Friends,

Christmas Market and Craft Fair at Lansdowne

We often write you with concerns about Lansdowne Park, but there are some good things going on too. This year, for the first time, the Ottawa Farmers' Market has staged a Christmas Market inside the Aberdeen Pavilion. There will be one more market, featuring foods and crafts from local farmers, on Sunday, December 18th from 8 a.m to 3 p.m. The Aberdeen Pavilion makes a wonderful venue for the market, so enjoy it while you can. The City's long-term plans for Lansdowne's redevelopment do not include making the Aberdeen Pavilion a year-round market building.

Also, do not forget the Originals Ottawa Christmas Craft Sale which continues from Tuesday December 13 until Sunday December 18th at the Civic Centre. There has been a Christmas craft fair at Lansdowne Park for over twenty years now, but this may be the last one. Consumer and trade shows will be displaced if the new development goes ahead. 

If you do go to Lansdowne Park for these special events, please stop and support local Glebe businesses which have taken a big financial blow from Bank Street construction. The local businesses in Old Ottawa South would also appreciate your support. 

Traffic Consultation

Businesses and residents from the communities close to Lansdowne Park were recently invited to a meeting hosted by the City of Ottawa, the Glebe Community Association and the Old Ottawa South Community Association, on the traffic and parking impacts of the Lansdowne Partnership Plan. The communities had asked for information on the regular day-to-day traffic impacts of the development and how they would be monitored and mitigated. The City acknowledged that there would be an increase in traffic (estimated at a 25% increase of traffic at peak hours) and an increase in parking on residential streets (since parking at Lansdowne will be cut in half) but assured everyone that the increases would be handled by the most aggressive transportation demand management program in Ottawa's history.  

People who attended the meeting expressed considerable skepticism about the City's plans, particularly since city officials were unable to answer questions about trucks and service deliveries, which will be one of the biggest new sources of traffic to Lansdowne. People also expressed doubts about the City's plans for handling traffic during special events. Noting that Bank Street is already gridlocked for 67 games, some people wondered how it would even be possible to fit an extra 26 buses per hour onto the roadway.

If you are interested in traffic and parking issues, the City has made information on its traffic plans available online and you can comment until Thursday, December 15. Please go to: 

http://ottawa.ca/residents/public_consult/lansdowne_partnership/consultation/oh_1dec11_en.html

That's it for this week. 

Let's Get it Right!