Jane's Walk Ottawa 2014 this weekend

This weekend (May 3-4, 2014) is the annual Jane's Walk Ottawa series of free urbanist walking tours, and as with last year, I'm publishing a list of walks in Somerset Ward.

I mentioned two of the walks I went on last year in my blog posts The Lonely Elm (Dennis van Staalduinen's walk on Wellington Street, who this year is giving a walk in Champlain Park) and The stones don't fall far from the hill (Quentin Gall's talk on Ottawa's Building and Monument Stones), both of which seem to have been one-offs.

Here's the rundown of Jane's Walks in Centretown for this year:

An urban gas station in Centretown

The Petro Canada at Bronson and Somerset quietly reopened this past Friday after about six months of construction, which started shortly after the reopening of newly reconstructed Bronson Avenue. It comes complete with a convenience store at the corner, seen best at night in HDR.

Even though about three-quarters of Centretown residents walk, bus and bike as part of their regular commute to work and school, the car ownership rate in Centretown is about 1.3 cars per household. So when residents of Centretown, Chinatown and Dalhousie eventually have to fill their tanks, they have to go somewhere. After the closure of the Shell station at Gloucester, this station just on the far side of Centretown's Bronson border is one of the closest to downtown. (I'm not saying I regret the closure of the gas stations that used to pepper Centretown much more heavily!)

But just because a gas station is a car-oriented business, it doesn't mean it can't also fit into the fabric of a walkable urban neighbourhood. Before the construction photos, let's look at how the station used to look:

The lonely elm

When the LeBreton Flats saw the arrival of the "road header" tunneling machine, its disembodied chewing tool seen here, an old Elm Tree played host.

The tree also played host to a stop along Dennis Van Staalduinen's Jane's Walk in May 2013, providing the walkers some shade:

Vertical mess, Preston and Albert

There's something about massive amounts of utility wires on a streetpost that compels me to photograph them, so indulge me for a moment on this one. Backed by a clear blue sky, the wires, while numerous, are clean and tidy, and clearly was installed relatively recently (as was the still-green wooden pole they're suspended on).

Three corners of the foreground are occupied by an OC Transpo bus flag for the #16, a Preston street name sign, and a Little Italy-style pedestrian lantern. These provide a sense of place to the photo, identifying the corner as that of Preston and Albert. The fourth quadrant is filled in by a street light and a traffic control signal post, providing some balance. Lastly, the green of the leaves on the right provide some reassurance that this isn't some desolate concrete jungle but a place where a long presence has allowed the trees to grow high.

That photo was taken back in October when a group of DCA members went on a walkabout with City traffic engineers as part of Public Advisory Committee (PAC) discussions on pedestrian safety for the redesign of Albert Street (to be implemented only after LRT is complete in 2108). From the same set is this shot of the group itself.

Since I'm already being a bit poetic on the photo descriptions today, I'm including this next one for a reason, too. The literal description is that the group is standing on the south sidewalk of Albert Street at the pathway connecting to Walnut Court, about a block west of the photo above, taken on the same PAC walkabout.

The curiosity here is more of a tongue-in-cheek metaphor. Note that everyone in the group is circled around Eric Darwin, the voluminous blogger behind the popular blog, West Side Action. Eric is facing the City engineers, and the community members are standing behind him (and I'm in the middle of the road behind a camera—which could also be interpreted metaphorically a few ways, ha!). This arrangement is almost like a literal illustration of how the community consultation process often seems to pass, as described by Eric himself via David Reevely's blog. Of course Eric isn't the centre of discussions at all PAC meetings, but being retired, he has a lot of time to come up with ideas and share them, and if by sheer volume there are enough good ones that people often listen.

[Tune in on Wednesdays at noon for a new pedestrian-themed blog post. View the Pedestrians label for previous Peds on Weds posts]

Somerset Street Reconstruction Part 1: Introduction/Overview

Last year, Somerset Street West was dug up between Booth Street and the far side of the bridge over the O-Train tracks (Just as Bronson will be this year north of the Queensway. There's an open house tonight at McNabb Community Centre at 6:30pm to talk about the construction phasing for Bronson). This is the first in a 15-post series detailing the reconstruction, from someone who was involved in the reconstruction from the very first committee meeting of a long, involved process. Shown here is one of the public open houses at the Plant Bath:

After sorting through hundreds of my photos from this construction project, I'm proud to present this saga in rich detail. I'll be posting one or two entries per week. Here's the roadmap:

