Published Oct 08, 2023 • Last updated 4 hours ago • 4 minute read
On a chilly Thanksgiving weekend Sunday, the Ottawa Farmers’ Market bustled with people. Shoppers cradled cups of steaming apple cider as they wandered past stalls laden with autumn’s bounty. A busker sang Beatles tunes over the chatter of background conversations.
Lansdowne was alive.
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That weekend liveliness is what the city and Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG) hope the new plan for Lansdowne 2.0 will bring seven days a week. The complicated, 40-year proposal announced Friday, calls for 770 new residential units in two high rises of 40 and 25 storeys, new north-side stands, and a new event centre to replace the aging Civic Centre arena.
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The city’s cost for the new plan is $419.1 million, which when adjusted for the revenue the city hopes the development will generate, will cost taxpayers $5 million a year over the lifetime of the agreement.
Market shoppers who spoke to this newspaper generally supported the proposal — but with some reservations.
“My only concern is for the market,” said Ann Marie Rochon, president of the Ottawa Farmers’ Market Association.
“Can we still be here when the construction is happening? We don’t want to get bumped out. I’m worried about them closing streets and about the construction. Will the vendors still be able to get in here?”
But Rochon said building more housing would be a good thing. Many of the market’s customers come from the immediate neighbourhood.
“It would be big for the market,” she said.
The plan calls for the city to pay $250 million to build the new 5,500 seat event centre and $169.5 million to demolish and rebuild the north side stands. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe says the expenditure is an investment in vital city infrastructure that will belong to the city at the end of OSEG’s lease.
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OSEG will pay $500,000 a year to rent the facility, home to its Ottawa Redblacks and Ottawa 67’s. Under the previous deal, OSEG paid just $1 a year for its lease.
Old Ottawa South resident Linda Thom was one of the shoppers at Sunday’s market. Thom, who won a gold medal in pistol shooting at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, was skeptical about the city subsidizing a sport teams.
“I love sports. I love them all. And I think an arena is needed,” Thom said. “But I don’t think the city should be subsidizing commercial sport.”
When OSEG’s lease is up, the city will be left with an aged stadium and arena, she said.
“You can bet that there will a lot to do with it at the end of that 40-year lease.”
A regular visitor to Lansdowne, Thom says she realizes that there is still something missing from the site.
“I understand the city needs revenue because it’s been in the hole for Lansdowne for some years. I know they need a plan and I’m glad for that,” she said. “I think the commercial aspect did not succeed in Phase 1 as much as they’d hoped.
“The merchants took a chance when they moved in here, but you need something stronger to really attract people.
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“I’m not against the consortium (OSEG) and I’d like to see more development. They really need something that will bring in the tourists. I’m happy for some subsidization, just not all of it.”
Ottawa dad Guy Georgeson browsed through the market while his son’s team played baseball nearby. He’s a regular visitor at Lansdowne.
“It seems like some things work — this obviously works,” Georgeson said, gesturing toward the market stalls, “but then there are some things that just don’t work at all. It’s dead here, if there’s not a game going on or it’s not market day.
Georgeson was also leery of the financial risks of any Lansdowne 2.0 deal.
“There has to be oversight obviously. We don’t need another LRT debacle. Ottawans are pretty fed up with that.”
Calvin Dunford and Kay Osborne live in the area and were also cautiously optimistic about the Lansdowne 2.0 plans. Any development needs affordable housing, Dunford said.
The revised Lansdowne 2.0 plan doesn’t include the 10 per cent affordable housing units that were in the original plan, but instead provides $3.9 million that the city can spend immediately on affordable housing elsewhere. The city and OSEG says that provides housing help immediately, rather than the decade long wait for the Lansdowne towers to be built.
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“If that’s true, that’s good. Because we need housing right away,” Dunford said. “I’m less skeptical than I thought I was. As long as it’s meaningfully contributing to housing.”
Both agreed the site needs a draw that will attract people on non-event days.
“Looking around here, everything is kind of concrete and industrial, it doesn’t give me a warm feeling,” Osborne said.
“It feels like a business park for most of the week,” added Dunford. “A big empty space.”
The revised Lansdowne 2.0 proposal will go before a joint meeting of the Financial and Corporate Services Committee and the Planning and Housing Committee on Nov. 2 to consider zoning and official plan amendments to begin the competition for the air and subterranean rights. It will be considered by the Built Heritage Committee on Nov. 6 and go before full city council on Nov. 10.
Meanwhile, a public meeting is planned at Lansdowne Park at 7 p.m. on Oct. 11. The meeting, which will be telecast on Rogers TV, is being hosted by a number of public-interest groups, including the Glebe Community Assocation, Ecology Ottawa and the Federation of Citizen’s Association of Ottawa.
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