Making the right choice on Lansdowne

Following is the text of a letter I e-mailed out to several city councillors following last evening's Public Information Meeting at Lansdowne Park organized by Friends of Lansdowne (http://www.letsgetitright.ca). Much of the text draws from a meeting handout prepared by New Edinburgh Community Alliance. It is hard to improve on their words.

This was an excellent evening with presentations from;
Gordon Henderson, President Kanata Beaverbrook Community Association;
Bob McKinley, President Rural Council of Ottawa; Bob Brocklebank, Glebe Community Association;
Paul Kariouk, Principal, Kariok Associates and Associate Professor, Carleton University, School of Architecture;
Shawn Menard, President Centretown Citizens Community Association, Vice chair, Pedestrian and Transit Advisory committee, City of Ottawa;
Ian Lee, Director, MBA Program, Sprott School of business, Carleton University;
Will Murray, Friends of Lansdowne;
Anne Scotton, moderator.

Dear Councillor Wilkinson,

I am writing this letter to ask that you vote against proceeding with the Lansdowne Park development as proposed by the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG) when the issue comes to a vote at council on Monday, June 28, 2010. There are many reasons why a decision on the future of Lansdowne should be delayed; I have itemized some of them below.

The urgency that appears to be placed on coming to an early decision is unclear to me, other than it will benefit OSEG financially if the project is approved by council. Also the results of recently completed studies and reports need far more time to read and understand than the short period (days in some cases) that has been made available.

The City of Ottawa has spent years putting together policies on contracting and finances, to protect the interests of communities and taxpayers. These policies are being ignored by Councillors who support this project; their actions threaten to undermine sound governanace in the City.

Large developments in public spaces such as Lansdowne should start with a design competition for the whole site so that citizens and politicians can consider pros and cons of different options and select the best. At Lansdowne the City has ditched this policy. It is true that there is now a design competition but it is late in the process and it is only for part of the site.

Public tendering should be used to select proponents who offer the best value for money. Sole sourcing of projects leads to high costs and opens the door to sweet deals for proponents.

The city and developers should operate at arm’s length. This promotes transparency and accountability. In Lansdowne’s case OSEG have been representing themselves as partners of the City long before any significant partnership agreement has been concluded. City logos appear on their plans. The City has not objected!

The public should be properly consulted on how major sites are to be developed. In the case of Lansdowne, citizens have been given no opportunity to discuss alternative uses of the site (e.g. parkland, recreational, commercial, social housing) or whether and where a stadium should be located. So-called consultations to date have been opportunities for the developers to push their own project, and citizens have mainly been invited just to ask questions.

Policies on tendering, contracting and consultation provide a level playing field for development in the city; they promote transparency and predictability and prevent waste of tax dollars. Community groups become very worried when council starts cutting special deals and end-running its own policies.

The City proposes to channel $129 million of tax dollars to refurbish an aging stadium; plus the cost of an underground parking lot. The main purpose is to provide a venue for football – a sport that has failed twice in recent years in Ottawa. Another stadium built for baseball in Ottawa sits empty most of the time. Would you invest the money of you or your family in a business that has failed twice?

Scotia Bank Place (originally the Corel Centre) was built with private money. Why not a football stadium? If the OSEG team believes football is a viable proposition, they should put up the money for the venue. If they won’t take the business risk what does this tell us about the prospects of football in Ottawa? What happens to the stadium if football fails? What new expenses will taxpayers have to shoulder?

The Lansdowne stadium is in the wrong place. It was built when Ottawa was much smaller, before the Queensway, before the bus rapid transit system. There is no sense in re-investing in a facility that is not on a mass-transit route, one that ill clog the Glebe and Old Ottawa South with parked cars any time there is a game. Things will only get worse as Ottawa’s population grows.

The costs for the City keep growing. It’s not just the stadium: $5 million was budgeted for the urban park bordering the canal. Estimates for other design work have come in from $32 to $88 million. Other costs: moving the Ottawa Art Gallery, relocating trade shows, interest rate increases, and so on! Also, the city proposes to give away valuable public lands to private interests as part of the OSEG deal.

The Glebe is a vibrant, healthy community of local merchants and restaurants and low-rise residences. It is pedestrian friendly and on a human scale. Old Ottawa South, across the canal, is the same. Communities like these are hard to build, but easy to undermine. The OSEG proposal offers big volume stores (many of them U.S. owned), a shopping centre, a hotel, high rise buildings and heavy traffic. It is the antithesis of the kind of community that is there now, on both sides of the canal.

I am not a resident of your ward but this is a city wide issue. I am contacting my friends and associates who reside in your ward asking them to write you on this issue. I am also asking them to consider which candidate they will support in the October municipal election on the basis of your voting record on this issue.

Please put the brakes on the OSEG proposal now?

Sincerely,

Colin Hine