Show/hide list of posts in this series

• Part 1 (below): Introduction and overview
• Part 2: West of Preston
• Part 3: Wider sidewalks with unit pavers
• Part 4: Under Chinatown (Booth to Preston)
• Part 5: Aside — Rochester/Spruce sidewalk
• Part 6: Poles & signals
• Part 7: Trees & bike racks
• Part 8: Bridge sidewalks A
• Part 9: Bridge sidewalks B
• Part 10: City Centre
• Part 11: O-Train pathway — planning
• Part 12: O-Train pathway — tunnel construction
• Part 13: O-Train pathway — cantilevered boardwalk
• Part 14: Bridge railings
• Part 15: Finale - decorations and art

There were many other great photos and topics that didn't fit into the series that I intend to draw from subsequently. I did a similar series on the Bank Street reconstruction in 2009, though I wasn't involved in the planning part of that project. Other multi-part series can be found under the label Tours.

Now let's get this series started!

Part 1: Overview

Officially, this total reconstruction of Somerset Street consisted of phases 3 and 4 of the Wellington Street West reconstruction, which involved the reconstruction of Hintonburg's main street in the previous few years. Since Chinatown east of Booth was done a decade or so ago, these were the final sections in the reconstruction of the century-old water mains and sewers along Somerset and Wellington all the way from Elgin to Westboro.

Bronson reconstruction public open house Thurs Nov 24, 6:30pm at Centennial

After a handful of meetings of the Public Advisory Committee (PAC) for the imminent Bronson Avenue reconstruction, the city's project managers and engineers will be presenting their plans to the public next Thursday evening at Centennial public school, 6:30 pm. All are welcome to come and share their feedback. More details are here on the City's website.

Much has been done behind the scenes by community representatives on the PAC to squeeze out every last bit of improvement in the plans, and you can help increase the pressure by signing the Rescue Bronson Avenue petition.

As you will recall, community groups united under the banner of Rescue Bronson Avenue to fight back at the engineers' assumption that the road should go back exactly as it is, except with wider lanes.

Rescue Bronson is made up of representatives from the CCCA, DCA, CCOC and Diane Holmes (I'm formally involved with all but the CCOC), and was previously pushing for the more northerly parts of Bronson to be put on a "Road Diet". North of Gladstone Avenue, the traffic volumes drop considerably, and again at Somerset. By reclaiming some space for pedestrians on Bronson, there would be shorter crossing distances, a less hostile walking environment, slower (though not necessarily less) traffic, and shorter crossing distances--altogether a safer street. In the last week or so, Scott Street got such treatment:

Sunday 11am and noon: Rescue Bronson Avenue walking tour

This ain't your mother's Mother's Day Jane's Walk. Unless your mother lived on Bronson before they widened it in the '50s.

Sunday, May 8, 2011, at 11am, head on over to Bronson and Queen for a really exciting Jane's Walk on Bronson Avenue. If you're not the morning type, you can meet up with us at the Chinatown Arch/Raw Sugar where we'll get to the second half of the walk at noon.

This will be an illustrated walk. The photo below shows an historical photo of Bronson and Somerset. There are eight different location-specific posters of behind-the-scenes happenings along Bronson that you can't see while standing on location. I'll post copies of these posters on the blog on Monday, and hopefully the posters will stay up a while.

In honour of the occasion, the Mayor proclaimed Thursday May 7, 2011, Jane Jacobs Day in Ottawa:

333 Preston (ex-Xerox building)

The blue-and-white building on the left of the Queensway in the above photo is actually on Rochester street, but formally it's part of Preston Square at 333 Preston. I knew it as the "Xerox" building, because of the large red logo on both sides of the building. I have memories of seeing it out the window of the school bus on the way to McNabb; our bus would come down this ramp and turn up Bronson:

In the last few years, the building was "Xerox"ed, and its twin was put up, seen here. Other buildings have also been put up at Preston Square, including the one along Preston with restaurants and food stores at the ground level.

More recently, the "Xerox" title was replaced with that of Sun Life Financial. In August, the building owners sought permission for a third sign on the building on the North side, and the Dalhousie Community Association chose not to oppose the request.

That third sign is currently being installed. It reads, "RBC Dominion Securities". Not very catchy from a distance.

Rescue Bronson Avenue - next steps

Lots of people came out to the community forum to Rescue Bronson Avenue last night. Representatives from the CCCA, DCA and CCOC joined Councillor Diane Holmes to present our vision of the Rescue Bronson project, and give people in the room a chance to speak.

