NCC - General Updates
 

Public Meeting of the NCC Board of Directors

Tuesday, September 16, 2014
8:30 am to 11 am

NCC Headquarters
40 Elgin Street, Room 324

http://www.ncc-ccn.gc.ca/about-ncc/c...of-directors-6

Rockcliffe Parkway renamed
 

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NCC eyeing major new capital landmark on LeBreton Flats

Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: September 11, 2014, Last Updated: September 11, 2014 7:14 PM EDT

The National Capital Commission wants the private sector to come up with some ideas for developing the long-empty lands on LeBreton Flats — anchoring those suggestions with a new “landmark” building of national significance.

Mark Kristmanson, the NCC’s chief executive officer, spoke about the plan during a breakfast address to the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce on Thursday.

Creating a new “signature development” on LeBreton Flats, he told the business audience, is a top priority for the NCC’s board of directors and for the commission’s political minister, Ottawa West-Nepean MP John Baird.

Kristmanson said staff will present a recommendation to the NCC’s board at its meeting next Tuesday to seek proposals “based on a major public institution or an attraction of regional or national significance, supported by a complementary development scheme.”

The news prompted some to take to Twitter to suggest that LeBreton Flats would be an ideal site for a new downtown arena — an idea that Senators Sports & Entertainment, owners of Ottawa’s NHL team and the Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata, didn’t reject out of hand.

“We are aware that the LeBreton Flats site is large enough to accommodate a downtown professional sports arena,” the company said in a statement. “Before giving this serious consideration, Senators Sports & Entertainment would need to explore whether this concept is something that the people of Ottawa would desire and support.”

The company said it could not comment further until it has a “full understanding” of the process the NCC will undertake to determine how best to develop the site.

The development, which could include residential, commercial and retail elements, would take place on a large tract of land between Booth Street and Bayview Avenue, some of which is now available for development following the removal of contaminated soil.

In an interview with the Citizen, Kristmanson said the NCC needs to move ahead with development on LeBreton Flats, still largely vacant since the federal government expropriated and demolished homes there as part of a stillborn redevelopment project more than half a century ago.

“The NCC has a kind of ethical debt to the city to get this done,” he said. “It has sat there for a long time.”

While he declined to assign blame for LeBreton’s lengthy tenure as the city’s most valuable vacant lot, he said the property is “under the NCC’s watch. It’s our responsibility, and I really want to see it done.”

Kristmanson said the NCC will take a “non-prescriptive” approach to the new anchor attraction, which would likely be situated in the vicinity of the Canadian War Museum.

“We will look to the private sector to bring to bear all of its creativity and innovation to make this a new landmark in the capital.”

The new building could be a museum or other type of public institution, he said, “with hopefully a national reach.

“This is where we’re looking to the creativity of the private sector. It’s not going to be a government-led or driven process. We’ll really be looking to the market and to the creative minds out there to see what they can come up with.”

Kristmanson cited the “evolution” of the surrounding area — particularly Windmill Development’s plans for the former Domtar lands and Chaudiere Island — as one key reason for a major new building on LeBreton.

“With the Windmill development bringing in about three million square feet, mostly residential, to the north of the site, it makes a lot of sense to bring in some major attraction or institution to balance the War Museum,” he said.

Such a building would also create “an attractive place” for people arriving at the city’s future Pimisi light rail transit station at LeBreton Flats, he said. “It makes a lot of sense to do that rather than just let the whole thing go as a mixed-use development.”

Kristmanson, who called LeBreton Flats “immensely valuable,” said he’s had numerous meetings with private sector developers “to get their advice on how to do this — what was done right in the past, what was done wrong. So we’re going forward on that basis.”

Diane Holmes, the outgoing councillor for Somerset ward, which includes LeBreton Flats, said the most important thing the NCC should do with the LeBreton redevelopment is to break up the land into smaller parcels, each with its own architect and developer.

The condos on the eastern part of LeBreton built by Claridge Homes have “resulted in a development that looks institutional, like a hospital, instead of a mixed-used residential community,” Holmes said.

