Alayne McGregor
“Every inch counts.” That’s the approach a community coalition is taking, as they push for maximum space for parks and recreation in new developments on the western edge of Centretown.
The five-group coalition is called “P4X – the Plouffe Park, Plant Pool Expansion Coalition”. It argues that West Centretown and Hintonburg are already seriously deficient in greenspace, outdoor and indoor recreation facilities, and public space for meetings and events, compared to city averages and standards.
That deficiency will only increase when another 14,000 residents are added in the new Gladstone Village development being built by Ottawa Community Housing (OCH), the coalition says. Another 7,000 residents are expected in other planned developments in the area.
Just to support the Gladstone Village residents according to city standards would require another four tennis courts, 10 play structures, five full-size sports fields, five outdoor rinks, two splash pads, three outdoor basketball courts, and more, it says.
The five groups – the Dalhousie (DCA) and Hintonburg Community Associations, the Plant Pool (PPRA) and Hintonburg Recreation Associations, and the Somerset West Community Health Centre (SWCHC) – formed the coalition last year, to push for the best use of the 1010 Somerset lands that the city recently bought from the federal government.
They envision the lands (2.55 hectares in total) as the “healthy heart” and community hub, building a sense of belonging to the community.
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Last year, the city approved the Corso Italia Secondary Plan, which covers those lands, but also extends west to Breezehill and Loretta Streets and east to Preston and Booth Streets. Under that plan, the 1010 Somerset lands are to be used to double the size of Plouffe Park, expand the Plant Recreation Centre, and build a new French public school – as well as to develop Gladstone Village.
“We are so far behind any other ward in the city”
The coalition wants to ensure that not only all the proposed park space be green, “but meaningful portions of the remaining 1010 lands need also to be green” including areas within and around Gladstone Village.
“We are standing firm that every single inch of greenspace must be retained,” said DCA President Catherine Boucher. “This will keep us behind, but not as much. We can’t afford to give up one foot of a park, or one tree.
“The DCA has made it clear throughout all of the development applications around that area that, for us, the densification really depended on 1010 being made available for recreation and parks because we are so far behind any other ward in the city. We have the least amount of trees of any ward in the city. We desperately need greenspace and recreation facilities for the current community, and the new people coming in.”
Boucher said they understood that the area is a prime location for intensification because it’s near two LRT lines. “But, on the other hand, people need to sit under a tree or take their kids to play in a park or skate.”
The area’s indoor facilities are also inadequate, the coalition said. According to the city’s recent Parks and Recreation Master Plan, the city’s downtown core has only 44m2 of indoor recreation space per 1,000 people, compared to the city average of 119.28 m2 – 37 percent of the average. The Plant centre is West Centretown’s only recreation complex now that the Dalhousie Community Centre has been sold to the SWCHC, and the coalition says it is seriously overcrowded.
“The exercise room at the Plant Pool is kind of a joke.” Boucher said. “People are in there at 5:30 in the morning and fighting for machines. There’s a need for more of that if we’re looking at providing something affordable for people who can’t afford to buy an expensive gym membership.”
The coalition also contends that recreation facilities on the site should be scaled to serve the neighbourhood, not serve city-wide priorities. “It’s not that big. It should be serving the people who live there and who are coming to live there as a priority,” Boucher said.
In order to maximize the types of recreation for the area, the coalition is asking that spaces be designed to be multi-use wherever possible, with courts and fields serving several sports.
Move the storm water pond into a sewer?
And it’s particularly concerned about the use of the current Plouffe Park as a stormwater/flood retention pond. DCA Treasurer David Seaborn said that when the pond was installed in 2008, it was envisioned that a storm sewer would replace it in the future.
“The problem with a depressed park is that you can’t plan it. You can only do certain things when you’re five feet below grade. Plus we have no idea if you can put basketball courts or tennis courts on this surface.”
Boucher said the park is now primarily used as a skating rink in the winter and a soccer pitch in the summer. The PPRA did run some programs for seniors last summer but had to squeeze them in because of competition for outdoor space with soccer and children’s summer camps.
She admitted that replacing the pond with a sewer could be expensive, but argued the drainage would need to be looked at regardless. “We don’t want to have what could be an amazing addition to a neighbourhood be a poor cousin of what it could be, because we’re not willing to spend the money up front.”
Underground pipes could interfere with sports, trees
Use of the expanded park for sports could also be hobbled by pipes running underneath it, because metal maintenance hole covers in the park would be trip hazards for playing games like soccer. The pipes would also interfere with planting large trees, which the coalition wants to maximize.
Initial plans for Gladstone Village show their water mains and sewers running through the expanded park, which the DCA has objected to. As well, there’s a possibility that geothermal or district heating systems for the complex might also require underground pipes. The coalition asked that these pipes be routed under planned roads and walkways, to allow more options in planning the park.
“We’re hoping that no decision is made to use the underground in a way that would curtail what we can do on top,” Boucher said.
Putting their ideas forward to city staff
The coalition met with city staff in early January to discuss their concerns, Seaborn said. They wanted to let the city know that “the community has been thinking about what is to be done with this land and has some ideas what should and shouldn’t be done.”
They received “some partial answers” and an update on planning for the park from staff, Seaborn said. “They were pretty sympathetic to our overall goals but they didn’t tell us what their goals were.” Staff agreed to meet again with the coalition in late spring for an update.
Looking for existing facilities in the community
In the meantime, Boucher said the SWCHC, on behalf of the coalition, will do an inventory of all recreational facilities in the neighbourhood – e.g. school gyms, soccer pitches, and meeting rooms – and what populations they serve. They’re investigating if the community could access those facilities rather than having to build new ones.
If neighbourhood facilities are “sitting empty, let’s see if we can make arrangements for people to be able to use them. We don’t want to overbuild if we can access things that already exist.”
The coalition recognizes it can’t ask for everything, she said, “but we do want the best and we do want everything we need. It’s a very important piece of public infrastructure here. We don’t get opportunities to have a new park very often, particularly not downtown. It’s a huge gift and we have to make the best use of it, and really look at it as a jewel and try to get the best we can get out of it.”
Boucher didn’t expect anything to happen on the site this year. “My personal position is let’s take the time to plan it and fund it and get what we really need, rather than rush into something. We want to be at the table and have the opportunity to really dig deep and (determine) what’s going to be best for our community in the long term.
“We feel strongly attached to the Plant Recreation Centre and that park – but it’s way overused. We want to make sure we build thinking of the future and the people who live here and what their needs are going to be 25 years from now.”