Ottawa Municipal Election 2010

[m0nkyman]

Originally Posted by rodionx

Something less stupid than ring road

now that's a low bar to reach.

[Cre47]

The mayor's $2 to 5+ billion road plan and all its traffic plan



O'Brien unveils traffic plan

Mayor wants new highway, rail links and bridge for Ottawa

By SUSAN SHERRING, City Hall Columnist

Last Updated: September 26, 2010 11:24pm


Ottawa needs roads and bridges just as much as it needs light rail, said Mayor Larry O'Brien as he unveiled his traffic plan Sunday.

Could a Hwy. 418 be the next big road built in the city?

It might be if Mayor Larry O’Brien wins his bid for re-election.

Trains, roads and automobiles are all going to be part of our future, and the city needs to look to the future when planning for them, O’Brien said on Sunday as he unveiled a five-point traffic management plan to the Sun.

“I think there were a group of people who thought the car was going to go the way of the dodo bird. In fact, it’s the combustion engine that will eventually go the way of the dodo bird,” O’Brien said in talking about the newest plank in his campaign for re-election.

He said with technology changing — and the increased use of electric cars — the city has to adapt to that new technology.

And with his light-rail transit plan moving forward, O’Brien said roads and cars can’t be ignored.

On the top of his list is what’s being dubbed by his campaign staff as “Hwy. 418” — a ring road in the 400 highway series.

O’Brien says he’s not suggesting a ring road will be built over the next four years, but that the planning needs to begin.

“(Hwy. 418) is something some of our guys have nicknamed it. I’m certainly going to work with the province, with (local provincial cabinet minister) Bob Chiarelli. It would be another in the 400 series roads. We’ve got the 401, the 416, the 417.

“Ultimately it will require us to work with the province, but right now, we’re just focusing on the planning portion of it, and make sure over the next term we get it in our Official Plan, that the planning for this road is in our long term planning. That in itself would be work well done. Once it’s in the plan, then ultimately, we would need the funding.

“We’ll take it when the funding is ready,” he said.

The ring road, supported by both O’Brien and former Regional chair Andy Haydon, used to be in the city’s official plan, but was eventually taken out.

“It’s unfortunate,” O’Brien said, adding where the ring road should go would be left up to the “traffic experts.”

And while the oft-talked about interprovincial bridge it out of the city’s jurisdiction, O’Brien said council has endorsed the Kettle Island option — and he plans to step up the lobbying for that bridge in order to reduce the heavy traffic on King Edward Ave.

He’s also included improving ParaTranspo. O’Brien believes the city can work with the taxi industry to improve service for its users. He said he’s not talking about getting rid of Para Transpo.

“I’ve heard the delivery of the service is very good, but the complaint I hear very often is that there’s not enough of it. It’s not as convenient as it should be, and after talking to people in taxi industry, I think we can provide more service by integrating the taxi industry,” O’Brien said.

In his traffic plan, O’Brien also wants to ask the province to allow motorcycles to use high-occupancy lanes, a small move, he says, but one which could make a real difference.

“It’ll be safer for motorcycles and they’re considered a very environmentally friendly way to travel,” he said. “The motorcycle people have been asking for it.”

O’Brien is also returning to some of the recommendations of David Collenette’s transportation task force, looking for all levels of government to “implement a high-speed rail link between Montreal-Ottawa and Toronto, and to establish better commuter train service to areas around Ottawa.”

The mayor also reiterated his call for the creation of an OC Transpo Commission in his five-point plan.

O’Brien said improving the city’s transit system is the best way to encourage economic development.

“We can use it to drive our standard of living and prosperity,” O’Brien said.

[Cre47]

O’Brien can’t have roads and transit, Watson argues

Mayoral candidates join debate focused on environment

By Kate Jaimet, The Ottawa Citizen September 26, 2010 Comments (6)


OTTAWA — Ottawa should plan a major new ring-road and work with friendly developers to build massive suburban developments, Mayor Larry O’Brien said Sunday at a debate focused on environmental issues.