The NCC is also finalizing designs for some interim improvements to portions of the recently decontaminated lands at Booth and Wellington streets to make them accessible to residents and visitors.

Those designs are expected to receive approval from the NCC board this fall and be implemented by next summer.

Across the street, the NCC has begun constructing the National Holocaust Monument, scheduled to open a year from now.

With files from Joanne Chianello

[email protected]
twitter.com/ButlerDon

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-...lebreton-flats

NCC hopes to cast Ottawa buildings in a better light with illumination plan

Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: September 11, 2014, Last Updated: September 11, 2014 6:00 PM EDT

The National Capital Commission is moving ahead with plans to show some of Ottawa’s buildings in a better light in time for Canada’s sesquicentennial in 2017.

CEO Mark Kristmanson said Thursday the agency hopes to launch the first phase of its “capital illumination plan” later this fall.

Part of the plan focuses on green initiatives, such as reducing electricity use and light pollution. But the NCC also wants to enhance the “nighttime experience” of the national capital’s urban landscape, Kristmanson said.

At present, he said, illumination of the exteriors of key buildings is done individually. “Some are very bright. Some are not lit at all. We have beautiful, beautiful features that are just simply in the dark.”

For example, the “amazing” white tower that architect Moshe Safdie designed at Ottawa’s former city hall, now the John G. Diefenbaker Building, “sits in the dark at night,” Kristmanson said. Bridges could also be illuminated.

“There are some potential elements that could be brought forward to really change the dynamic of the city.”

Developing an illumination strategy has been part of the NCC’s core area sector plan sine 2005. But until recently, little had been done.

The NCC has been in touch with experts who have illuminated other cities, including New York, Montreal and Quebec City.

It plans to bring some of them to Ottawa for public design workshops this fall “to start to develop an outlook on how to go ahead with this,” Kristmanson said.

The NCC has discussed its illumination ambitions with the mayors of Ottawa and Gatineau, Hydro Ottawa and the heads of cultural institutions, all of whom have expressed interest.

Kristmanson said Gatineau Mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin was intrigued by NCC plans to use illumination to link its ceremonial route, Confederation Boulevard, to the surrounding urban fabric, hoping that could enliven old Hull at night and improve security there.

Enhancing nighttime illumination in the capital will take time, Kristmanson cautioned. “The first phase for 2017 might be modest. We’ll see how much we can do in 30 months.”

[email protected]
twitter.com/ButlerDon

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-...a-better-light

By the numbers: The NCC's economic footprint

Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: September 11, 2014,Last Updated: September 11, 2014 5:30 PM EDT

CEO Mark Kristmanson made the economic case for the National Capital Commission during his speech to the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce Thursday. Here are a few key numbers:

53 Value, in millions of dollars, of contracts awarded last year by the NCC

4,000 Number of contracts awarded last year to about 1,100 companies

68 Amount, in millions of dollars, visitors and residents skating the Rideau Canal typically spend each year

160 Amount, in millions of dollars, of economic activity that generates

2.7 Number, in millions, of visits each year to Gatineau Park, second only to Banff among Canadian wilderness parks

473 Number of square kilometres of land the NCC owns in the National Capital Region

1,600 Number of NCC properties, including six official residence

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-...omic-footprint

Two things are needed in the LeBreton/Bayview area: a new home for the Ottawa Senators and an epic Science and Tech Museum, which would be a awesome match with the newly redeveloped E.B. Eddy lands.

I'm starting to like Kristmanson. It's a new approach for the NCC, actually wanting to get things done and working with the city.

Let's see how he deals with the Western LRT issue.

NCC doesn't pay the electric bill at that building. But regardless of who pays the bill, shining lights up into the atmosphere is not a wise use of taxpayer dollars.

The latest in lighting technology doesn't involve shining excessive lights up into the atmosphere, a more strategic glowing effect can be done with energy efficient LED strips. Probably a lot less to implement and operate than a single fireworks display.

