Dalhousie Community Association

Ottawa Centre All Candidates Event The focus will be driven by you! Questions will be selected through the audience or beforehand through ottawa.openfile.ca. OpenFile is a collaborative local news site. Visit ottawa.openfile.ca, open a file, and your ideas will help power the event. Location: Saint Paul University, 223 Main Street, Guiges Hall, Auditorium Date: Thursday, April 28th Time: 6-8 pm Twitter: #OCdb8 The event will begin promptly at 6 pm. Hosted by the Old Ottawa East Community Association and the Centretown Citizens Community Association, in partnership with OpenFile. Other community partners include: Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation, Centretown Community Health Centre, Somerset West Community Health Centre, People for a Better Ottawa, Hintonburg Community Association, Glebe Community Association, Dalhousie Community Association Event contact: canning.martin@gmail.com

Guest speakers entertain and educate The Dalhousie Community Association held its annual general meeting on 6 April. We had two guest speakers: John Doran and Rick Morris, of Domicile Developments. Domicile has been busy in the central city neighborhoods for 35 years. They have built townhouses, stacked townhouses, low rise apartments, and some higher-rise apartment buildings. They are active in the condo market these days, but have also built several buildings in partnership with non-profit housing providers. Their reputation amongst community groups and municipal planners is that they are “good guys” who work with the system and neighbours, rather than taking a confrontational approach right out of the gate. I contacted several building associations and academics trying to find someone to speak to the Association about infill development in our neighbourhoods, but no one was willing to talk about the decisions behind the infill projects, and the numbers involved, until I found...

Dear Mr. Darwin, Thank you for your email to me dated February 9, 2011. Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in my reply to you on this matter. As Mayor in a city as large as ours, I receive hundreds of emails on a daily basis and I strive to ensure each one gets a reply. I value your feedback on this particular project and would like to thank you for taking the time to write expressing the views and concerns on behalf of the Dalhousie Community Association. Regards, Jim Watson Mayor City of Ottawa

OC Transpo will be making a number of bus route changes that affect our neighborhood. We will post details of those changes when known. OC Transpo is holding a public event on Tuesday, March 29th 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Presentation will begin at 6:30 p.m. Ottawa City Hall, Jean Pigott Place, 110 Laurier Avenue West http://www.octranspo1.com/routes/2011_network_optimization 2011 Network Optimization Proposals: Public Consultation OC Transpo is seeking customer feedback into the network service proposal that supports the approved 2011 Budget. The plan proposes redesigning the network to make routes more direct, productive, and reliable, while ensuring that we can keep fares down and make our transit system sustainable for the long term. While over 90% of customers will be unaffected by the proposed changes, some will have to walk a little farther to a bus stop, and service on some routes will be reduced. As a valued customer, we want to make sure you are aware of what is bei...

by Eric Darwin, President, Dalhousie Community Association Exciting Guest Speakers:   The Dalhousie Community Association will hold its annual general meeting (AGM) on April 6, 2011. We are very excited that our guest speakers will be John Doran and Rick Morris of Domicile Developments. This firm has been active in Centretown, Dalhousie, and other wards for decades. They build townhouses, small and mid-rise apartments. Their talk will cover how much it costs to build infills, what factors determine "how big" and "how much" and "how tall", where the money goes, and what they do with the revenues. Should be very interesting and educational as condomania and infills appear throughout our neighborhoods. The meeting begins at 7pm at the Dalhousie Community Centre, 3rd floor, 755 Somerset Street at Empress. This could be the best hour you spend this year! And the cookies are free. High Rise Intensification: Soho Italia. The March meeting of the Dalhou...

A few posts back we noted the infill proposed for the corner of Preston and Norman. The proposed lot is tiny . There is no parking. Yet we wrote to the City to approve of it. Why? First, the site is zoned six floors, and building something at three floors essentially preserves the site and buildings as low rise residential, in keeping with the Preston Street "village" plan, for the next 25 or 30 years.  Given the severe upzonings on small lots that the city is now approving, we decided to take what was offered today rather than risk something taller tomorrow. As for parking, the lot curently has three or four off-street parking spaces. These spaces make parking on the street there impossible. Removing the 3 off-street private spaces opens up the curb line for two or three on-street spaces that will receive higher usage. So it is better use of scarce parking resources. Finally, we considered that the low rise infill better fit in with the rest of Norman Street and will h...