow patterns for the buildings and the Vista on the Park condominium.

b. TRAFFIC: PLAYFAIR DRIVE – part II: I tried to explain that the proposed commuter entrance/exit for the new units on Playfair near the corner of Kilborn was unmanageable, unfeasible and just plain dangerous. Unfortunately, that was to be dealt with at the site plan process.

c. TRAFFIC: PLAYFAIR DRIVE – part III: I also proposed that the entrance for the current Vista on the Park be moved slightly to provide commuters with a clear distinction of each building’s entrance, but I think that’s a battle that the Vista on the Park will have to fight with our support.

      9.  PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION: We discussed the need for a sidewalk on Kilborn Avenue (across from 1701 Kilborn Avenue) between Featherston and Virginia in order to provide some level of safety to current users of the 148 OCTranspo. Councillor Hume was receptive to that idea.

      10. 18-STOREY BUILDING. I voiced the neighbourhood’s displeasure over this proposed building (I think I called it the CN Tower of Alta Vista). Councillor Hume said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and then referenced architecture in Paris and London which was once viewed as out-there, but now has become a fixture in the city (i.e. the Gherkin in London http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_St_Mary_Axe and some building in Paris which I am blanking on right now. I think it was the Grande Arche de la Défense http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grande_Arche). Just think, soon Alta Vista will be talked about by tourists in this way:

“Honey, where should we take the kids this summer? London? Paris?”

“Nah, let’s go to Alta Vista!”

      11. 4-STOREY UNITS: Of course, none of the proposed buildings blend into the current community. However, the 4-storey units are a real affront to good sense since 99% of the homes surrounding it (aside from the apartments) are 1 and 2-storey single family dwellings. I put on the table two immediate issues with the 4-storey buildings that the neighbourhood has raised: (1) the height and proximity to the road) (City of Ottawa Official Plan: section 9.6 “New Development is to be visually and functionally compatible with existing development” and (2) the removal of any neighbourhood benefit by enclosing the greenspace from the neighbourhood (I call it the “Correctional Services Canada medium security model”). I asked for the outright removal of the 4-storey units or the reduction of the units to a logical 2-storeys and the removal of the 4-storey unit on Playfair Drive in order to open up the complex (much in the same way as the Vista on the Park is set up) in order to display the greenspace to the community (The Ottawa Citizen, April 23, 2008, referenced Councillor Hume at the planning committee as saying that there’s nothing wrong with the city’s overall plan for the future, but the city falls down when it comes to specific policies to make it more liveable. For instance, if a developer seeks to construct tall buildings, the neighbourhood needs to see some concrete benefit, such as a park).  I think the neighbourhood would like to be shown the elusive concrete benefit.

      12. DEVELOPER’S PROPOSAL: I am supposed to get a copy of the developer’s glossy booklet from Ms. Anne Ménard (Councillor Hume’s executive assistant). I await the document and will provide you all with a copy electronically once it is in my hands.