Jack Hanna
Christmas shopping at the Elgin Farmers Market
Plans are shaping up to reopen the Elgin Street Farmers Market for one day of Christmas shopping on Saturday, December 4, from 3 to 7 p.m. The market will be held in Boushey Square at Elgin and Waverley.
Vendors will offer all sorts of gifts and stocking stuffers. There will be handmade pottery, soaps, candles, salsas, jams, pickles and pies, as well as honey, coffees, teas, and artisanal beers, wines, ciders and spirits.
Expect live music and hot take-away food.
Deck the trees, feed the birds
The CCA’s Dundonald Park gardening group is inviting everyone to a decorating party on Sunday, December 12, from 2 to 4 p.m. to decorate the trees in the park with simple, homemade holiday ornaments that birds can eat. The park is at Somerset and Lyon Streets.
“We will decorate the trees with goodies for birds,” says lead gardener Barbara Sibbald.
“We hope people will do a little artistry in advance and bring popcorn strings, dried oranges, suet balls, and such. Decorations that are not fragile such as wooden ornaments are great too.”
Please, no plastic items. It will be a much needed winter feast for birds.
Big building proposed alongside the canal
The first new big building in decades to be built adjacent to the canal needs to be a model of energy efficiency, the CCA says.
“If a high-end condo building cannot be low-carbon, what building can be?” the CCA asks in its submission to the city.
“The developer can afford the upfront costs of a very energy-efficient building, costs the (condo) owners will recover in operating savings in perpetuity.”
A nine-storey building is proposed for 50 The Driveway, where the Canadian Nurses Association headquarters building now sits. The new high rise will have 66 high-priced condos.
The developer is asking for rezoning to permit a higher building than current zoning allows. The CCA says a building providing leading-edge energy efficiency should be part of the community benefits the developer provides in exchange for greater height.
CCA wins last-minute improvements to new city Official Plan
The CCA successfully argued for last-minute changes to Ottawa’s new Official Plan (OP), approved by city council in late October. CCA won strengthened protection for heritage houses and buildings, and a measure to promote better architectural design of new buildings.
In the final round of public input to the new OP, the CCA made a written submission and a verbal presentation to City Council committees. Councillor Catherine McKenney worked to get city staff to incorporate the improvements.
With the changes, if a new development is on, or close to, a heritage property and might diminish heritage value, the developer has to submit a Heritage Impact Assessment.
The CCA and Councillor McKenney also argued for a greater number of proposed new buildings to be scrutinized by the Urban Design Review Panel, a committee of architects that suggests improvements to architectural designs.