A Public Legacy: Let’s Not Squander It
Lansdowne Park is the most significant open space remaining in Ottawa’s inner city. Issues of the environment, heritage, urban planning, public finance and governance all figure in the hotly debated practical question of what to do with the currently somewhat derelict site.
Lansdowne has suffered over the years from bad planning decisions, and it is threatened now by more. Basically, the land has been used to provide an infrastructure for commercial enterprises that have failed (e.g. professional football), leaving the city with a massive clean-up problem: acres of asphalt and an unusable stadium.
Now, developers are once again asking the city for major concessions for new commercial retail projects on 10 acres of the site, a proposal that could lumber the City, 30 years down the road, with a new set of decaying buildings, including the re-renovated stadium and two parking garages. The developers argue that their project would generate revenue for the city.
The real question is should Lansdowne be developed so as to turn a profit in order to pay for refurbishing a professional sports stadium? My answer is, no! Public parks should not be treated as revenue generators. The Council should take a long-term view of Lansdowne as a public asset and then invest in it as a landmark destination through a process involving expert planners and architects.
Lansdowne has belonged to the municipality for over 160 years. It’s worth taking our time to sort out our priorities for its future.
Thinking Green
Large urban park such as New York’s Central Park and Montreal’s Mont Royal) are increasingly recognized as having important environmental and health pay-offs. They clear the air, offer a respite from the heat, fumes and traffic noises of the city, soothe frazzled spirits and encourage healthy, low-key recreation – jogging, dog-walking, crosscountry skiing, skating, cycling, picnicking, Frisbee, children’s playgrounds, water-features, pick-up ball games, etc. They also provide large areas for significant public gatherings. Yet, although the National Capital Commission has developed parkland destinations in the Greenbelt and bike trails along the parkways, Ottawa has no large inner-city park that can serve as a popular gathering point.
The Lansdowne site is the place to correct this deficiency. It is accessible to a large urban population, and will be more so when the proposed footbridge across the Canal at Fifth Avenue is built.
Celebrating Heritage
Lansdowne Park is bordered on two sides by the Rideau Canal, a UNESCO World Heritage site that attracts thousands of visitors, both tourists and locals, every weekend throughout the year. It also has two large heritage-designated buildings connected with its agricultural past: the Aberdeen Pavilion (popularly known as the Cattle Castle) and the McElroy (Horticulture) Building. With sensitive development on a human scale, Lansdowne has strong potential to become a welcoming, well-frequented people-place.
Implementing Sound Planning Principles
In addition to the immediate benefits of developing the entire Lansdowne site as a park, there will be long-range payoffs as the city implements its policy of urban intensification. There must be incentives for people to move into densely developed areas, and perhaps to give up owning a car. One key incentive is access to attractively scaled, well maintained public and community facilities. Another is wellmanaged traffic flow, so that neighbourhood road systems are not swamped by massive incoming traffic for seasonal or occasional events, such as the Ex or professional football games.
Sorting out Financial Responsibility
Ottawa Council has only a muddled understanding of WHO should pay for WHAT. It needs to distinguish more clearly between costs that can and should be covered by taxpayers’ dollars and those which should be paid by private enterprise on a commercial basis. Nowhere is this more evident that in the deals the City has struck for stadium building to accommodate professional sports teams. In the case of both baseball (Lynx, Can-Am) and football (Roughriders, Renegades), it has contributed large sums (including free land) to stadium building and has been left holding the bag at considerable cost to the taxpayer when the teams failed. In the case of hockey, the Senators got at least that part right. The Scotiabank Centre was entirely paid for through private investment. The only commitment of public dollars (made by the province) was to build the Queensway interchange that services the facility.
Governance
One key principle of good governance is that bidding processes should be open, transparent and fair, and never sidetracked by special deals for certain parties. This principle has been violated in the current process for Lansdowne Park. The future of the site – and the integrity of City Council – should not be jeopardized by a misguided attempt at a quick fix – to get the stadium rebuilt at, apparently, no cost to the taxpayer. Getting something for nothing is not usually what it seems.