Some news updates – July 2021

It has been a while since we were in touch with you. Here are some updates from the Fisher Heights & Area Community Association.

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Merivale Lands

An artist impression of the Merivale Triangle to be developed

If you did not have the opportunity to listen in at the ZOOM meeting about the plans for the Merivale Lands that Claridge wants to develop, you can find the presentations back here. The plans are not approved yet, so nothing is carved in stone. Roughly 2000 units could be built over the next ten years.

Part 1: 26.Apr.2021 _ Public Information Session _ 1500 Merivale Road.pdf – Google Drive

Part 2: 9426_PRESENTATION_FINALE.pdf – Google Drive

Nepean Night market

There’s a NEW market in town; The Nepean Night Market will run every Sunday night from 5-9pm, in the Mr. Lube parking lot at Merivale and Baseline! Join in for some live music, good food, and a whole lot of fun while supporting local businesses! For more information, contact ottawacraftshows@gmail.com. The first one was already a big success with vendors selling out and food vendors doing brisk business apparently. A bit more on it here: https://showwiz.ca/show/nepean-night-market/all/

New Civic Hospital

The FHACA board has sent a letter to Councillor Egli addressing several concerns we have around the traffic safety and congestion that may occur when the hospital parking garage for 2500 cars will be built. (starting next year!) Although we are far enough away for immediate issues, we might likely find ourselves stuck in traffic or in unsafe situations on a bicycle with a likely increase of traffic on Prince of Wales. We also asked to look into the helicopter flights over our heads and what the impact in the future might be.

Yoga

Monday night yoga partners are now doing their yoga in the park at our community building. We are closely monitoring the city’s guidelines so that we can eventually move into our building again. Check in with info.FHACA@gmail.com if you would like to know more about our community yoga. There are also day time yoga classes, but they are on line (Zoom) until further notice.

Finances

Doug, our treasurer, has closed the books for the book year and we are in good financial shape, thanks to frugal financial management. Details to come at the next AGM, hopefully in the fall in person again.

New butcher on the block

Board member Jayne learned there will be a new butcher on Merivale Rd, where Swan’s Garage used to be (next to the Fish Market). We are happy to see yet another specialised retailer coming to Fisher Heights (although the vegans/vegetarians among us are probably less pleased 🙂

Draft Official Plan might effect Fisher Heights too

If you want to read more on retrofitting suburban development, this is a great book (available at the library)

Fisher Heights residents Corey Peabody dove head first into the official plan and sent us some feedback. Note this is a combination of cut and paste from several on line documents as well as some of her own comments crafted into a beautiful webpage :-). It is not like we will become the next Hintonburg (coffee roasters anyone?), but times they are achanging.

What is the Official Plan & why is it important?

The new Official Plan, once approved, will be the City’s primary planning document to guide growth and redevelopment in Ottawa for at least the next 25 years. The draft new OP must be based on the requirements of the Province’s Planning Act and the Provincial Policy Statement. The new OP will also inform other City master plans to ensure that services such as water, roads, parks, green space and transit are available to support the new development.

Where can I find the documents?

The main portal for this is here https://engage.ottawa.ca/ and the document library is here 

I would like to warn you – the Draft Official Plan document is 263 pages long and one of the most impenetrable and difficult to understand documents I have ever dealt with.

Where are we in the consultation process?

Individual Feedback

The first draft was released on November 20 2020. The city is asking for feedback by February 17 2021. Because the draft document is so complex, the city has thoughtfully provided no less than 21 one-pagers and feedback forms on subjects of interest. They can be found here. While the one-pagers are definitely very helpful briefs, the problem with the bite-size info and sending comments on those is that you get the feeling that you are missing the real show. But do comment! 

Community Feedback

For well over a year, a group of community organizations, including CAFES, Ecology Ottawa, City for All Women (CAWI), Greenspace Alliance, Healthy Transportation Coalition and Just Food, have been meeting under the label People’s Official Plan (POP) both at a convener level and at a residents’ level through organizing large consultative workshops. The first was at the Bayswater Innovation Centre, the second at Nepean Sportsplex and most recently on Dec 12 2020 we met in a well attended on-line workshop looking at the Draft OP and 15-minute neighbourhoods.