Nope, the LED fixtures needed are not screw in retrofits and are really expensive. If the NCC wants it, they can pay for it.

Disregarding any cost concerns, I think it's actually a really good idea. Lighting really helps liven up the building/area, and the city just looks more livable/friendly in general.

... make sure nothing proposed is visually appealing or too tall for the surrounding community.


I was 100% sure this was the sentence I was about to read :D

That is very refreshing to hear. Hopefully he can get things done and learn from the mistakes of the Claridge developments.

Does the Canadian Tire Centre not have at least 15 years of life in it? I can't see ownership building a new one before a replacement is truly needed. An arena at Lebreton would certainly be good for the city, and would probably have a positive effect on ticket sales, but to the owners the added revenue would be negligible compared to the costs of construction.

Most NHL arenas have a 40-50 year lifespan, which would give the Corel Centre 20-30 more years however, the location has always been seen as a stumbling block. Furthermore, considering Melnyk only paid 92 million (now worth 380 million) for the team, the building and everything else related to the Senators, and that within 10-15 years, they're won't be any land left downtown, it wouldn't be all that far fetched to think they could afford to dump CT for a new downtown location sooner rather than later.

Melnyk could easily recuperate the original 92 million investment just by selling the CT and surrounding land.

http://www.forbes.com/teams/ottawa-senators/

Melnyk has a poor relationship with the City of Ottawa though with the casino debacle, so he might want to look elsewhere? That likely means Gatineau if a downtown arena is desired. I think the Domtar site on the east side of Eddy between Laurier and the Ottawa River might be the best place...

I don't understand your logic. The City of Ottawa doesn't own Lebreton flats, the NCC does, and they have just expressed an interest in receiving proposals for the site. Also, the Domtar site in Gatineau is owned by Windmill and they have already released their own plans to develop that.

There's no way in hell the Sens would move to Quebec. Would create way too many complications regarding broadcasting rights and such.

I still think Hurdman would be a great site for an NHL arena, next to the central Queensway and a transit hub + VIA rail. I think an arena would be a bit off-scale and monolithic for LeBreton and its proposed street grid (the CTC would barely fit in the space between Wellington and the aqueduct). Bayview to the west would have more room.

Any downtown arena would not require nearly as large of a footprint due to the fact that parking could be much more limited (and more expensive).

Never in a million years. And broadcast rights are not the primary reason as this side of the river is covered by the same rights set-up anyway. (For example, we aren't allowed to have Habs games on the radio here.)

Let's get LeBreton Flats right

Ottawa Citizen Editorial Board
Published on: September 15, 2014, Last Updated: September 15, 2014 6:25 AM EDT

It appears the National Capital Commission is finally getting serious about developing its valuable LeBreton Flats land in downtown Ottawa. It’s about time. A city’s core should should be vibrant and ambitious, with striking monuments, unique tourist attractions, inviting residential spaces and innovative businesses. None of these descriptions apply to a big boring empty field.

Last week, NCC chief executive officer Mark Kristmanson told the Citizen’s Don Butler that the agency wants a new “signature development” that would, he hopes, have national reach.

“It’s not going to be a government-led or driven process,” Kristmanson said. “We’ll really be looking to the market and to the creative minds out there to see what they can come up with.

“With the Windmill development bringing in about three million square feet, mostly residential, to the north of the site, it makes a lot of sense to bring in some major attraction or institution to balance the War Museum.”

The first idea floated leaves us cold, and not just because it involves ice. On Thursday, Senators Sports & Entertainment didn’t dismiss the possibility of pitching a downtown replacement for the 18-year-old Canadian Tire Centre.

“We are aware that the LeBreton Flats site is large enough to accommodate a downtown professional sports arena,” read a company statement. “Before giving this serious consideration, Senators Sports & Entertainment would need to explore whether this concept is something that the people of Ottawa would desire and support.”