(skip meeting summary)

Somerset Ward Councillor Diane Holmes introduced the project and its context. You can read more on the background in my previous post, Rescue Bronson Avenue this Wednesday! The photo below shows just the front third of the crowd at the McNabb Park Community Centre's assembly hall

Next, Eric Darwin, President of the Dalhousie Community Association and blogger at West Side Action gave a great presentation talking about Road Diets and why one can work for Bronson Avenue.

Many people were interested in Eric's references to research that shows that a road diet can carry the same amount of traffic with a different lane configuration.

The next speaker was Robert Smythe, who has been active in Centretown as far back as the 1970s. Robert gave a presentation on the Escarpment Plan, which was generated a couple of years ago after two years of solid, extensive consultation with the community and stakeholders. The Escarpment is the area near the Ottawa Tech playing fields, down the hill at Albert/Slater toward Lebreton Flats. The Escarpment Plan, which has been incorporated into the City's Official Plan, contains a number of recommendations relevant to the north end of Bronson Avenue (which the Bronson Avenue consultants didn't bother to look at).

I then gave a social media report and talked about Rescue Bronson's web site, Twitter feed, Facebook page, and online petition (which is now at over 150 signatures!)

I highlighted some of the comments made by Rescue Bronson supporters on the petition, on our website, and on various news outlets' comment sections.

Next, people in the audience got a chance to give their comments. There was such a variety of comments, it is clear that the reconstruction of Bronson should be put on hold so that the City and the consultants can actually look at the problems identified by the community instead of pretending Bronson works the way it's built now.

We've received many compliments that this was one of the best consultations people have been to (some suggest it's because it wasn't organized by City staff!), and others are glad that we took the time to present this information to the community members, many of whom were unaware that a reconstruction project was going to happen in their own back yard.

Next Steps

While Eric spoke to the media (above), attendees filled out a big stack of comment forms that we're going to go through as quickly as possible so we can tell people about what happens next. We could use a volunteer or two to help with that data entry today and tomorrow--contact councillor Holmes' office if you can help out with that.

In addition to continuing to spread the word and get people to sign the petition, we'll be establishing a working group so that interested volunteers can help get more involved. E-mail rescuebronson@centretowncitizens.ca if you want to volunteer for Rescue Bronson Avenue's working committee.

Rescue Bronson Avenue will also be making a presentation at the CCCA's Annual General Meeting, next Tuesday, November 17, 2010 at 7pm at City Hall (Colonel By Room). If you live between Bronson and the Canal, between the Queensway and the Ottawa River, you are eligible to be a member of the CCCA. Why not come out and support your community association!

Rescue Bronson Avenue this Wednesday!

By now you have hopefully heard of the Rescue Bronson Avenue initiative at RescueBronson.ca. The group was started by the Centretown Citizens Community Association, the Dalhousie Community Association, the Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation and councillor Diane Holmes in response to the reconstruction plans for Bronson Avenue from Sparks Street to the Rideau Canal.

We're holding a public meeting on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 at 7pm at McNabb Community Centre, assembly hall, to Rescue Bronson Avenue!

See below for how you can help and the background.

Rescue Bronson: What can you do?

• Sign the online petition
• Visit RescueBronson.ca to learn more about the initiative.
• Follow our RSS feed of updates
• Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/RescueBronson and re-tweet the #RescueBronson hash tag
• Come to our public meeting on Wednesday, November 10 at 7pm at the McNabb Assembly Hall to listen and share your concerns about Bronson
• e-mail rescuebronson@centretowncitizens.ca to receive e-mail updates or to send us feedback

Background on Rescue Bronson Avenue

The underground infrastructure beneath Bronson Avenue is over a century old and needs replacement. As a result, there is an opportunity to revise the way Bronson Avenue looks on the surface. At this point, it looks like work will be done in 2011 from Arlington to Gladstone, 2012 for Gladstone to Gloucester, and 2013 for Gloucester to Sparks.

The City's engineers (and the consultants they hired) want to rebuild Bronson Avenue exactly as it is: a four-lane arterial with no room for cyclists, pedestrians, or front yards. In some places, they even want to widen Bronson's lanes and narrow the sidewalks.

While we invited to a public consultation group, our feedback fell on deaf ears. The road would be rebuilt first, then plans could be made for landscaping. When the community said we want more trees on Bronson Avenue, the consultants replied there wasn't enough room, and proposed fake trees instead.

