Ottawa Senators Kanata Arena

[MountainView]

Originally Posted by zzptichka

I still find it mind-blowing that you can't walk from CTC to Tanger Outlets mall because there are no sidewalks on these bridges.

Not only no sidewalks, but also signs that say "no walking", and on game days they have a police car on the north side of Huntmar not allowing any pedestrian traffic. Before that they also had a large VMS indicating that you could not walk across that bridge.
Talk about prioritizing cars...

Even on non-game days... OC Transpo offers service from CTC that folks who live in Arcadia can't access via foot.

[LRTeverywhere]

There is now a plan to replace the Huntmar 417 bridge with a 4 lane bridge including cycle tracks and sidewalks, the plan isn't set to go ahead for quite a while so an active use bridge is also proposed to be built much sooner directly next to the current bridge.

(Note that I am very much in support of moving the arena, one bridge isn't enough to make the area better)

[AuxTown]

Originally Posted by OTSkyline

Why would you want to? That part of town is stereotypical suburb, car-oriented developments. Roads roads and more roads, no sidewalks, empty fields, long distances between destinations - it's made for cars and cars only.

That's a dumb comment. There are bike lanes all over Kanata and people bike/run down streets and recreational paths in that area all the time. In fact, the lack of a proper pedestrian crossing West of Terry Fox essentially bisects two excellent and VERY well-used path systems along the Carp River. I hope they plan to eventually connect these two paths:



I regularly bike from my house in Kanata Lakes using bike lanes and dedicated multi-use paths all the way to my office on O'Connor Street (in fact, I did it this morning). The lanes/paths are busy with commuters and people exercising from 6am until after dusk. So to suggest we don't have non-car infrastructure in the burbs is a myth and pretty smug to suggest Ottawa inside the Greenbelt is designed any better. My colleagues who live in Alta Vista and Carlington have a much more dangerous cycling route to downtown than I do, sadly.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by LRTeverywhere

There is now a plan to replace the Huntmar 417 bridge with a 4 lane bridge including cycle tracks and sidewalks, the plan isn't set to go ahead for quite a while so an active use bridge is also proposed to be built much sooner directly next to the current bridge.

(Note that I am very much in support of moving the arena, one bridge isn't enough to make the area better)

It will be completed just in time for the Sens to get the heck out of Kanata!

On that subject, some people in Katana are sad to see the Sens leave. I don't see the arena being in Kanata as an advantage for Kanata locals; they still have to drive and get stuck in the same traffic in the parking lots and local streets.

As for what's next for the arena, Hubley is hoping for an entertainment district. He suggested maybe something like a biodome. The high tech sector may be interested (though for me, converting the arena to office space doesn't seem realistic).

https://beta.ctvnews.ca/local/ottawa...60606.amp.html

[OTSkyline]

Originally Posted by AuxTown

That's a dumb comment.

I wasn't talking about recreational biking, I was referring to pedestrians walking. Each of the major destinations in that area (CTC, Palladium Auto Park and Tanger Outlets) are quite far apart and would basically see very little pedestrian activity (if any) regardless of if sidewalks existed there today. Even if one did somehow spend an a morning car shopping, visited Tanger outlets in the afternoon and went to see a Sens game at night, one likely wouldn't walk between these destinations. Even if they did, there is very little residential or hotels existing there today, so one would most likely have to drive or Uber home before & after - again explaining how the area is so car-oriented today.

As the area grows and develops and we add residential nearby, hopefully that can change and we can make improvements and make it more walkable, although with the arena moving to Lebreton I wonder what will come of the CTC now...

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

It's somewhat understandable considering everything north of the 417 was farm fields when the arena and bridges were built, but the Tanger development (and all other recent residential and commercial) should have included at least a new pedestrian bridge to reach the south end, if not a rebuild of the two existing overpasses.

MTO rehabilitated the Huntmar overpass within the last 10 years; they dropped the ball by not figuring out a way to add sidewalks to at least one side of the bridge at that time.

Before he was the Stitsville Councillor, Glen Gower ran a community website and wrote about this in 2014: https://stittsvillecentral.ca/why-ar...tmar-overpass/

[phil235]

Originally Posted by OTSkyline

I wasn't talking about recreational biking, I was referring to pedestrians walking. Each of the major destinations in that area (CTC, Palladium Auto Park and Tanger Outlets) are quite far apart and would basically see very little pedestrian activity (if any) regardless of if sidewalks existed there today. Even if one did somehow spend an a morning car shopping, visited Tanger outlets in the afternoon and went to see a Sens game at night, one likely wouldn't walk between these destinations. Even if they did, there is very little residential or hotels existing there today, so one would most likely have to drive or Uber home before & after - again explaining how the area is so car-oriented today.

