Alex Munter Speaking at the first OttawaDNA event
Yesterday evening I had the pleasure to attend Ottawa DNA (@OttawaDNA) ’s first (hopefully of many) collaborative community gatherings at the new HUB Ottawa (@HUBOttawa). Before I explain what the gathering was about I will first explain in brief detail what both Ottawa DNA and HUB Ottawa are. Ottawa DNA is an interactive event series whose goal is to create opportunities for collaborative, urban development dialogue among key stakeholder groups. HUB Ottawa is a location at 71 Bank Street (6th floor) that offers co-working space in downtown area. It is an open area room with a couple private meeting rooms and is a growing community of over 100 individuals from all sectors and over 30 disciplines that you can tap into.
The topic of tonight’s first event was “How Tall is too Tall?” with the major focus on the recent trend of condos popping up in Ottawa and how there seems to be a discord between the community and developers on every condo when the announcement hits the press. I want to see this end.
The first speaker was Neil Malhotra (@neilmalhotra) , the VP at Claridge Homes, a major developer in Ottawa. In point form some of his main points were:
– We need to reduce the urban sprawl with intensification
– We want to reduce the amount of time in the car and create more communities with biking and walking
– The LRT is going to be a major piece of the next chapter in Ottawa’s history
– #1 element is the need to develop complete neighborhoods, this means that we need to create Work, Live, Play, and Shop neighborhoods
– He spoke about the lack of major retailors wanting to set up shop in Ottawa because they cannot do accurate forecasting
– A major hurdle in development is satisfying all 4 major stakeholders (planning department, the community, the developers, and the politicians)
– We need to rebuild trust in our community, Claridge wants to listen more
The second speaker was Alex Munter, now the CEO of CHEO in Ottawa, but also a former mayoral candidate and councilor on the planning committee back in the day.
In point form, some of his main topics were:
– The topic of this discussion was incorrect (the majority agreed), it is different in different areas of the city
– The utmost importance of creating healthy environments for children and families that encourage
– The need for members of a community to have social connection and inclusion
– Families thrive when the community thrives
– We need to concentrate on communities at the street level, what really matters is the first floor of the condo, not the 13th or 18th.
After the two speakers we broke into 6 groups to get to meet some of the people in our city who share in the same passions we do. As Alain, a city planner with the City of Ottawa, put it, this could have never happened 5 years ago. This is some very positive news that shows we are on a path to get all stakeholders to be more transparent on the future of development in our great city.
Nick Taylor-Vaisey Speaking near the end of the meeting
A couple moderators from the breakout groups then presented their findings, which I feel are pretty uniform across the board. We want to make the right decisions to work with intensification in the sense that everyone in Ottawa benefits. We want Ottawa to develop a clear plan where we do not see every decision have to be carried out by a ruling from the Ontario Municipal Board. Alex Munter even declared that a major help to the city with this process would be to get rid of it entirely. This would sure streamline processes a lot more and force the city and developers to absolutely come to a mutual decision
Overall, in my opinion it was a very well run event that hopefully gains some momentum to make some very beneficial changes to the way Ottawa is developed over the next 20-30 years. It will be a major challenge, but by judging by such a large turnout, it is one that we are willing to take on.
I would like to thank Jason Pearman (@Jason_PE), Kevin O’Donnell (@ODonnell__K), Nick Taylor-Vaisey (@nonstopnicktv) and Martin Canning (@MartinGCanning) for putting together the event.
