Dalhousie Community Association

The following letter was sent to the Committee of Adjustment on 16 Jan 2012. DALHOUSIE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION 755 Somerset Street West, Ottawa, Ontario, K1R 6R1 16 January 2012 Committee of Adjustment Members City of Ottawa Re: 72 Cambridge St. N. This property is un-characteristic of this R4H area and already overdeveloped. • Lot area is even less than the 170m2 specified for a semi. • Zero front yard, zero corner side yard. • Negligible rear and interior side yards. • Zero landscaped area. • Already more than the allowable 4 apartment units. This overdevelopment of the site is not un-related to the social problems at the site. There are too many units and lack of amenity and of landscaped space. The property while technically not a rooming house, displays the characteristics of a rooming house. Rooming houses are not permitted in this zone. The property does not meet the requirements of Section 161(8) of the R4 zone whereby 30% of the site must be landscaped. ...

DCA Draft Minutes Jan 2012 The DCA met on 4 Jan 2012 at the Dalhousie Community Centre at 7pm. Present: Eric Darwin(taking the minutes), Maija Kagis, Lisa-Marie Inman, Charles Akben-Marchand, Pat Snair, Craig Haynes, Phil Robinson, Stephanie Strudwick, Don McMaster, Catherine Boucher, Ida Henderson, Michael Hatfield (chair), Archie Campbell, David Seaborn, Don Smith. Guests: Carla Aynkawa, Linda Buchanan, Pierre Contant (Cambridge Street residents) 72 Cambridge Street – the property consists of a house previously subdivided into 5 bachelor apts and a ground floor corner store. The corner store space was recently converted into two bachelor apts, without permits. There were permits for the structural repair of the building earlier in 2011. There is now a stop-work order on the building. Complaints focused on several issues: A) the large number of bachelor units some of which were rented very low income persons who supplemented their income with street sales, rumours of d...

The City has released draft guidelines for implementing Sec 37 of the Planning Act. The following letter was sent to Alain Miguelez in the Planning Dept; and Councillors Hume and Holmes. DALHOUSIE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION 755 Somerset Street West, Ottawa, Ontario, K1R 6R1 10 January 2012 Alain Miguelez, City of Ottawa Sir: Re: Section 37 Implementation Guidelines The Dalhousie Community Association has several concerns with the Draft Implementation Guidelines as presented at a community consultation 6 December 2011. These are: 1. The threshold for building area will be excessive in many circumstances of infill. Rather than 7000m2, we recommend 3000m2. 2. The threshold for height is excessive. Height is one the most politically sensitive issues around. The threshold should be 10 or 12%, not 25%. 3. In every area where there is a CDP, the threshold for Section 37 to kick in should be the lesser of the existing zoning or the maximum height established by the CDP. This s...

Dear Eric,Thank you for your e-mail regarding the U-Pass program. I appreciate your opinion on this matter, and want to make sure that you have a proper perspective on the background of the program, and the process going forward. The current U-Pass pricing of $145 was part of the introduction of a pilot project in 2009-10. At that time, it was made absolutely clear that the price would eventually be raised to a price that is “revenue neutral” for the City of Ottawa. This means a price that provides a balance between revenues that OC Transpo received from post-secondary student riders prior to the program, and the increase in usage and revenue that was anticipated from the program. This is the "revenue neutral" concept that you have no doubt heard about. Further, the price was supposed to be raised to revenue neutral last year as part of the 2011 budget, however your student federations were unable to properly coordinate the required referenda to authorize a more perman...

DALHOUSIE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION 755 Somerset Street West, Ottawa, Ontario, K1R 6R1 Eric Darwin, President Mayor Jim Watson City of Ottawa Re Bronson Avenue Dear Mayor Watson In tough economic times the City must continue to demand a great return on its capital investments. The reconstructions of Preston Street, Wellington West, Richmond Road, and parts of Somerset Street have resulted in adjacent property values doubling and tripling in a short period of time. Economic activity along these streets is booming. The City is prospering as a direct result of good investment in livable streets. What a wise policy. In contrast, all our suggestions to make Bronson more livable are being rejected by city traffic engineers who have a single focus on enhancing rush hour traffic. Your city is foregoing enormous economic potential and consequent tax revenue enhancement. Instead, the current reconstruction plans for Bronson will merely continue the blight and decay that has plague...

21 Nov 2011 Dear Ms. McKenzie, The board of directors of the Dalhousie Community Association (DCA) has been following closely the discussions and consultations around the full day kindergarden program and extended days. We reviewed the report on the “Proposed Delivery of the Extended Day Program” and urge you to vote for the staff recommendations on November 22nd that will permit Third Party Providers to continue to offer care to our children. We commend the OCDSB for its commitment to expand childcare services in Ottawa. We strongly believe that Third Party Providers will continue to be valuable partners for the OCDSB in the new system, especially in neighbourhoods like ours where there are few licensed childcare spaces. We believe that right now, the most important thing for our community is to clarify once and for all that Third Party Providers are valued partners of the OCDSB as it will quickly start building up a reliable, high quality and affordable childcare system that w...

DALHOUSIE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION 755 Somerset Street West, Ottawa, Ontario, K1R 6R1 Eric Darwin, President Mayor Jim Watson Jim.Watson@ottawa.ca Diane Deans Chair of the Transit Commission Diane.Deans@ottawa.ca RE: U-Pass Program Dear Mayor Watson and Chair Deans, On behalf of the Dalhousie Community Association (DCA) I am writing to express our support for the Universal Transit Pass (U-Pass) program for post-secondary students at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa. As you are aware, this program is largely responsible for the significant transit ridership increase of the past year. By bringing more youth onto the transit system, the program is helping to build a generation of transit riders. The program has already taken thousands of cars off the road each and every day, resulting in less congestion and decreased demands for new roads and road maintenance. By supporting this program, the City of Ottawa joins the many cities across Canada that have ma...