The Kanata Greenspace Protection Coalition (KGPC) encourages all residents to send your opposition letters to the City of Ottawa Planning Department before the August 31, 2020 deadline for public comment on the resubmission by ClubLink of its redevelopment application.
We’re providing some help below in an effort to make this process easier for our supporters and residents to get a letter written.
How to write your email or letter
- use your own words to express your concerns (we are not providing a template letter as they are often not considered quality public feedback)
- identify the impact of the development on our Kanata North community, its families and its residents
- identify concerns that are specific to your neighbourhood, street, home and property, family and yourself
- you can use bullet points to make it concise, readable and quicker to write
- the addresses where you need to send your letter are at the bottom of this page
What you might say:
Personal Stories
- Why did you choose the neighbourhood you live in? What impacted that? Bill Teron’s master planned ‘Garden Community’? Neighbourhood design?
- Was the shared access to the Kanata Golf Club land part of that decision? Why? Share stories about how you and your family share the golf course lands. Include pictures of activities and wildlife etc.
- What do you expect to be the cost to you and your family if the ClubLink development is approved?
Identify your Key Planning Concerns
- Read the resubmission by ClubLink at https://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/public-engagement/projects/kanata-lakes-development-applications-7000-campeau-drive#applicants-proposal
- ClubLink and its partners described the resubmission as including the following changes:
- Relocating the medium density block previously proposed at the southwest corner of Parcel A further east along Campeau Drive, away from the existing residential uses, and removing the previously-proposed window street;
- Introducing a new stacked townhouse block at the southwest corner to provide for a more gradual transition in the intensity of built form;
- Replacing traditional townhouses at the easterly end of Parcel A backing onto the Stonecroft Terrace and Morenz Terrace developments with detached houses;
- Replacing front-drive townhouses and back-to-back townhouses in the northwest corner of the subject site, in Parcel D, with detached houses abutting the existing detached houses further north and west;
- Replacing some of the front-drive townhouses at the southeast corner of Parcel D with detached houses;
- Introducing a fourth park, ‘Woodland Park’, abutting the west lot line, north of the stacked new townhouses, which would be 1.62 hectares in size, to preserve a large portion of an existing significant woodlot (per the City of Ottawa’s criteria for the urban area) and provide for a shade structure, seating/picnic tables, open space trails, a fitness station, bridge and bicycle racks;
- Revising the ‘Neighbourhood Park’ concept to retain the majority of an existing significant woodlot (per the City of Ottawa’s criteria for the urban area);
- Revising the park and parkette concepts to include additional active amenities;
- Retaining existing rock outcrops near Weslock Way;
- Improving connections and views from the subject site to Walden Park to the northwest, by extending the proposed cul-de-sac to the extent of the park with an open space between the park and the road;
- Improving connections and views from the subject site to Craig Park to the east, extending the proposed open space along the east lot line so that it interfaces with the park and extending the trail towards the proposed street;
- Including a new emergency vehicle turnaround in front of the proposed open space next to Craig Park;
- Setting back all homes (including porches) a minimum of 3 metres from the street to better accommodate tree planting
- Pairing the driveways of the proposed low-rise typologies in order to increase contiguous front yard soft landscaping areas.
A total of 1,544 units is now proposed as part of the applications.
- Comment on the above changes and feel free to recomment on issues you raised in 2019 in the original submission that you feel were not addressed
- Consider these key issues when you are reading and organizing your thoughts
- Environment
eg: loss of trees and woodlots, loss of wildlife , negative impacts on air quality and climate change mitigation, damage to the naturalized stone and pre-Cambrian shield - Health, Safety and Security
eg: mercury contamination on the property, reduction in the number of SWM lagoons and flood risk, mosquito risks in unmanaged lagoons, 3 metre buffer zone risks, damaging noise and sound issues from construction - Parks and Open Space
eg: loss of extended linked open space replaced with small programmed parkettes, loss of safe access to extensive parks and trails - Planning
eg: non-conforming to the Official Plan, further increase in housing density, decrease in lot size and configuration incompatibility , lack of schools and other services and supports, lack of commitment to environmental policy eg: tree canopy - Transportation
eg: single out difficult intersections and safety concerns, additional residents and access to rapid transit, appropriate access to multi-use pathways - Water Management
eg: lareg unresolved Kanata Lakes drainage issues over 30 years, spring collections and existing flooding, existing pond/wetland destruction in favour of lagoons
- Environment
Other content from a planner’s perspective
- This is not a new brown field development physically removed from current residential space which is the approach being taken by ClubLink… this is an infill development but one that is designed beyond all current controls on infill
- Infill policies were focused on single lot redevelopment or vacant lot development of multi-unit triplex buildings urban suburbs – (e.g. Glebe). This is 1544 units/homes in a mature, master-planned community
- This has negative repercussions of community function due to its size and entire lack of community services eg: no schools, healthcare or retail supports
- Resubmission has not improved on the original premise which was to convert existing shared open and green space, a key element of the original neighbourhood design, into a new community
- The ClubLink application is inconsistent with the original masterplan of the area and existing housing (lot layout and size, greenspace, linked open spaces) and decimates the fundamental character of the community that of a ‘garden community’
- The application does not address compatibility with the existing community. It presents as if this was a new “green field” sub-division some distance from any other community rather than the reality which is a brand new community being sandwiched inside an existing one. The resulting communityy service overburden has not been addressed by the applicant.
- This area is not a designated target for intensification in the Official Plan (OP).
- The Official Plan designates this area as Open Space.
- It applies the City allowance for intensification within 800 M of a [Terry Fox LRT ] major transit node/station, yet only 5% of the proposed development lands are within 800M
- Filling in the 2 existing naturalized ponds on the property and creating 4 lagoons– in an area dominated by the Canadian Shield at or just below surface – represents a major engineering change and high risk long term drainage issues and flooding risk to both the proposed and existing communities.
- There are long standing unresolved planning issues regarding storm water management in the area that would be further complicated by this development. Approved developments on the KNL lands have not moved forward over many years because of unresolved issues
- The resubmission adds little to the discussion of the negative environmental impact and continues to call for decimation of existing woodlots, natural habitat on the property
- The resubmission continues to overstate the amount of greenspace and open space within the development ( including 3m berms on private property as open space)
Where to send your email or letter:
- To: Laurel McCreight, Planner (kanatalakes@ottawa.ca)
- cc: Jenna Sudds, Councillor (Jenna.Sudds@ottawa.ca)
- cc: Barbara Ramsay, Chair KGPC (chair@ourkanatagreenspace.ca)
At this point in the process, we still do not advocate writing Mayor Jim Watson or other Councillors (they will ignore volume mail and you may alienate them as a result); ClubLink, Minto Communities, Richcraft (it is expected to have little impact)
Note that petitions are not necessarily effective as there is no obligation for City Planning to consider them.