“In a city that’s half the size of PEI, quite frankly it’s important that we keep our personal vehicles. I’ll be recommending that we get into the planning stages for a ring road,” O’Brien said. “(We should) go into significantly larger planning exercises — 15,000, 16,000 acres of development with one major partner. … I think business can be our friend here and I think business can solve some of our problems.”

But his rival Jim Watson slammed the ideas, saying the city should focus on building public transit and stopping urban sprawl.

“You have Mr. O’Brien who’s all about roads, who wants to build a ring road through the Greenbelt and push the urban boundary farther and farther. That’s not what the people of this city want,” Watson said. “There is no reason to expand the urban boundary.”

And Clive Doucet went further, saying councillors should sever their financial ties with developers and build up a bank of city-owned conservation lands.

“I think there’s a fundamental conflict of interest between taking money from a developer on a campaign and having to vote on a motion at council where they (the developer) are going to lose money,” Doucet said.

“I would start a land banking system where we can have the capacity to actually protect our wetlands. The developer owns everything (at present). We don’t own anything.”

The debate, hosted by Ecology Ottawa in conjunction with a number of community and environmental groups, drew a standing-room-only crowd of about 200 people to Saint Paul University on Main Street.

Public transit emerged as a major issue over the course of the evening.

O’Brien touted his $2.1 billion plan for light rail, including a downtown tunnel.

But Andy Haydon, former regional chair and onetime Nepean mayor, argued in favour keeping the bus transit system and adding a downtown bus tunnel, which he said would cost less than half the price.

Meanwhile Doucet argued that any tunnel was a waste of time and money and would bring no new riders.

Instead, Doucet promised a surface-rail system that would see commuter trains running east-west along Carling to Kanata and along Innes Road to Orléans, as well as north-south lines linking Barrhaven to the downtown.

“I will do it in four years. I will change the city after the end of four years. Trust me,” Doucet said to applause from the crowd.

Watson, who supports the current council’s light rail plan, nevertheless used it as an opportunity to take a jab at O’Brien, saying it was contradictory for the mayor to both support the expensive transit initiative, and plan a massive new ring road.

On the issue of energy efficiency, Watson said Hydro Ottawa should do more to develop alternative energy sources, building on its existing project to erect a solar farm on the site of an old landfill at Trail Road. He said the city should also offer incentives to homeowners to install alternative energy technologies, taking advantage of the preferential tariffs for green energy offered by Dalton McGuinty’s provincial government, where until recently Watson served in cabinet.

However, his rivals took jabs at Watson for the provincial energy regime. Alluding to Watson’s recent promise to freeze rental fees for arenas, O’Brien said one of the reasons the costs have increased is because of McGuinty’s green energy regime. Candidate Mike Maguire said the rising prices due to green energy incentives also jeopardize the local food supply.

“The cost of energy since this green-energy madness has gone into effect at the provincial level is killing farms,” Maguire said.

Among the other issues discussed were conservation lands, on which Watson said he agreed with Doucet that the city should create a fund to buy environmental lands.

Watson said in an interview after the debate that the fund would be a percentage of the budgetary surplus each year, to be determined by council.

O’Brien said the city already has a fund to acquire land for various purposes. He added in an interview after the debate that he plans to vote against a motion at council on Oct 5 to buy ecologically sensitive lands in the South March Highlands — which could cost between $14 million and $22 million — in order to save them from development.

On the issue of cycling, Doucet said the city should create segregated lanes for cyclists while O’Brien said the new LRT tunnel will take buses off the road and create opportunities for dedicated cycling lanes. Watson said he will soon release a platform on cycling, and spoke of the need for more education on biking safety.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

[Dado]

Originally Posted by Cre47

O’Brien can’t have roads and transit, Watson argues

Mayoral candidates join debate focused on environment

By Kate Jaimet, The Ottawa Citizen September 26, 2010 Comments (6)


OTTAWA — Ottawa should plan a major new ring-road and work with friendly developers to build massive suburban developments, Mayor Larry O’Brien said Sunday at a debate focused on environmental issues.

