Environmental group fights flood plain development

A proposal to build a housing development in Kanata on the flood plain of the Carp River is drawing fire from environmental groups and residents.

The large, swampy area along the river, just north of the Corel Centre, was recently purchased by a group of housing developers. Minto Development Inc., Tartan Development Corp., Mattamy Homes, Richcraft Homes and First Professional plan to fill in 250 acres of the wetland and build hundreds of homes.

To do so, tonnes of fill would be brought in to raise the land to prevent the new homes from flooding. The flood plain would be reduced from 500 metres to 100 metres.

The province usually discourages flood-plain development to avoid flood risk for the houses and environmental damage resulting from pressure put elsewhere in the river system.

Don Greer, who advises on watershed policy at the Ministry of Natural Resources, says there must be a very good reason to alter and build in a flood plain.

"New developments should not be located within the flood plain area. The pressure for flood plain development rises with property values. And then it's a matter of how much engineering you're prepared to pay for to convince the local conservation authority that some flood-plain development can be permitted," said Greer.

Although he hasn't been consulted about this development plan, Ottawa city council has already approved the development.

The Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority, responsible for protection of watersheds in the area, plans to allow the development. Watershed co-ordinator John Price says the developer will help pay for the rehabilitation of the Carp River in the subdivision area.

"I would describe it less as a push from the developer and more in an effort to see the restoration plan come to fruition," said Price.

The developers propose some restoration of the Carp on the property.

In the early 1900s, farmers turned much of the meandering river into a straightened waterway. In some cases it's no more than a large ditch.

"It runs from Hazeldean down to Carp now, almost in a straight line," said David Spence, founder of Friends of the Carp. "They took the meanders out, but they took the material and they placed it on the side, but they didn't plant that with trees.

"And over almost 100 years since they did that, the river has been filling back in. The more it gets filled in, the more it floods each year. And that's what we're seeing more and more of, a lot of flooding downstream."

Spence's group is in the midst of a $1.5-million grassroots plan to restore the river around the village of Carp. It will restore its winding way, plant trees and create overflow ponds.

He worries that the development altering the flood plain will cause future flooding and damage his group's restoration project.