Given the CTC still has plenty of good years in front of it (and the fact that the company continues to make upgrades), this seems wasteful. Yes, professional sports infrastructure is important and Ottawa benefits greatly from having an NHL team, and yes the rink’s current location isn’t ideal for those who don’t live in the west end. But it’s there now, and it would be irrational to build two arenas instead of just building the thing closer to the core in the first place. The LeBreton Flats offer a new chance to build on what we already have, not replace it.

These are early days though, and there’s time to come up with something better. As such, we on the editorial board are interested in what your creative minds can come up with. Email us at [email protected] and tell us, in 60 words or less, what you would put there if you were in charge and why. Would you go with a large central park and pavilion? A zoo? An amusement park? A skyline-altering monument or tower? More condos? High-end shopping and a movie theatre? Something else?

Perhaps a new location for the Canada Science and Technology Museum?

Let us know what you think and we’ll publish the best ideas.

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-...on-flats-right

*

It would be crazy to use this land for a downtown sports arena. It should be used to build a community. Sports arenas sit as empty shells for much of the time and then cause traffic chaos for brief periods during rush hour when games or concerts start. This area is already congested and adding a stadium would cause problems for both the Eddy and Chaudiere bridges while offering very little in terms of building the community. I don't think that the ideal location for a stadium is Kanata, but nor is it LeBreton. Had I had my pick, it would have been in the Startop/Cyrville industrial area or in the Trainyards/Via Station vicinity. Heck, you might even have enough space on the other side of the 417 at Vanier Parkway (RCMP building) or where the baseball stadium/Canadian tire are.

:tup: My thoughts exactly! With the walkway over the QEW connecting to both the LRT and Via Rail stations, not to mention a hotel on premises and easy access to the highway, I think this would make a fine spot for a new central sports arena.

As for LeBreton Flats, I'm not sure what that space could be used for. A central library immediately comes to mind. But, I also think Vertical Reality (the rock climbing gym) on the islands needs a big new modern venue (like High Point Climbing, for example).

It's not crazy at all. In fact, almost every major sports arena that has been built in North America in the last 15 years has been built downtown. An arena like the ACC or the Bell Centre greatly contribute the vibrancy of the city, and they certainly aren't "empty shells" most of the time, as they are host upwards of 150 or 200 events per year.

If you put the arena at Startop you would be slightly more central, but it would be the same story - most people would drive and you would lose an opportunity for synergies with bars, restaurants, festivals etc.

LB Flats should definitely be the new home of the Science and Tech Museum. The main Library could work in LB or Bayview, but I think it would be better off in the Lyon Station vicinity along with a new concert hall (1,500 seats) to livin' up that part of downtown.

If the new Corel Centre isn't built around LB/Bayview, I vote for Hurdman where we have a chance to develop a arena district similar to AC Centre or the new Oilers neighborhood. Plus, the arena could also be built directly over the station.

Major problem I see with Cyrville and VIA is that the stations would be a fair hike from Palladium 2.0; not a major improvement, if any, from the current trek between the parking lots and the arena. Furthermore, those areas don't have as much potential for a cool new urban development; surrounded by suburbia, farther from downtown (not much farther, but would not create as much of a continuity of downtown).

NCC planning new Ottawa River access points near Portage Bridge

Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: September 16, 2014, Last Updated: September 16, 2014 6:30 PM EDT

http://wpmedia.ottawacitizen.com/201...ridg.jpg?w=800

The National Capital Commission plans to develop two new public access points on the Ottawa River near the intersection of Wellington Street and the Portage Bridge.

The NCC will hold an open house on Oct. 7 at the Mill Street Brew Pub about the proposed projects to increase public access to the Bronson Pulp Mill ruins and the Richmond Landing shoreline, below Chaudière Falls.

For the Bronson Pulp Mill ruins project, the NCC says the objective is to provide universally accessible routes from the Wellington-Portage intersection to Richmond Landing, and from Bronson Pulp Mill to experience the ruins.

For the Richmond Landing project, the intent is to provide public access for pedestrians and cyclists from the Ottawa shoreline. New bridges will connect Richmond Landing, Victoria Island and Amelia Island.