Don't know about this at all. There are several hotels built or planned on the north side of the highway that definitely generate potential pedestrian traffic from people going to games. And there are a number of offices, plus houses less than a kilometer up the road. The lack of a sidewalk is what keeps these people from walking, not a lack of demand.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by TransitZilla

MTO rehabilitated the Huntmar overpass within the last 10 years; they dropped the ball by not figuring out a way to add sidewalks to at least one side of the bridge at that time.

Before he was the Stitsville Councillor, Glen Gower ran a community website and wrote about this in 2014: https://stittsvillecentral.ca/why-ar...tmar-overpass/

Sounds like local Councillors and the City dropped the ball. Quadri's "it will be rebuilt in 10-20 years, so why bother" is an unacceptable answer. No wonder he was voted out in 2018.

[Horus]

The lack of sidewalks makes it easier to prevent people from parking at Tanger to attend Sens games. I would not be surprised if Tanger lobbied against the inclusion of sidewalks.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Horus

The lack of sidewalks makes it easier to prevent people from parking at Tanger to attend Sens games. I would not be surprised if Tanger lobbied against the inclusion of sidewalks.

That sounds very much plausible. Even the Sens could have lobbied for that to prevent lost revenues. That said, preventing fluid active movements at all times between north and south just to stop a few people from parking at Tanger a few hours a day 80 times a year is just wrong. They could easily just install gets at entrances like the car dealerships have, or introduce paid parking during events at the Corel Centre. Plenty of solutions available.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by OTSkyline

It irks me so much when people point to something like Central Park as evidence that we should have grassy, open spaces in Ottawa.

What Central Park offers is much more than park space, there's;

• -dense and diverse urban fabric all around it and right up to its edges, which would give the usual Ottawa greenspace fanatics a fit of the vapours.

[originalmuffins]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

It will be completed just in time for the Sens to get the heck out of Kanata!

On that subject, some people in Katana are sad to see the Sens leave. I don't see the arena being in Kanata as an advantage for Kanata locals; they still have to drive and get stuck in the same traffic in the parking lots and local streets.

As for what's next for the arena, Hubley is hoping for an entertainment district. He suggested maybe something like a biodome. The high tech sector may be interested (though for me, converting the arena to office space doesn't seem realistic).

https://beta.ctvnews.ca/local/ottawa...60606.amp.html

I truly think an indoor waterpark, indoor amusement park, or biodome would be absolutely excellent. It would be important to have connectivity to Tanger so that Tanger businesses could benefit from the traffic. It would create a mini getaway area during the heart of winter.

Hopefully it doesn't get demolished or becomes office space/just condos.

[Harley613]

It would be neat if Proslide resurrected the Alottawata name at the Palladium and built a waterpark similar to (but smaller) the Tropical Islands in Germany, which took over an abandoned airship hangar.

[harls]

Dymon storage or Spirit Halloween store.

[originalmuffins]

Originally Posted by Harley613

It would be neat if Proslide resurrected the Alottawata name at the Palladium and built a waterpark similar to (but smaller) the Tropical Islands in Germany, which took over an abandoned airship hangar.

Man, this would be awesome. I hope this does happen because it definitely would be nice to go here during the winters.

[LeadingEdgeBoomer]

Originally Posted by harls

Dymon storage or Spirit Halloween store.

Nice choices

Maybe an aquarumium. Some people in Ottawa seem to want one.

[RuralCitizen]

Originally Posted by LeadingEdgeBoomer

Nice choices

Maybe an aquarium. Some people in Ottawa seem to want one.

I would prefer an aquarium downtown. It would work better as part of an entertainment district. Close to the population, close to other popular tourist destination. An aquarium visit doesn't necessarily last a whole day.

I really like the indoor waterpark idea, it would make it worth the commute if one spends the entire day there.

[Tesladom]

How much is the land worth in that area? Would it be more profitable for them just to simply demolish the building and sell the land?
Not that I'm against a waterpark but that would in the $100+Million range to buy the property and repurpose it as a waterpark. Also not sure about the how the building is structurally if you remove the stands, will building be structurally sound or will it take $$$

As a side note - I hope the NCC and City of Ottawa assess the value of the CTC site into any type of P3 funding arrangement for the new arena. Melnyk only paid USD$92Million for the team and the building

[OTownandDown]

To be fair, that busy looking development due south in your image IS a whole butt-load of car dealerships...

But yes, it should be a basic design input for EVERY bridge to have sidewalks on both sides, if only for safety zones.

Originally Posted by zzptichka

I still find it mind-blowing that you can't walk from CTC to Tanger Outlets mall because there are no sidewalks on these bridges.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by RuralCitizen

I would prefer an aquarium downtown. It would work better as part of an entertainment district. Close to the population, close to other popular tourist destination. An aquarium visit doesn't necessarily last a whole day.

I really like the indoor waterpark idea, it would make it worth the commute if one spends the entire day there.

Agreed, I don't really want an aquarium, but if we get one it should be downtown. A waterpark on the other hand makes a lot of sense.