“In a city that’s half the size of PEI, quite frankly it’s important that we keep our personal vehicles. I’ll be recommending that we get into the planning stages for a ring road,” O’Brien said. “(We should) go into significantly larger planning exercises — 15,000, 16,000 acres of development with one major partner. … I think business can be our friend here and I think business can solve some of our problems.”

I wonder if O'Brien has any idea how big 15-16,000 acres is. That works out to an area some 8 km square. It took me awhile to identify a tract of land that big. This is probably a bit off, but an example of such an area would be all the farmland between Kanata and Stittsville south to Richmond and the Jock River and east to Highway 416. For an urban comparison, it corresponds to the area defined by the Champlain Bridge in the west heading south on Island Park/Fisher/Prince of Wales to the CN Beachburg subdivision, east across the river along the tracks to Conroy Rd, north through Alta Vista to the Rideau River at Hurdman and continuing north to the Ottawa River. It's probably about the size of all of Hull and Gatineau.

At a fairly modest density of 10 units per acre, this would amount to some 160,000 units and a population approaching 400,000. Granted, not all of it would be residential but not all of the housing would be typical detached, semi-detached and townhouses either.

Essentially this would be to plan satellite "cities", and I'm using the plural with some reluctance because we could probably only plan one of these things. Just where to put it so that it is freeway and railway served while being readily served with water without eating up large tracts of farmland is a good question.


I think the general idea of planning growth on a larger scale with some degree of focus is a good one, but it needs to be scaled back to something no more than about 4000 acres and a population of about 100,000 (that's still 4 km square). Either way, planning on these sorts of scales would involve denying speculator/developers in most parts of the suburban fringe the "right" to have their land included in the urban boundary while focusing growth all in one spot. That is basically the core of the problem, because the developer and sprawl-friendly OMB would likely approve continued outward growth in all directions. So this simply could not be done without some provincial involvement, although I think many of the general powers required already exist in legislation (e.g. the Places to Grow Act); they just have to be invoked by the Province. The role of the NCC in all this would have to be considered too.

[reidjr]

More drama in city elections.
________________________-

Tidbits from the election trail for Sept. 29.

n An election and contentious City Hall business are together too much for some incumbents to handle.

Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes on Tuesday took issue with staff trying to “slam things through” the planning and environment committee at the end of the term.

“I don’t think it’s good for the public,” Holmes said.

A packed committee room applauded, but Alta Vista Coun. Peter Hume, who chairs the committee, threatened to clear the room if there was another outburst of emotion from the audience.

Most people were there to speak on the proposed redevelopment of the Westboro property formerly belonging to Les Soeurs de la Visitation.

Capital Coun. Clive Doucet, who’s running for mayor, agreed with Holmes.

“We’re in a middle of an election. It’s tough to consider this right now,” Doucet said.

Orleans Coun. Bob Monette, who’s seeking re-election, scoffed at the complaints.

“We’re elected to work. We’re not elected to campaign,” Monette said.

n If the kids are going out to play and you’re not invited, what do you do?

Go to court, if you’re one mayoral candidate.

Robert Gauthier has filed a statement of claim in Ottawa court accusing the organizers of an upcoming debate of ruining his reputation because they didn’t invite him.

The event in question is Debate 2.0, which will encourage people to send in questions to the candidates and participate using social media. The Oct. 5 debate, which is being held at the National Arts Centre, is also being televised on Rogers.

Gauthier claims leaving him out of the event infringes on his right to participate in the political process and his right of expression. He also alleges that leaving him out implies he doesn’t have the qualifications to be mayor.

The claim says leaving Gauthier out ruined his “personal and professional reputation.” Gauthier is asking for “redress, apology and compensation to be determined by a jury.”

Included in a list of defendants are the Institute on Governance, Rogers, NAC, a local blogger, and Sheila Copps, who’s moderating the debate.

The allegations have not been tested in court.

According to the advertisement for Debate 2.0, the invited candidates are Mayor Larry O’Brien, Jim Watson and Clive Doucet.