In a report to the NCC board Tuesday, CEO Mark Kristmanson said both projects are in the planning stage. Construction should begin in 2016 with completion by the summer of 2017, the year of Canada’s sesquicentennial.

He said the projects offer opportunities to highlight the aboriginal and natural heritage of the islands, recognize the military presence in the region and showcase the manufacturing and power generation industries that helped spur growth in the National Capital Region.

Increasing access to the Ottawa River shoreline is one of the NCC’s top strategic objectives. Earlier this year, it issued a call for proposals that would “animate” the river’s shorelines.

[email protected]
twitter.com/ButlerDon

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-...portage-bridge

Wow, the NCC has really stepped up its game since Kristmanson came into the show. I'm actually finding my hatred for the organization weakening.

We must practice cautious optimism. The NCC has always had a lot of "ideas". We just have to wait to see if they ever materialize.

That said, it's promising that the ideas on the table seem to lean towards action (as with specific dates for the Ottawa River access project) rather than the traditional NCC ideas that start and end with studies.

They start with studies and end with green space.

And 14-flagpole assemblies.

Moving Ottawa's tourist centre off Wellington and back again cost $367K

David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: September 24, 2014, Last Updated: September 24, 2014 9:31 PM EDT
http://wpmedia.ottawacitizen.com/201...tawa.jpg?w=800

The federal government spent $367,000 to move its main tourist information centre from a prominent place on Wellington Street to a nearby mall, and then move it back again a couple of years later.

Closing the Capital Infocentre across from Parliament and replacing it with a kiosk in the World Exchange Plaza in 2011 was billed as a way of freeing up resources to spend on user-friendly digital aids for tourists, replacing paper maps and live human helpers with downloadable information.

It was also supposed to save the National Capital Commission money as it struggled with cuts imposed by the Conservatives’ years of austerity budgets. The rent for the floor space in the relatively out-of-the-way World Exchange was a paltry $5,000 a year, compared with $324,000 in the prime spot the information centre had had at 90 Wellington St. for years.

In the big picture, because the land is federally owned anyway, the NCC’s rent there didn’t make much difference to taxpayers. But it was real enough to the people in charge of the commission’s budgets.

The move wasn’t cheap, according to written answers to questions filed by Ottawa South Liberal MP David McGuinty.

“The Conservative government, and particularly its regional minister, have some explaining to do,” McGuinty said, taking a shot at Ottawa West-Nepean MP John Baird, the Conservative minister responsible for the NCC.

Designing and fabricating the new kiosk cost more than $200,000. Signs telling visitors who turned up at 90 Wellington that they were in the wrong place cost thousands more. Other odds and sods (“Production of a free standing brochure rack — $3,941″) brought the cost of departing the old information centre to $321,324, according to the government’s figures.

Then the Tories carved off the NCC’s tourism responsibilities and handed them to the wealthier Department of Canadian Heritage in 2013. Which, as of this past summer, moved the tourism centre back to its old home, combining more general information with the specific services for visitors to Parliament itself in “a familiar location.”

Sharing the space now makes it more cost-effective than it was, said a statement from the Department of Canadian Heritage, relayed via email by spokesman Len Westerberg.

“The move to the World Exchange Plaza, although centrally located, proved to be a less optimal location to welcome visitors to the Capital Region, as it was away from the main visitor pedestrian routes,” the statement said. The department wanted someplace more central and visible, particularly in anticipation of throngs of tourists coming to Ottawa for Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017.

The cost to move back: $44,567, including $14,500 to put the signs back up and $975 to “reconfigure and repair” the custom brochure rack.

[email protected]
twitter.com/davidreevely

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-...gain-cost-367k

Okay, so the LRT can move maybe 10,000 people per hour. How long would it take to fill a 20,000 seat arena/stadium. Assuming people come from both directions -- about 1 hour. But that is only if everyone else stops using the LRT. No dice.

In Toronto, you have people who walk to AC/Bell Centre from their downtown condo or from work iin the CBD. You also have multiple high capacity lines at union Station (multiple GO lines, Queens Quay LRT, Subway) plus King Street and Spadina Street cars (I suspect that with the new streetcars on Spadina, they have considerable capacity connecting to East West Streetcars on Kng, Queen, and College, and to the Bloor-Danforth Line.

