From: Barbara Ramsay
Subject: Response – Jamie Portman’s “Court ruling on Kanata golf course a betrayal” January 28, 2025
Date: February 2, 2025
To: letters@ottawacitizen.com
Yes, the recent Ontario Court of Appeal decision essentially voiding the 40% Agreement should be of great concern to the City of Ottawa. Its impact is broad, much broader than the ClubLink issue in Kanata. After all, how can a city or any governing body enter long term, high value contracts if their terms can be ignored or voided in an instant. It makes no sense, even to the non-lawyers among us. The City should consider its legal options to be sure, however, along the way, it and other levels of government cannot drop the ball on their number one responsibility on this file, public safety.
Assessing and choosing a neighbourhood and the features and services it offers has been central to the home buying/renting decision since the housing boom of the1950’s and 60’s. Jamie Portman’s “Court ruling on Kanata golf course a betrayal” January 28, 2025 alludes to the choices and intent of thousands of homeowners buying into Bill Teron’s award winning ‘Garden Community’ of Beaverbrook 60 years ago and the Kanata Lakes neighbourhood spin off of the 1980s. These homebuyers valued environment and nature-based activities and chose their neighbourhoods because of it. Others prioritize different options in choosing core downtown neighbourhoods or suburbs elsewhere.
Wherever we live, the common expectation is neighbourhood sustainability. Central to sustainability is public safety. That’s the role of municipalities and governments – to build and manage infrastructure and services to benefit taxpayers while keeping them safe. In Kanata North, all things are complicated by megatons of granite, our Canadian Shield, unpredictably jutting up and out at the ground surface complicating infrastructure development and management and costs at every turn. None more so than on the stormwater file because the city is entirely responsible for the safe management of stormwater within its boundaries and liable for its failures. That’s why it’s so concerned about the ClubLink proposal. And for good reason. There’s plenty of bad history here.
Mr. Portman’s missing path fell victim to an approved but unfinished development of the KNL lands (a little north of the ClubLink property) more than a decade ago. Acres of land, deforested and bare scraped to rocks and mud, still sit destroyed and unused by its developer Urbandale because no agreement has been reached with the city on the critical stormwater management plan. Of note, that unfinished development and the proposed ClubLink/Minto/Richcraft development will rely on the same Kizell Watershed and Beaver Pond (operating near limits with recent rainstorm flooding) as essential natural components of the overall stormwater management system. While the city has the sole authority to approve the stormwater management plans proposed by these developers, it did not in the first case before development started and now sits in a quagmire as a result. It is trying to avoid a repeat of that situation in the very same ward and involving the very same infrastructure.
But stormwater is not the only safety concern for residents of Kanata North. Widespread mercury contamination identified across the 170-acre ClubLink property was acknowledged in its 2019 development application, however, the remediation (clearing, cleaning and extraction (read trucking)) process on this expansive and complicated (read granite laden) site along with accident and risk mediation has not been fully explored. The developers’ approach is that it will be dealt with during development as is typical of the usual site contamination on small gas station or commercial lots. What would happen with a remediation process failure (read airborne mercury) on 170 acres amid thousands of homes housing tens of thousands of people? Where is the planning, risk and cost analyses that respect the scale of the proposal and prioritize public safety? Mercury aerosolized through blasting and regrading on such a scale raises concerns of a monumental safety hazard and environmental disaster.
And so, to Mr. Portman’s questions, while the Kanata Greenspace Protection Coalition (KGPC) supports the city in opposition to ClubLink on the legal front and protection of the 40% Agreement, we also want it to raise the tough questions about the appropriateness of this site for residential development from the perspective of public safety. We get it. Tough to do given the current prioritization of residential building. But there is nothing NIMBY about opposing housing construction on contaminated land or developments without satisfactory stormwater management infrastructure or even, the sacrifice of legally promised greenspace. It is about protecting public safety and avoiding unnecessary public safety risks. No neighbourhood here or elsewhere in Ontario need be so exposed.
The Kanata Greenspace Protection Coalition continues to urge the City of Ottawa to stop the dangerous ClubLink/Minto/Richcraft development plan and protect the health and safety of Kanata North residents, their property, and essential urban Greenspace.
Barbara Ramsay
Chair
chair@ourkanatagreenspace.ca
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Kanata Greenspace Protection Coalition
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