— Jon Willing

[waterloowarrior]

Hmm the planning act has a four month timeline for zoning (120 days). This application is already overdue to extensive design review and revisions.

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by waterloowarrior

Hmm the planning act has a four month timeline for zoning (120 days). This application is already overdue to extensive design review and revisions.

You are expecting rational thinking in the lead up to a municipal election in which the incumbents jobs are dependent on appearing to be doing something which in this case means stalling the project.

This is akin to residents who don't want public meetings in the summer as they are all away.

[Lakche]

O'Brien's promise to bring build a Ring Road around Ottawa and make it a new 400-series highway is not something new.

In fact, the MTO already has planned to begin a study to determine if one should be built. They had this planned since 2008.

Labeled as "Highway Ottawa - Bypass corridor study", it shows up on the Southern Highway Program (SHP) 2008 Future Projects document.

Found here:

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/pubs/highway-construction/southern-highway-2008/partS.shtml

Theres an image you can click on to zoom in and it identifies it as "Ottawa Bypass corridor study"

Whether we vote for O'Brien or not, a study is still going to happen.

[lrt's friend]

You may recall that there used to be signs on Highway 417 at Vars indicating that this was the location of a future Ottawa Bypass highway. These signs have disappeared indicating that it has fallen off the priority list with the Ontario government.

[eternallyme]

If a ring road is really going to reduce traffic on the Queensway, it needs to be within the urban core. Perhaps Hunt Club Road upgraded to a freeway, combined with other connections? An outer ring road will do little to reduce congestion given the relatively low traffic counts on the highways out of the city (15,000 to 25,000 cars per day - all of which are fully free-flowing for 4-lane freeways, with most of the traffic on all those routes likely heading to or from Ottawa). There is no real congestion on Highway 416, 417 west of 7 or 417 east of Anderson Road, and once upgraded, Highway 7 will be operating good as well. (174 east is a different animal as that is municipal, which is stupid IMO)

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by McC

Thanks Kitchissippi, sounds like you got the same impression from Hobbs as I did. And after 4 years being represented by Leadman, I still don't have a clue what she stands for given that anytime she says anything on issues like transit and intensification she always seems to contradict herself halfway through ("more people, but not here, to use more, better and cleaner transit options, but not these ones here," etc.). So frustrating!

Exhibit A: Hickory Street!

The damn project is virtually on top of the O-Train Carling station, but nope, still not good enough for Miss Nimby.

[lrt's friend]

Even Clive Doucet now has a large sign at Bank and Hunt Club.

[Cre47]

Watson now has a 2 to 1 lead over O'Brien and this is from a Conservative pollster too (not that it really matters much). Vote splitting from the right wing doesn't make any difference apparently on whether it would be Watson or O'Brien who will win because of Watson's big lead. Though, the 30% undecided (though most will probably not vote) and 396 respondents might be reasons not to jump for joy immediately for those who absolutely want Luthor out.

Nevertheless, O'Brien has lost it lately during the campaign with his ring road project, the large increase of the city payroll (notice the near 20% increase in city employees despite his pledge for a hiring freeze and various cuts within City Hall and salary freeze) and other BS (oh his zero means zero nonsense again).

Note that with about 25% of the population being francophone, he already loses a very large voting group since his incapability of speaking French and will be a large part of his defeat since Watson speaks fluently both languages.

I'm sure the hosts at CFRA will be in a bad mood tomorrow morning looking at those numbers anyways.

New poll shows Watson in the lead
Mayoral candidates Jim Watson and Larry O'Brien both held campaign rallies in the capital, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010.

Updated: Mon Oct. 04 2010 10:51:16 AM

ctvottawa.ca

A new poll released Monday morning shows Ottawa mayoral candidate Jim Watson leading the race for Mayor.

The poll conducted by Ottawa-based, Holinshed Research Group, shows Watson has the support of 36-percent of respondents.

Mayor Larry O'Brien is trailing at 17 per cent.

The poll shows Andy Haydon has the support of 8 per cent of respondents and 6 per cent for Clive Doucet.