Residents have until Feb 17, 2021 to comment on 21 one-page summaries on specifics sections of the OP, such as Housing, Employment, Parks, Water Resources and Climate Change, to name a few.

If you want to say more than what’s on the feedback forms, you can also email these Ottawa staff: charmaine.forgie@ottawa.ca; Alain.Miguelez@ottawa.ca

Three reasons I think this is more important than ever

Intensification

Intensification is the emphasis of the new OP. And there is very little land being taken in along the edges of the City for new urban expansion (as seen in newspaper articles the past two days). So intensification will have to happen from within.

Transit corridor – evolving neighbourhood

We live in an area that is bordered by Baseline Road that is going to become a major transit (bus) corridor. Our neighbourhood has been classified as “evolving” in the new OP which means “expected to gently evolve from a suburban to a more urban form of buildings and site layouts”. We are also nearby to the triangle lands behind Loblaws (which extend to Myers Motors land beside St. Augustine’s Church) which are classed as “transforming” lands which means “areas expected to undergo significant development”.

Rezoning

I took the City’s “Planning Primer” course yesterday evening (that is offered for free by the City) and discovered that some older neighbourhoods that are currently zoned R1, that are near transit lines (that’s two ticks for our neighbourhood) could be re-zoned to become R4 neighbourhoods that would allow three storey, six-living-unit buildings on certain parcels of land (likely street corners). This is how the City could meet its intensification targets, by providing additional housing space near major transit corridors but at the expense of established R1 neighbourhoods.

The Zoning by-law will also be re-written. (So could this be an opportunity to voice our concern about allowing commercial cube trucks to be stored in driveways? (I digress….)

I realize that many of these decisions may have already been made, but I think it is important to be informed as to what is happening or could happen in your neighbourhood. And while (apparently) change is good, knowing it is coming is better than being surprised by it!

Corey Peabody

This is the web location of all the OP documents; the one page summaries are here as well as a feedback form for each:

https://engage.ottawa.ca/the-new-official-plan

And this is the link to all the documents library:

https://engage.ottawa.ca/the-new-official-plan/widgets/36458/documents

Winter Maintenance Quality Standards Review

The City is reviewing the Standards, with a focus on sidewalks and pathways, reducing rutting on residential roads, roads next to schools with no sidewalks and roads with bus stops. Residents will have the opportunity to provide feedback on their priorities as we update the Standards.

An example of a well maintained pathway in Ottawa

Short Term Rental By-law update Ottawa

What to expect in the Short-Term Rental By-law

In February or early March, staff will present a report to Committee and Council with
proposed new rules for short-term rentals (STR), based on a regulatory framework
approved by Council in November 2019.

Call for nominations of outstanding women

Femmes Remarquables Ottawa Distinguished Women (FROTTAWADW) is currently accepting nominations of exceptional women for its bilingual site.

Launched in March of 2020, FROttawaDW.ca is a virtual public space that acknowledges and documents with worldwide reach, local women whose achievements and contributions have enriched the quality of life for Ottawa’s citizens.

Happy 2021

The board of Fisher Heights & Area would like to wish you a happy 2021. Over the holidays we walked through the neighbourhood and snapped some photos of holiday decorations in the neighbourhood.

Ring those bells on Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, (Thursday night) at 6 pm, join the Ward 9 community in jingling your bells outside your door or on your balcony for 1 minute. The whole family can participate in sending a fun message to Santa that our community is COVID-wise and that we are taking all precautions to keep our community safe, remaining hopeful and looking forward to Christmas Day and ringing in the New Year.

Councillor Egli’s 2020 Annual Holiday Party (on line)

Councillor Egli’s Annual Holiday Party has been moved to cyberspace this year.

The party takes place on line on Saturday, December 12th, 2020 from 10:00:am — 11:00 a.m.

Join Santa, Councillor Egli (don’t mix those two up!) and his helpers for some holiday fun!

Registration required is required by sending an e-mail to Ward9@ottawa.ca to receive your Zoom link.

Looking forward to see you all. BYO mulled wine!

Sewer replacement update Fisher Heights

Here is a quick update we received from the City’s project manager Kevin Gibbs. For questions, his phone number is at the bottom.

Holiday lights at FHACA community centre

Now it is December and the CBC officially started to play December Christmas music, we have lit up the trees in front of the community centre on Sutton Place.