Residents want openness on selection of a central library site
Carleton prof worries Lebreton Flats selection a fait accompli
By Jennifer McIntosh
Ottawa East News, Mar 11, 2016
A Carleton professor is calling for an impartial committee to select a site for the city’s new central library.
Paul duBellet Kariouk, who is also an architect, said the committee should be made up of experts and librarians from other municipalities that have a landmark central library – such as Vancouver, Montreal or Halifax.
Kariouk was one of seven delegations that spoke to the library’s board during its meeting on March 8.
Library board chair Tim Tierney said the city’s process follows best practices.
“We have an integrity commissioner,” he said. “As we go through the consultation components, we will then look at best practices that were used in Halifax and Montreal.”
Tierney said when the city releases the requests for proposals, that is when a site will be named.
“There is no site selected, I have to stress that,” he said.
Kariouk worked with Friends of Lansdowne to fight the deal with Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group and said he worries about a similar one-source deal with the new library branch. He said he worries that a Lebreton Flats site is a done deal, citing rumours that the city has done soil testing at the location.
Tierney said it’s far from a done deal.
The site at 557 Wellington St. is the only city-owned of the nine identified as potential spots for the central branch of the library.
Tierney confirmed that there had been soil testing at that site.
“The understanding is we have to do it as part of the city process,” he said. “It’s not to say we are choosing 557 Wellington St. There will be plenty of consultations around components of the library. And we are waiting to roll out the plan, it will come out in the next couple of months and people will be advised how they can participate.”
The Wellington Street site is the only one the city has done soil testing on, Tierney said.
Kariouk said it doesn’t make sense for the city to choose a site west of Bronson Avenue. He said the population won’t increase to the west for at least another 10 years.
“All we have to do is look at the War Museum,” he said. “It’s a beautiful facility, but the amount of traffic that goes through it is negligible because there’s nothing else around there. Maybe there will be more there in 10 years, but they told us that 10 years ago.”
Kariouk isn’t the only one calling foul on the site selection process.
Jevone Nicholas, who spoke on behalf of Bookmark the Core, said he wants to see the new library closer to the existing Metcalfe Street branch.
“It’s about access,” he said, adding people should be able to walk or take transit to the central branch – and visit it as part of things they were going to do.
That makes more sense in the downtown core, he said.
Five of the library’s nine identified potential sites are located west of Bronson Avenue, and Nicholas said users won’t be able to access those locations as readily as they do now.
Nicholas said he’s glad to see the commitment to open houses and town halls.
Right now the city is running two plans concurrently, one would be to build a standalone library and one to do a joint project with Library and Archives Canada.
“By the end of this year we would be in a position to know whether we are partnering with them or going on our own,” Tierney said.
The Ottawa Public Library will launch a project website in the spring in an effort to keep residents in the loop.
“The good part is people are very passionate about this library,” Tierney said.
- with files from Michelle Nash
Jennifer McIntosh is the political reporter for Metroland Media's Ottawa papers. She can be reached at
[email protected]. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
http://www.ottawacommunitynews.com/news-...-on-selection-of-a-central-library-site/
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