The difference with a downtown-ish stadium or arena is that transportation works on having so many options. 20000 would not all be on the LRT at the same time. Some would, some would be on bus routes, some would walk, and even some would drive.

TD place has demonstrated this. 7500 or so are on various OC Transpo routes, 5000 on OSEGs shuttles, some one STO buses, about 500 or so on bikes, there is a small amount of on site parking that goes to club seats. Some park nearby. There is a huge number of people walking up from centretown. It's very apparent.

The other variable is time. Before and after the game parties and events spread the crowd dispersal out. People come early and visit bars and restaurants in the area. So really don't have just one hour to work with. There is really 2 or 3 hours. Suddenly the numbers work much better :-)

Transportation at a downtown arena would be infinitely better than at the current site. Right now everybody drives on the same highway to get off at the same exit to take the same left turn to get to the same parking lot. A downtown arena would be diffuse. Some would stay downtown after work, others would take transit, others would park somewhere and walk, etc.

Also, 10,000 per hour is not the capacity of the Confederation Line. That's the expected number of people who will use at its busiest time at opening. It's "out-of-the-box" capacity is 24,000. That can get even higher with signalling improvements.

Exactly, there are far more transportation options downtown. The LRT would take the brunt, but there will still be buses to take some of the load, and others would drive, bike or walk.

Ottawa is no different from Toronto in the sense that there is a large workforce downtown. Those who drive could leave their cars parked and walk to the arena. And we can't discount the significant residential population in or near downtown who would almost certainly walk.

As you pointed out, Lansdowne has demonstrated beyond any doubt that a centrally-located stadium works better than one on the suburban fringe, and that is without the benefit of adjacent rapid transit.

Capital Urbanism Lab Event: Design Excellence
Dynamic Discussion With Governor General’s Award Recipients

The National Capital Commission (NCC), in conjunction with Ottawa Architecture Week, the NCC is pleased to present a dynamic discussion on the subject of design excellence with governor general’s award recipients. This discussion will contribute to the NCC’s pursuit of superior design and architecture in the Capital.

Participants:

Manon Asselin, Atelier TAG, Montreal
Alar Kongats, Kongats Architects, Toronto
Diarmuid Nash, Moriyama Teshima Architects, Toronto
Colin Neufeld, 5468796 architecture, Winnipeg

Moderator: Maria Cook, Manager, Communications and Advocacy, at the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada

This event is open to the public. Please RSVP by sending your name and email address to [email protected].

When?
Friday, October 3, 2014
1 pm to 3:30 pm

Where?
NCC Headquarters
40 Elgin Street, 5th Floor Capital Urbanism Lab
Ottawa ON K1P 1C7
Questions or Comments

If you have any questions or comments, please contact us.

Telephone: 613-239-5000 or 1-800-465-1867 (toll-free)
TTY: 613-239-5090 or 1-866-661-3530 (toll-free)
Fax: 613-239-5063
Email: [email protected]

Thank you for your interest in the National Capital Commission.


http://www.ncc-ccn.gc.ca/about-ncc/u...ign-excellence

Another event (regarding the intersection at Colonel By and Clegg) is scheduled for Thursday, December 11, 2014:

Open House: Colonel By Drive and Clegg Street Crossing Improvements

Joanne Chianello (Ottawa Citizen) posted some new information on Twitter this morning regarding the latest Design revisions to 7 Clarence:

[Source]

[Source]

[Source]

[Source]

[Source]


[Source]

TD Place hasn't demonstrated anything other than people will put up with a bad location if there's enough hype. Going to see minor league football during summer weekends is not the same as a weeknight winter hockey game.

Going to see Senators games at Landsdowne was far more painful than off of the 417. The 67's are hurting at the box office because they no longer have lots of parking.

