The future of Dow's Lake, Queen Juliana Park and the Experimental Farm.

This drawing is an accurate depiction of what lies ahead for the Sir John Carling site in Ottawa.(The drawing is from Reimagine Ottawa|Home|Facebook.)

1.)  Queen Juliana Park surrounded the Sir John Carling Building. This park was given to a medical centre by the National Capital Commission.
Petitions:
Stop the rezoning of Queen Juliana Park at 870 Carling Avenue - Change.org.
City of Ottawa Planning Committee: Stop the rezoning of Parks to Condos, Queen Juliana in Little Italy.
The park has been public property since 1976, when Mr. Eady at the National Capital Commission convinced Public Works and Government Services to create a park.
2.)  The $4 million dollar Dow's Lake parking lot will also be privatized and the custodian is the National Capital Commission. Dow's Lake parking lot will be zoned as "mixed-use", not as Institutional. That should tell you something.
3.)  According to the "Preston-Carling District Secondary Plan -Documents" :
     "High-rise Buildings (30+) - Some of the City's tallest buildings may be permitted in the Preston-Carling District. These buildings will be prominent features in the skyline and landscape and will have a significant impact on the character and identity of the of the District and the City." (From: Page 6 out of 16.)
4.)  Some of the condominiums may be called "Intern Residences". For example, the Ottawa Civic currently operates 15-storey building at 751 Parkdale Avenue that offers short term accommodation for out-of-town visitors and patients, researchers, etc. In a few years the Intern Residences at the "new hospital" may be sold to Ottawa Community Housing. For example, a federal Crown corporation called the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation sold Regent Park in Toronto to Toronto Community Housing.

5.)  The Central Experimental Farm will never recover from the onslaught of new construction, massive parking lots and the loss of 60 acres of land and at least 500 trees. The NCC is probably going to strip away the property's designation as a National Historic Site of Canada and a National Interest Land Mass. The Farm will disappear and be nothing but a memory. One day I will stand near the old Civic Hospital on Carling Avenue and I will say to myself:
"At one time I could see all the way to Baseline Road from this vantage point; there were corn fields and a few barns...The Farm was a landmark, an urban oasis, a country in the city and a museum without walls. And now it is gone, because of greed, powerful entities that were never elected to public office, and organizations that failed to protect this land. You failed us---National Capital Commission, Public Services and Procurement Canada and Parks Canada."

The former Upton Experimental Farm in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

6.)

Save Little Italy! Wordpress.com. Former Somerset Ward Councilor Diane Holmes is pictured on the left.

Former Somerset Ward Councilor Diane Holmes was interviewed by Dave Reevely, reporter for the Ottawa Citizen newspaper on May 19, 2014:
     "The Development Review Services Branch is responsible for processing development applications. It has become increasingly apparent that this branch no longer represents the citizens or neighbourhoods in the Ward. Rather, this branch represents the interests of the development industry.
     "Input from the public is generally disregarded because this branch considers residents comments to be NIMBY comments...This branch provides support to any application with little-or-no recognition or consideration of the neighbourhood wants and needs...This is happening throughout the Ward where applications are submitted before the developer and community have a chance to sit down and discuss the proposal...You want to add ten extra stories to your building? Fine by us. You don't want to provide visitor parking? Use on-street parking instead.Too many trees in front of your building? No problem, we'll remove them."
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A bridge too far...residents of Little Italy and the surrounding area cannot absorb the impact of a new Civic Hospital and the proliferation of condos on Queen Juliana Park, the Dow's Lake parking lot, the Dominion Observatory, Neatby Building, CFIA Lab and Booth Street campus. Is this someone's idea of a joke? To build a mega hospital on a National Historic Site? To ruin the character and livability of major tourism venue, Little Italy?
 Ottawa is a corporatocracy governed by unelected boards and commissions. The people of Ontario never voted for the staff at Canada Lands Company, National Capital Commission, the Ontario Municipal Board, real estate corporations and Ottawa Hospital CEO's. The OMB and Canada Lands Company are based in Toronto. Real estate corporations, many foreign owned, have taken over Vancouver and the Toronto waterfront. The Expo 86 land was publicly-owned.
 Portsmouth Olympic Harbour in Kingston, Ontario was a gift to the people of Kingston from the taxpayers of Ontario in 1976. But local politicians are privatizing that land.The people of Canada seem to forget that they own: The entire Experimental Farm in Ottawa,Tunney's Pasture, the Booth Street campus and Confederation Heights.

The National Capital Commission has the power to override decisions made by Ottawa City Council. For example, the NCC appeals to the Ontario Municipal Board when they disagree with Ottawa City Council zoning decisions. Local politicians including Mayor Bob Chiarelli and the councillors wanted to preserve the 88-acre Moffat Farm near Mooney's Bay as a green space.But the NCC funneled the land to Phoenix Developments. (From: Chairman Beaudry testifies-NCC Watch.)