Parks need protection from development: councillor

An Ottawa councillor is calling on her colleagues to eliminate confusion around which of the city's green spaces qualify as parks after council voted in favour of removing a green strip in the Glebe to accommodate a high-profile revitalization project.

Council voted on Sept. 14 to allow the rezoning of the Lansdowne Park redevelopment. The new zoning rules allow for the construction of taller buildings and for the removal of a strip of grass and trees known as Sylvia Holden Park.

In order to build on top of a park, council must first vote to decommission it by a two-thirds majority, a vote that critics notably mayoral candidate Clive Doucet say never took place.

But council said such a vote wasn't required because Sylvia Holden Park has never officially been designated a park.

Kitchissippi Coun. Christine Leadman said she was concerned about the development and contacted the city to inquire how many other parks lack that designation.

City staff couldn't give her an answer, saying instead that they would have to begin an expensive, lengthy archival search of land titles.

'It just seems so bizarre'

Rather than have city staff conduct those searches, Leadman is proposing councilimmediately pass a blanket policy that would officially designate all of the city's parks.

"We have what we call little pocket parks ... do they have official designation?We don't know," she said. "And so, the concerns from the residents [are]: How do we protect these? How dowe know that they're goingto becontinued?

"They are treated as a park: the staff will have play structures in them, theyput in fences, lighting and so on.But to suggestthat, oh,it has to have an official designation in order for it to be protected it just seems so bizarre. "

John Lawford, who lives across the street from Sylvia Holden Park, tried unsuccessfully to find out from the city whether 10 other parks in the Glebe have official designation.

"Be afraid. Be very afraid because your park is potentially next," he said. "If there are parks that haven't been dedicated,I think the public has a right to know,because yourpark if it's beside a development can be rolled in.

"When push comes to shove, it seems to account for very little that the city has treated it like a park."

There are more than 900 parks in Ottawa.