Tag: Trees

Connectivity review: Speak up about your route to the LRT & Update on Berms

How will you access future LRT stations in our area – Lincoln Fields, Queensview, and Pinecrest? Will the new paths allow you to get where you need to go? Are they well placed? Do they need improvements?

Your access to future LRT stations is the central question to be answered by the Connectivity Enhancement Study by the City of Ottawa. You have an opportunity to review the plan and provide feedback between June 26 and July 10, 2020.

Your Voice Matters

It is important that QTN residents speak up, and use this process to show community interest for safe, adequate access to this major infrastructure project. We strongly encourage you to review the plan (click to view). To help ensure your feedback is taken seriously and to allow the association to support residents, please copy qtncommunity@gmail.com on your response to the City’s consultation.

Background

Several QTNca board members participated in a meeting with the City of Ottawa on the Connectivity Enhancement Study. We continued to highlight the need for:

  • Improved and direct access to LRT stations for pedestrians, cyclists, and persons with disabilities;
  • Ensuring the proposed pathways provide safe, year-round access to the LRT;
  • Reducing the impacts of visual and sound pollution from the LRT;
  • Maintaining and enhancing green space; and,
  • Improving the communication of plans and providing opportunities for genuine community consultation.

Communication and genuine consultation has been an issue throughout the project. Residents of QTN continue to receive information after decisions have been made. Also, our opportunities to review the options are limited and brief. We must use this opportunity to have our voices heard.

We have seen a few improvements in the access to future LRT stations, but these improvements are not enough. For example, while there is now a feasibility study of an additional connection from Severn Ave to Queensview station, this important connection needs to be part of the plan, and fully funded. Millions of dollars have been allocated towards a bridge to connect those south of the Queensway to the Queensview station, but access from streets north of Queensview (Moncton Rd, Severn Ave), continues to be a problem.

Safety concerns on sections of the connectivity plan are ongoing. For example, the proposed pathway from Roman Avenue is located between the Queensway and the OC Transpo Depot, rather than closer to the houses along Severn Ave. How do you feel about this connection?

Access to Lincoln Fields station from QTN is improving with the creation of a new Multi-Use Pathway however, connections to Lincoln Fields Mall have not been included and the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway on/off ramps are not seeing safety improvements despite a plan to implement cycling infrastructure along Carling Ave.

Connaught Park Update: Berms

A drainage study has been completed and the berms are being redesigned to address a number of your concerns. This is part of the approval process by the National Capital Commission (NCC), which controls land uses in Connaught Park.  QTNca representatives have worked to keep your concerns a high priority by submitting two letters during the public consultation and continuing to engage in stakeholder meetings that bring together KEV, the NCC, Councillor Kavanaugh, and City staff.  The NCC review of the final design is expected to finish in in mid to late July so we anticipate receipt of additional details shortly thereafter.

Have questions? Want to discuss?

As previously mentioned, we would have preferred to host a public meeting, but given the current circumstances, we must communicate by email instead. Please contact us at qtncommunity@gmail.com if you would like to discuss further.

Update on Connaught Park: Your Feedback and Start of Construction

Your feedback is instrumental

We would like to thank the over 30 individuals who included us on their emails while participating in the Connaught Park landscaping plan consultation. In addition, we’re aware of many more individuals who took the time to provide thoughtful and meaningful input on this important project. We continue to work with the involved parties to ensure your suggestions are both understood and meaningfully considered – we will provide periodic updates as we pursue tangible solutions.

Want updates? Subscribe to the City’s newsletters

While we are engaged on the LRT projects in QTN, for project updates and official communications we encourage you to subscribe to the City’s official Project newsletters – for the west extension as well as all the stations you wish to follow. Public notices, by mail, are only distributed within limited areas so to ensure you receive a copy of these important messages please make sure to subscribe to the appropriate station newsletters.

What’s next? Construction is starting

The City has made us aware of an imminent public notice related to the commencement of construction in Connaught Park (click here to access it). To begin this project, utility relocation will commence in Connaught Park next month followed by similar work on Connaught and Hanlon later this summer (~June). Prior to this commencing you will see signage, fences, and construction equipment being erected in Connaught Park (Note: the baseball diamond will become a staging site for several years).

Following this, construction on the tunnel portion of the LRT will begin – including the cut and cover section on Connaught Ave. Detours and delays are expected but access will remain throughout (e.g., steel plates as covers similar to what you might see with sewer work). Construction this year will focus primarily on the substructure with completion of the superstructure next year.

Additionally, excavation work will be beginning on the south side of the current OC Transpo facility and we have been informed that crews will be using Queensview Drive and exiting towards Pinecrest (i.e., not through the neighbourhood).

We hope that this update provides some clarity on what you might see while walking the neighbourhood during these challenging times. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact ourselves (qtncommunity@gmail.com) or the Stage 2 Project Team (stage2@ottawa.ca).

Update on Berms and LRT in Connaught Park: Deadline extended to April 20

We would like to share that you have a few more days to take a look at plans for berms in Connaught Park and send in your thoughts. The deadline was extended to April 20, after your association asked for more time.

Thanks to those who have already spoken up. More voices will help get the best possible design.

Go to www.connaughtpinecrest.ca  to see photos and respond (higher resolution PDFs are available in our previous post). If you copy qtncommunity@gmail.ca on your response, we will help ensure that residents get answers to their questions and concerns.

Based on your feedback, three points are emerging as priorities for QTN residents:

  1. The fly-over, berms, and tree-plantings need to be designed together in a way that reduces the visual and noise impact of the LRT for residents and users of the public green space.
  2. The berms need to be part of a user-friendly landscape plan that includes convenient paths for biking and walking; recreational uses; a variety of trees, including fruit trees;  quiet spaces and spaces for dog-walkers; with possibilities for other uses such as a community garden.
  3. The landscape plan needs to ensure good drainage, allow for renewal of the Pinecrest Creek, and ensure good connectivity to LRT stations and other destinations.