When we asked for a pedestrian crossing between Gladstone and Catherine, they proposed one at Flora--because it was halfway between--instead of at Arlington, where most pedestrians cross.

When we pointed out that traffic volumes are much lower north of Gladstone, and were low enough to look at a road diet (which would reduce crossing distances for pedestrians and provide space for landscaping, while carrying the same amount of motorized traffic), we were stonewalled.

Here's Bronson Avenue today. The City's engineers want to make the outer lanes wider, which will encourage motorists to speed past each other on the outside lane around left-turning vehicles in the centre lane. Any cyclists or crossing pedestrians in the way won't be seen until it's too late.

By contrast, here's just one way Bronson can be reconfigured to improve flow. No more jockeying for position.

Other alternatives include parking lanes with bulbouts for trees, a middle lane that changes direction during the day, and others (see more examples in Eric's post on a recent Toronto road diet). The point is that the City isn't even considering any of these ideas. The numbers we've seen indicate that traffic north of Gladstone is low enough to warrant a road diet, but the City insists on the status quo.

The same "status quo" message goes for the triangle at the north end, between Albert and Slater. This slanted section through the escarpment is unfriendly to all modes of travel, yet the most the City would propose is a slight narrowing to reduce pedestrian crossing times, or perhaps a "refuge island" so pedestrians could cross in two stages. Surely this is the right opportunity to look at reconfiguring this awkward triangle?

The City's engineers and consultants haven't proposed any solutions because they've prepared their designs before even listening to what the community's problems are.

While Rescue Bronson has identified some problems (like those above), we're sure there are more out there. So please come to the public meeting on Wednesday and help show your support to Rescue Bronson Avenue!

Somerset Ward All-Candidates Meeting, October 19, 2010

The Centretown Citizens Community Association and the Dalhousie Community Association, which together cover all of Somerset Ward, are teaming up to organize the only All-Candidates Meeting for Ward 14. It will take place on the CCCA's normal meeting date, October 19, 2010--the third Tuesday of the month--in the council chambers at Ottawa City Hall. All are welcome to this free event.

Candidates Don Fex, Diane Holmes, and Barkley Pollock have confirmed their attendance. (Susan Miller has not responded.)

Bring your friends and family to hear the candidates speak about their vision, and respond to questions from the community. Some refreshments will be available, and the CCCA and DCA will be accepting donations to defray the cost of the event.

If you're already on the CCCA's e-mail list, you'll already have heard about it. You can join the list at the list page, or e-mail me and I can add you on. The CCCA's next event will be the Annual General Meeting in November, and I hope you'll come to that, too!

For more information on where the candidates stand, see this EMC Ottawa West article, and check out their responses to Citizens for Safe Cycling's election survey.

Voting Information

Remember to vote in the municipal election for Mayor, Councillor, and School Board Trustee. Election Day is Monday, October 25, and polls are open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. You should have received by now a voting card that tells you where to vote. Here is a map of Somerset Ward's boundaries. Click to enlarge:

If you can't make it on that day, there's also an advance poll on Thursday, October 14 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. On the advance poll day, some buildings in the ward will have polls in their lobbies for tenants of those buildings; otherwise Canadian citizens residing in Somerset Ward can go to McNabb Community Centre to vote in the advance poll. Or you can appoint a proxy to vote on your behalf.

If you are not yet registered to vote or didn't receive your voting card, go to Ottawa.ca/elections - specifically to this page to find out where you vote. Make sure to bring proper identification with you. You must use either "method one" or "method two" to provide identification to vote--even if you received the notice in the mail.

(Note: I am the Corporate Secretary of the CCCA and the Vice-President of the DCA, the two groups sponsoring this event.)

358 Arlington rescued

Back in November, the owner of 358 Arlington (behind Harvey's on the West side of Bronson) applied for a permit to demolish the house. The owner of the site was the Bank of Nova Scotia (presumably after having foreclosed on it), which wanted to demolish the house and sell it as a vacant lot.

When I took my photos of Bronson Avenue in early February, I visited the site to take some photos.

The house is rather dilapidated, and looks like a hodgepodge of additions and coverings.

At the rear of the site, there is no yard, only garage. Behind the lot is another building, the business Protocol Floral Express.

