by Bonnie Mabee
Chair of CCCA Trees and Greenspace Committee
Photo: Kathryn Hunt
The CCCA welcomes the “strength in the vision for enhancing and increasing greenspace” contained in the draft CDP. At the same time, it calls on the City to ensure that the CDP include a long-term greenspace plan for the community, with implementation deadlines and dedicated funding for its recommendations.
The CCCA suggests that this long-term plan be tied to the cash-in-lieu fund paid by developers. Further, it proposes that a priority list be established for greenspace–related capital spending, drawing on Section 37 funding.
Recommendations related to reclaiming Centretown streets include: plant trees wherever possible; where street tree planting is not possible such as on Elgin Street, consider planting vertically (i.e., hang flowers;) don’t allow garbage to be stored adjacent to the sidewalk; and buffer parking lots from the sidewalks with planting. These proposals require more political will than money. A culture of greening these small but significant areas should be accepted as the norm by City Council.
The greening of Centretown is an excellent idea that will have economic and environmental benefits, but the social benefits that it will provide should be highlighted in more detail. For example, studies suggest that greenspaces, including community gardens, improve the mental well-being of residents. There is no debate that they increase physical well-being and, more importantly, pull a community together. Less well known is the documented fact that green-spaces act as traffic-calming devices.
The plan addresses a number of upgrades proposed for the six existing Centretown parks:
• Arlington Park, an active pocket park for ages one to six years that is well used by neighbourhood residents. It needs a ramp to make it accessible for strollers; play structures that are more toddler friendly; and leveling of the back mound towards the south wall.
• St. Luke’s Park plans, already developed in consultation with the community, are well-documented and supported by the CCCA.
• McNabb Park plans primarily deal with access issues, but it also needs dedicated basketball courts to replace those now in a parking lot. The active gardening group McNIB should be consulted.
• Dundonald Park proposals are excellent. Others might include support for the impressive efforts of the Friends of Dundonald Park; signage explaining how the park came to be named after Douglas MacKinnon Baillie Hamilton Cochrane, 12th Earl of Dundonald; a coordinated palate for structures and paving, and a historically correct fountain in the centre of the park.
• Minto Park: The CCCA agrees with the statement that “This level of investment and maintenance should set the standard for Centretown’s other park spaces,” while bearing in mind that it is a “passive park” and that others are more heavily used.
• Jack Purcell Park has well established and widely supported development plans that will be funded at least in part from the Section 37 funds to be collected by the City.
The CCCA is particularly pleased to see the two “Hydro Lands” listed as possible new parks, as they are already green spaces that need only a small amount of furniture to become lovely shady pocket parks. The CCCA encourages the City to give priority to the Gladstone site.
For those who wish to know more about what the draft CDP is recommending, chapter 5.0 (“Greening Centretown: Parks and Open Space”) provides additional information on the recommendations referenced in this summary and others. The CDP can be found on the city website www.ottawa.ca/midcentretown.