The Civic Hospital is removing research land from the Experimental Farm.

Document: June 13, 2018, Planning Committee Report 64.

The zoning change from Agricultural Research land to General Urban Area permits the construction of housing, retail, cultural, leisure and entertainment venues on 12 acres of the Experimental Farm. Page 22/80.

"(The Farm) is owned and operated by the federal government as an active and operating agricultural research station, containing a complex of laboratories, research fields, offices, greenhouses, an arboretum, public gardens and museums...The Agricultural Research Designation of the CEF is intended to permit farming and associated research uses." Pages 22 and 23 of 80.

Proposed Official Plan Amendment comment: "Do not redesignate the Agricultural Research lands as these form a green connection to the CEF and Dominion Arboretum and (they) are important historic green spaces. (Old Hedge Collection.)" Page 63/80.

The Central Experimental Farm & Heritage comment: "How can this loss of Farmland and research land be justified?" Page 71/80.  

Proposed towers on Carling Avenue and Baseline Road threaten research land on the National Historic Site. As I mentioned before---the NCC wanted 700 acres of the Farm in 1974 for housing. And 91 acres of vacant land at Clyde and Merivale were sold to the City of Ottawa in 1989 for housing.

  Measures that could be enacted---find another location for the Civic Hospital; ban the construction of highrises near the site; do not let the City of Ottawa change the zoning from Agricultural to Mixed Use; and remind the NCC that the entire 1,000 acres are designated a National Interest Land Mass and cannot be sold or subdivided.(Google: 1988-09-15-TB-re-NCC land holdings."Land forming part of the NILM will be retained by the NCC in perpetuity for purposes which lie at the core of the NCC's mandate.")