City pumping $120K into plaza for big Ottawa sign, businesses lament parking loss
Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: October 2, 2017 | Last Updated: October 2, 2017 3:25 PM EDT
Court Curry, manager of right of way, heritage and urban design services, Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury, Mayor Jim Watson and ByWard Market BIA executive director Jasna Jennings break ground on a new plaza at York and Sussex streets where the big Ottawa sign will be relocated.
The city is paying $120,000 to create a new pedestrian plaza in the ByWard Market so the big Ottawa letters have a proper backdrop.
But some business owners near the new plaza, which the city is constructing at York and Sussex streets, still hate that full on-street parking capacity on York Street won’t be reinstated after the teardown of Inspiration Village.
“I just shake my head,” said Christine Shaikin, manager of The Modern Shop across from the plaza construction site.
The block Ottawa letters are a good idea but businesses need parking to satisfy customers who love convenience, Shaikin said.
Shaikin said Inspiration Village killed business because the shipping containers created a barrier between the attraction and businesses, and it didn’t help there were dozens of parking spaces eliminated.
Twenty-two parking spaces will be out of commission for as long as the new plaza is in operation at York and Sussex streets.
Mayor Jim Watson said the city is trying to “humanize” that part of the market.
“I think it’s something that we learned from Inspiration Village,” Watson said Monday during a groundbreaking event for the plaza. “People liked the fact there was animation on the street. This is a great way to animate the street and preserve those Ottawa letters at the same time.”
Celebrations Ottawa, the company that runs the Ottawa 2017 bureau, has turned the letters over to the city. The letters are being touched up with paint before they’re set up in the new plaza.
“It will be an even cleaner view of getting the Parliament buildings in the background,” Watson said.
The letters were previously positioned in Inspiration Village in front of a parking garage, so there was hardly a view of Parliament Hill in the first place.
To save money for the new plaza, the city bought furniture from the Inspiration Village display. The rough sketch includes planters, garbage receptacles and colourful tables and Muskoka chairs, similar to those around the Rink of Dreams at city hall.
The city's rendering of a new plaza being built at York and Sussex streets, where the big Ottawa sign will be relocated.
The city wants to open the plaza by the end of the month.
Jeremy Rosenberg, owner of York Street Spa, predicts clients will be disappointed that parking in front of his business isn’t being reinstated. The full removal of parking for Inspiration Village harmed the spa, he said.
“We haven’t recovered from that. Not at all,” Rosenberg said.
Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury emphasized that the city has reinstated 74 of the parking spots previously taken out for Inspiration Village.
Creating the new gathering space, with the Ottawa letters as the anchor, was important for the BIA, Fleury said.
Jasna Jennings, executive director of the ByWard Market BIA, said losing a couple dozen parking spaces isn’t the end of the world for businesses.
“It’s a few parking spaces, honestly, and in the grand scheme of things we have over 3,100 parking spaces,” Jennings said.
People have been wanting city hall’s attention on the ByWard Market and now there are municipal investments, Jennings said, also noting the new pedestrian plaza on George Street.
Jennings said the city has asked the BIA for some advice on programming the space at York and Sussex streets, but there are no concrete plans.
“Even in the short term just to designate yet another busking spot is a great way to animate a space,” Jennings said. “I think there are great opportunities to have an outdoor info kiosk where you’re capturing visitors and letting them know what’s going on, encouraging them to visit the area as a whole.”
Since the plaza is a trial project, the city can always reinstate the parking if the attraction is causing problems, Jennings said.
“At the end of the day we simply have to try stuff,” she said. “It’s a part of becoming a big city and trying new things.”
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