That being said, Lebreton is a better option than Landsdowne, which is a stupid place to put a major sports facility due to lack of highway access and rapid transit, since at least Lebreton isn't pinned in by two 2 lane roads.

I beg to differ on that one.

I can remember it taking an hour to get from Hurley's Sports Coliseum while driving down Bank Street. And then sitting in a cold car for an hour while waiting to get out of the parking lot after the game.

The parking lot situation at the Canadian Tire Center could be fixed by a couple of pedestrian bridges but there's no fix for the lack of ways in and out of Landsdowne.

I think that you've outed yourself as someone only considering the perspective of a suburban driver (and I suspect a west end one at that.) A lot of assumptions here.

The 67s box office issues are a lot more complicated than something that can be blamed on lack of parking. There are way more factors at play than that. Attendance had already been sliding before they moved, they lost most of their season ticket base when they went to Kanata, the team has been beyond terrible, OSEG marketed soccer and football at the expense of hockey, their community programs got lost in the shuffle, and they jacked up ticket and concession prices way above the OHL average price when they came back. Need I go on? As they build things back up, we'll see how much of a detriment the parking situation is. And by the way, there is plenty of parking for the crowds they have been getting.

TD Place has certainly demonstrated that it is certainly possible to get 24,000 people in and out of a central location in far less time than it takes to clear the CTC parking lot. And it also shows that people are willing to consider alternatives for "minor league football" as you put it, which would certainly mean that they would be even more likely to consider those alternatives for a much bigger draw like the NHL.

Lebreton is likely better than Lansdowne because of the LRT, but otherwise the sites are really quite similar.

The problem with the CTC is that 90% of fans drive to the venue, which is located at one end of the City. A couple of pedestrian bridges will never fix that issue.

Lansdowne transportation has been working like a charm, so I'm not sure what there is to "fix".

The problem with the CTC is that traffic heading out of the parking lots in front of the building gets delayed due to pedestrians crossing Palladium Drive to get to the parking lots over there.

It's worked so well that the 67's had to lower ticket and parking prices because of low attendance at Landsdowne. Even lower than last season at CTC.

The Driveway.

YEs, I know, NCC blah blah blah. Abolish the bastards. problem solved.

Ya, and it will probably work now. OSEG made the mistake of treating the 67's like the Redblacks. Higher ticket pricing, scarce parking, and transit-based movements work well for a high value product like the Redblacks, not so much for a lower value product like the 67s. The Sens are a high value product, so the Redblacks approach should work well for them.

NCC board acquiescence to political masters could ruin the Hill

Joanne Chianello, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: January 21, 2015, Last Updated: January 21, 2015 6:55 PM EST

We are a little past the halfway point in Mayor Jim Watson and Foreign Minister John Baird’s 100-day truce on the very public disagreement the city and the federal government’s National Capital Commission have been waging over a tiny part of the proposed route for the western LRT expansion.

So far, so good.

“We’ve agreed during the 100 days to not comment on the progress of our discussions, but I think I can go as far to say that we have a positive feeling that we’re working well with the city, and vice versa,” the NCC’s chief executive, Mark Kristmanson, told reporters after Tuesday’s board meeting.

Who knows what will come of all this behind-the-scenes goodwill, if anything? The 100 days isn’t up until March. But it’s gratifying to think that officials are working hard to solve their differences, especially as both sides have legitimate arguments.

The city aims to build this light-rail route as affordably as possible and argues that doing it the NCC’s way will cost hundreds of millions more. The NCC is concerned about preserving federal land and green space for all Canadians.

Which is as it should be. You don’t have to agree with the NCC to appreciate that it must take its role in planning the capital region seriously.

If only the NCC board dealt with all its land-use duties so responsibly.

At the same time it’s rightly squaring off with the city over what amounts to running a train for 500 metres along the southern side of the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway, the NCC has acquiesced to pressure from within the federal government over a highly dubious plan for a prominent, 5,000-square-metre property on Wellington Street, next to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The site is to be the new home of the increasingly controversial Memorial to the Victims of Communism. Since the 1920s, the property has been designated in government documents as the future location of a new building for the Federal Court of Canada. Until, that is, Public Works simply allocated the current site to Tribute to Liberty, the private charity behind the proposed the memorial.