The City's demolition process requires concrete plans to be in place for a replacement building before existing housing stock can be demolished. This prevents old buildings from being demolished and turned into parking lots, when what we need is places for people to live. In the case for this building, a replacement building would have to conform to zoning regulations, and therefore wouldn't be able to occupy as much of the site as the current structure. The bank was applying to demolish the building without plans to do anything with the lot (aside from selling it).

The Dalhousie Community Association opposed the permit, and their response is at the end of the Staff report. Councillor Holmes opposed the demolition permit with similar reasons. Meanwhile, the City's planning department considered it to be a done deal and were discussing how to landscape the vacated lot.

The City's Planning & Environment Committee recommended to approve the demolition permit with strict conditions, including that the permit approval would expire if the conditions aren't met within six months. City Council approved this conditional permit later in February.

The house went up for sale as is this Summer, and the "Sold" sticker was added to the sign this past Friday.

I understand that the new owner plans to renovate the house--not demolish it.

Whoever the new owner is, welcome to the neighbourhood!

June's another busy month in Centretown

I thought that last month had a lot going on, but this month is even busier!

First up, I was in the Ottawa Sun and on the cover of its free commuter daily affiliate, 24 Hours today. The topic of discussion was the yellow house on Gladstone, which I previously blogged about here, and the Bay & Nepean site, which I blogged about here.

There's also Doors Open Ottawa this weekend. For the armchair tourist, check out some of the sites (and others) that I've blogged under the "Tours label"

Next week there are a gazilion and a half meetings, including:

Bronson Consultation:
DCA President Eric Darwin has a series of posts going up on West Side Action regarding the reconstruction of Bronson Avenue. He and I are both on the Public Advisory Committee, whose goal is to shape the vision of Bronson post-redevelopment. I blogged about that previously here.

Many of us on the PAC aren't satisfied with the level of consultation and want to hold our own consultations and talks. We've secured a table-sized printout of the existing conditions on Bronson, and we'll be meeting sometime next week (TBD) to discuss opportunities, prior to the next PAC meeting on the 15th (which is for PAC members only, unfortunately). Contact me at centretown.ottawa -at- gmail - dot- com if you're interested or if you have feedback.

Mid-Centretown Community Design Plan
The CCCA's Planning & Development Review Committee is taking a pro-active role in providing input to the consultation for the Mid-Centretown Community Design Plan. The consulting team will be holding an open house next Tuesday, June 8th from 5:30 to 7pm at Woodside Hall in Dominion-Chalmers United Church on Lisgar/Cooper/O'Connor.

This is an important planning document that will set guidelines for Mid-Centretown (Elgin-Kent, Gloucester to the 417) as development in that corridor picks up pace, giving it a coordinated shape that makes sense.

The consulting team have developed a blog on the project at midcentretown.wordpress.com

Segregated Bicycle Lanes
The Segregated Bicycle Lane pilot study, which I previously summarized here and whose website is at www.ottawa.ca/bikelane, is having four open houses in the next couple weeks:

June 7 – Dalhousie Community Centre, Somerset at Empress (6:30-8:30)
June 8 – McNabb Community Centre, Percy at Gladstone/James/Florence (6:30-8:30)
June 10 – Dominion-Chalmers United Church, Lisgar/O'Connor/Cooper (6:30-8:30)
June 14 – City Hall (5-7)

Minto Park Sale and CCCA BBQ
Councillor Holmes is again hosting the Minto Park Sale, a yard sale for those of us without yards, on Saturday, June 12, 9am-3pm in Minto Park (Elgin at Gilmour/Lewis). Book a table for $10 at mintoparksale@ottawa.ca . The CCCA's Trees & Greenspace Committee will be holding its annual plant sale at the event.

The CCCA will also be hosting a fundraiser BBQ like last year, with yours truly at the grill. We'll be serving all-beef hotdogs and veggie dogs, plus soft drinks, and a water station to refill your water bottle, and we'll also be selling CCCA memberships. Funds raised by the BBQ will be split among the CCCA and the Minto Park Sale's beneficiary for 2010, the Well at St. John the Evangelist Church. Note: We're still trying to locate a decent-sized barbecue to borrow from someone near Minto Park. Contact me if you can help (we have one that we can borrow but it may not be big enough)

This is our second-biggest fundraiser of the year, so please come by and grab a dog and support your local community association!

Monthly CCCA meeting
The monthly meeting of the Centretown Citizens Community Association is on the third Tuesday of the month, as always, at City Hall at 7pm (Honeywell Room). The guest this month will be mayoral candidate Alex Cullen.