The survey also found 30 per cent of people still don't know who they will vote for.

More than half of the respondents say Mayor Larry O'Brien has done a poor job.

In total, 396 residents were polled. The survey is considered accurate 19 times out of 20.

Ottawa votes October 25th.

Tune into CTV Ottawa News October 18th at 6pm for "Your Vote: The Race for Mayor" a live Mayoral Debate.

[hhunter]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

Exhibit A: Hickory Street!

The damn project is virtually on top of the O-Train Carling station, but nope, still not good enough for Miss Nimby.

I see what you're saying (I live in this neighbourhood and would like to see considerable re-development), but I think you're missing some nuance here.

You can be pro-intensification, and particularly transit-oriented development, without turning a blind eye to the details of a project. In other words, Councillor Leadman can certainly support intensification while still having the responsibility to ensure that this massive development boom remains within the realm of what is appropriate for the community. It's not so black and white: pro- or anti-development. Afterall, what was approved was still a twenty story tower. No one was saying nothing should be built. Plus, between 125 Hickory, 855 Carling, 100 Champagne, and the re-development of the humane society site, we're literally seeing the addition of hundreds and hundreds of residents on one block. We're re-shaping a neighbourhood - why leave it up to developers?

That said, I think the Sister's site on Richmond may be a better example of nimby-ism in Kitchissippi. Five stories there is appalling to some, whereas 20 (down from 24) was an appropriate compromise for Hickory. Interesting! I wonder if the differing income-levels of these two neighbourhoods is affecting outcomes?

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by hhunter

Plus, between 125 Hickory, 855 Carling, 100 Champagne, and the re-development of the humane society site, we're literally seeing the addition of hundreds and hundreds of residents on one block.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

We're re-shaping a neighbourhood - why leave it up to developers?

Largely because I think the developers have better views of what the city can and should be than the reactionary nattering nimby brigades who populate the community associations throughout the older neighbourhoods.

That said, I think the Sister's site on Richmond may be a better example of nimby-ism in Kitchissippi.

Not necessarily; while not overly sympathetic to the nimbies in that case, either, they do have a better argument than the Leadman anti-Hickory crusade. If the type of development proposed for the brownfield Hickory site isn't "appropriate", then there is nowhere in Ottawa where it's appropriate.

Five stories there is appalling to some, whereas 20 (down from 24) was an appropriate compromise for Hickory. Interesting! I wonder if the differing income-levels of these two neighbourhoods is affecting outcomes?

How do they differ?

[lrt's friend]

Largely because I think the developers have better views of what the city can and should be than the reactionary nattering nimby brigades who populate the community associations throughout the older neighbourhoods.

I wouldn't give developers control over design of our communities. They are there to maximize profit. We see time and again projects that exceed what is permitted by zoning. There needs to be checks and balances. I do agree that Nimbys can be ridiculous in their arguments against projects.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

I wouldn't give developers control over design of our communities.

Neither would I. But I sure a hell wouldn't give it to the various chapters of NIMBY International in this sad small little town.

They are there to maximize profit.

Am I supposed to be scandalized by that? Coz I'm not.

We see time and again projects that exceed what is permitted by zoning.

And? Zoning is crap anyway.

I do agree that Nimbys can be ridiculous in their arguments against projects.

Can be? It's pretty well a given.

[reidjr]

Well clive now wants to get rid of the omb.While some of the things the omb does i do not agree with but if we did not have it wow nothing every would get done and ottawa would be in very bad shape.

[m0nkyman]

Other provinces get by without an OMB equivalent. Without it, cities wouldn't just say not to everything knowing that the OMB will approve it anyway. They would have to be more responsible. Not a bad thing.

[reidjr]

Originally Posted by m0nkyman

Other provinces get by without an OMB equivalent. Without it, cities wouldn't just say not to everything knowing that the OMB will approve it anyway. They would have to be more responsible. Not a bad thing.

The main probleams is ottawa has some council that seem to be aginst any devlopment.I doubt they would be more responsible if anything it would be worse just look at the projects that should have got the ok but went to omb.