The NCC board of directors unanimously approved the change in November 2013 without officially conferring with the NCC’s own advisory committee on planning, design and realty, which had reservations about the use of the site. When the committee did officially pronounce on the project in mid-2014, it judged the location totally inappropriate for the memorial, and it didn’t think much of the winning design by Toronto-based ABSTRACT Studio Architecture.

The NCC’s planning committee is chaired by the renowned Canadian urban planner Larry Beasley, who told Maclean’s magazine earlier this month that his committee told the government that “the chosen site was not a good site, and that it was needed for a higher priority government purpose over the next few years.”

So what did everyone do with this expert planning advice? Ignored it, evidently. The NCC board, which is expressly mandated to oversee the planning of the capital, failed to solicit, and later heed, its own planning and design committee. Instead, it voted with the government.

And thus we come back to our age-old question: Why do we have the NCC if its politically appointed board members are just going to do the bidding of the government of the day?

Making all this even worse is the fact that the NCC had already reserved a much more suitable site for the proposed Memorial to Victims of Communism on Wellington Street just west of Bay Street. But that location was apparently not prominent enough for the Tribute to Liberty charity.

The Department of Canadian Heritage, which is in overseeing the monument project, previously told the Citizen that the current site “was deemed more favourable” by Tribute to Liberty because of its proximity and “thematic links” to the Supreme Court of Canada, the Peace Tower, Parliament Hill and Library and Archives Canada.

So we’re going to plan the capital based on what a private charity wants, as opposed to respecting the opinions of professional planners we’ve recruited from across the country for the express purpose of bringing design sensitivity to the capital region?

The decision to put the memorial on such a prominent parliamentary location is unconscionable. Yet hardly a murmur in this much-too-polite town has been raised.

Some have tried, including architect Barry Padolsky in his letter of protest that first sounded the alarm on this file. And the Citizen’s Don Butler reported that even one of the judges for the memorial’s design competition has a “massive problem” with the chosen site.

Shirley Blumberg, a founding partner of KPMB Architects of Toronto who was part of the jury, told Butler that the site is “inappropriate” and “is so centrally placed that it would seem to quite overshadow Canada’s true history.”

We’ve completely lost our perspective, waging a battle royale with the NCC for what amounts to minor LRT route change while the permanent ruination of a superb 5,000-square-metre public space near Parliament Hill is going mostly unmentioned.

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I think you are vastly over-simplifying these issues. Pedestrian crossing is far from the only problem with transportation to CTC. Traffic backs up on its own - pedestrian crossing just delays cars from getting to the next backup.

In terms of Lansdowne, I was referring to the transportation for the Redblacks, not the 67s. That set up managed to clear 24,000 fans from the site much faster than the allegedly superior CTC set up does.

And as I covered in detail in my previous post, it is disingenuous to suggest that transportation is the only reason for the lower in 67s attendance. Its also very misleading to make a blanket statement that attendance is lower at Lansdowne than it was at the CTC. If you only take averages, attendance will possibly be lower, but the CTC attendance was skewed by a few large crowds and was bolstered by ticket giveaways. Lansdowne has only 6000 seats, so you aren't getting those occasional outlier crowds, and the giveaways have been eliminated. In any event, crowds are trending upwards as people get used to the new set up, so a fair comparison can only be made at the end of the year.

The Act clearly gives cabinet the power to overrule the NCC on such decisions, so it would be rather pointless for the NCC to try to block it even if they thought the land should be reserved in perpetuity for the tax court.

12.2 (1) Where the Commission does not give its approval to a proposal made under section 12 or 12.1, the Governor in Council may give such approval and any such approval given by the Governor in Council shall, for the purposes of that section, be deemed to have been given by the Commission.

http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/a...age-5.html#h-7

Well I wrote to Galipeau and still hearing crickets. This monument needs to be stopped!