This follows the previous day's meeting of the CCCA's Planning & Development Review Committee, which meets on the second Monday of the month at 5:30, usually at the Second Cup on Elgin at Lisgar (though we may be migrating to a reserved room at City Hall).

Cycling blogs
The Ottawa Sun has a new cycling-related blog called the SpokesMan, at blogs.canoe.ca/spokesman, by Kris Westwood.

There's also the new-to-me blog, and new on the Blogawa feed, The Incidental Cyclist, by Kate and her bike, Mike. Kate talks a lot about issues pertaining to people who cycle for transportation.

Carling Avenue reconstruction
Carling Avenue is being reconstructed between the O-Train tracks and Bronson Avenue. There will be an open house on the project on Tuesday, June 22, 2010 from 7-8pm at the Dow's Lake Pavillion, Vista Room.

All of these events are open to the public, there are a few other things going on this month that aren't that I haven't listed here, but some of which I'll be able to blog about as they happen.


Again, remember that your local community associations participate in all of these events. Please support them by coming out to meetings and events, becoming a member, and donating generously!

Wednesday: Open House on Somerset St W reconstruction

Somerset Street West is being reconstructed this year, from Wellington Street West, over the O-Train tracks, to Preston. This is essentially "Phase III" of the Wellington Street West resonstruction, to overhaul the many underground services that have outlived their useful life.

The Dalhousie Community Association (on whose board I sit, along with Eric Darwin) learned about this reconstruction at its December 2009 meeting/annual dinner, and we were rather surprised at the very short notice. All the planning would have to be compressed into a few short months, culminating in tomorrow's Public Open House. A map of the existing conditions was presented at the meeting for all to discuss.

In the months since, the Public Advisory Committee (PAC) met on a regular basis, as often as twice per week. This Committee, comprised of community and business stakeholders in the area, discussed all aspects of the street design, from lamp designs, to parking configurations, to bike lanes, to landscaping, and so on. The consultant, Ron Clarke of Delcan, and the City's Project Engineer, Max Ross, did a good job of presenting analysis from the Technical Advisory Committee and bringing the PAC to a consensus on most of the issues in a tight timeframe.

I sat on the PAC as the cycling representative, and like Eric I'm pretty satisfied with the results.

I've also got a photo album of much of the project area at my Picasa web albums. Due to time constraints and wanting to give a bit of notice before the meeting, I couldn't geo-tag them as with the Bronson consultation photos, but I did include text tags describing what's in each photo. This should help to give an idea of the project area, at least the middle section over the bridge.

To learn more about the recommendations, come to the Public Open House tomorrow, details below (and for some reason not here).

Notice of Public Open House
Somerset Street West Reconstruction
The City of Ottawa is proceeding with the design and reconstruction of a portion of Somerset Street West during the 2010 construction season. The project limits are Somerset Street West between Spadina Avenue and Preston Street, and also includes a short section of Bayswater Avenue Between Wellington Street West and Somerset Street West.

Project Overview:
The work is required to replace sewers and services that have reached the end of their useful life. The roadway and sidewalks will also be reconstructed. The designs respond to the street’s “Traditional Mainstreet” designation and its various character areas. Some of the special features include:

• Wider sidewalks and shortened crosswalks, with distinctive surfaces
• On-road cycling facilities including both dedicated cycling lanes and wide shared lanes
• Street trees wherever possible
• Opportunities for public art

You are invited:
Public Open House
Wednesday March 24, 2010
6:30 pm to 8:30 pm
Plant Recreation Centre, Preston Room
930 Somerset Street West (at Preston Street)

The Public Open House will provide an opportunity to review preliminary street designs and implications and to provide input. Members of the volunteer Street Design Committee, City staff and the consulting team will be available to discuss the designs and answer questions in a casual open house format. Comment forms will be provided for written comments, comments will be received until 02 April 2010. The project is being planned to meet the requirements of Ontario’s Municipal Class Environmental Assessment that may apply.

For further information contact the City’s Project Manager:
Max Ross, P. Eng.
Senior Engineer, Infrastructure Projects
Infrastructure Services Department
Design and Construction Municipal West Branch
City of Ottawa
100 Constellation Crescent, 6th Floor
Ottawa, ON K2G 6J8
Tel.: 613-580-2424 ext. 16011
Max.Ross @ ottawa.ca

The section from Preston to Booth will be reconstructed next year, and planning for that will be done over the Summer and Fall. It looks like work will not continue further East from Booth in the foreseeable future.