Apartment613

Image courtesy of the City of Ottawa.

Post by Phil Castro

Lansdowne is a go. Ottawa City Council voted 15-9 (exact same as before) to go ahead with the Public/Private Partnership that includes the refurbishment of the stadium and Civic Centre, creation of a large urban park and construction of a mixed-use area that includes shops, offices and residences.

The commercial and park plans will now be combined with the planning approvals to follow.

As the City’s press release states:

Council approved the project with a number of amendments to the benefit of the neighbourhood, the city, and to protect Lansdowne as a public asset.
These include:
• Devoting $2.5 million in revenue from the project to uphold Ottawa’s affordable housing program;
• Responding to public opinion by keeping the community park that borders Lansdowne in its current form;
• Continuing the role of the Lansdowne Design Review Panel moving forward;
• Confirming that no land sales will be part of the project and that the City of Ottawa will continue to own Lansdowne;
• Affirming that the project will have a Farmers’ Square and that Lansdowne could be the site of a new home for the Ottawa Art Gallery;
• Requiring that traffic demand management practices be used in the redeveloped site; and
• Confirming the importance of bilingual services at Lansdowne.