Tuesday, October 29, 2019

The Dominion Observatory campus in Ottawa may disappear.

The campus is not part of a land deal between the Ottawa Hospital and the federal government, However:
"The first design concepts the hospital showed off for the new Civic at the end of January talked about preserving trees and open space on the property." (From:" Ottawa Hospital looks for ways to salvage heritage at Sir John Carling site." David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen.)
The reality:
At least 500 trees will be chopped down, according to a letter from former Ottawa Mayors Jacquelyn Holzman and Jim Durrell to the National Capital Commission.
Queen Juliana Park located at 870 Carling Avenue is zoned as Mixed-Use Centre not Open Space or Institutional. to see the map Google "Ottawa Hospital Official Plan and Zoning By-Law Amendment, May 9, 2017."
The hospital is demolishing the Sir John Carling Building cafeteria annex.

The hospital promised that the Dow's Lake parking lot would be preserved and the DARA Tennis Club would remain on the property. "The hospital took over a 99-year lease on the 50-acre site in February, which means that it now oversees the existing parking operation at Dow's Lake as well as a tennis club at the site that will remain once the hospital is built." (From: "New Civic Campus on track.'We need a new hospital' MacLeod says" Elizabeth Payne, Ottawa Citizen.)
"The ground lease with the Hospital includes important requirements such as maintaining 207 parking spaces for the Dow's Lake Pavilion and surrounding area."Mayor of Ottawa Jim Watson, Google "Government of Canada Leases federal land to The Ottawa Hospital for a new Civic-February 23, 2018".)
The reality:
The DARA Tennis Club was evicted.
The parking lot has been rezoned as Mixed Use instead of Institutional. Residential towers can  be constructed on the land.
The parking lot is worth $4, 021,000.(Google:" Dow's Lake parking lot assessed value"-Exact phrase "Dow's Lake parking lot"----Untitled Pierre Poilievre.)
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Historic trees and hedges near the DARA Tennis Club and Prince of Wales Drive are being sacrificed:
"AAFC is moving the historic hedge collection but the row of trees along Prince of Wales appear to have no future." (Google:"The Sir John Carling site, Greenspace Alliance of Canada's Capital.")
"Every spring blossoming crab apple trees transform Prince of Wales Drive as it winds through the Central Experimental Farm.On either side of the road, standing north and south of the roundabout, stand roughly 100 mature trees. Planted in 1952, they represent the better part of the Central Experimental Farm's Collection of the Lake Series of Rosybloom crabapples originated by Isabella Preston." (Google: The crabapple collection at the Central Experimental Farm.)

Many crabapple trees that line Prince of Wales Drive are doomed. And the hospital is taking over a park that surrounds the Carling building site. This is another National Capital Commission blunder-remember Moffatt Farm and the Daly Building; the potential Major's Hill Park land that was sold to the American Embassy;the Conference Centre plan in 1966.
A few dozen politicians who lack any vision should not have the power to approve and fund (with our tax dollars) a project that will have a monumental impact on future generations; drive out thousands of wild animals; wipe out more than one hundred years of history. The time to stop it is now, we cannot wait until the surveyors and chainsaw crews arrive.




                                     








Many trees that line Prince of Wales Drive in Ottawa have no future according to the document "The Sir John Carling site - Greenspace Alliance of Canada's Capital". Queen Juliana Park was the location of Temporary War Building #8, and the land was supposed to be preserved as an open space after 1976. The Trudeau government gave QJP to the people of Canada after the temporary buildings were removed from the park and Dow's Lake.





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