Presentation to Planning and Environment Committee
28 June 2005

Agenda Item 6 - Leitrim Community Design Plan

The Ottawa Forests and Greenspace Advisory Committee opposes the immediate adoption of the Leitrim Community Design Plan (CDP) and recommends that it be sent back for changes.

1. The majority of the land is proposed for single-family dwellings at a time when the Official Plan and Smart Growth Agendas call for intensification of land use. This CDP is leading to more urban sprawl.

2. It proposes low-density housing in an ecologically important area known as Phase IV-Remer Property (4800 Bank St). OFGAC is aware of the history of this land and the 1994 OMB decision that led to the drawing of the boundary between the Leitrim Wetland and the Remer Property. We are not here to argue that boundary.

Rather, we are here to draw your attention to the fact that the CDP has not taken into account the fact that the Phase IV land has been studied under the Urban Natural Areas Environmental Evaluation Study (UNAEES). In that Study, this site is No. 184 and it received an overall rank of High (i.e. on a scale of 1 to 5 it is a 5). It shares that ranking with only 2 other sites of the 8 evaluated to date in the southern part of the study area. In all of the urban area, there are only 29 high-ranked sites (of the 114 evaluated to date).

That site 184, which has already been evaluated and given a High ecological ranking, is not mentioned in the staff report is astonishing and a serious omission.

Site 184 (most of Phase IV) can be seen on page 119 of your agenda document - it is the lower left hand corner of the CDP diagram.

In response to the question (page 123) "How will the areas identified in the UNAEES be preserved?", the staff response is "An Environmental Impact Statement during the development process will be required for all sites identified in the UNAEES. For sites that are being recommended for protection, the City will have to acquire the property."

In addition, on page 116 of your agenda document, the staff report notes that the UNAEES has identified sites 105,106,107, and108 as occurring within the CDP area and that these 4 sites require evaluation.

So you are being asked to approve a community design plan that is flawed on both the ecological and planning side.

You now have an opportunity to turn back this CDP (as you did for Riverside South) and instruct staff to improve the design and change the mix of high and low density housing. You should also instruct staff to take the high ecological rank of UNA 184 into account and to start the process of either a land swap, land acquisition or some other form of land securement so that the owner of the land may develop an equivalent site either in the area or close by or receive appropriate compensation.

To state that protection will take place at the subdivision or site plan approval stage via an Environmental Impact Statement is to ignore the fact that the current EIS instruction document exists only as a draft and is both out of date and inadequate in its directions. All to often, EISs we have seen state that important wetlands or forests or greenspace could be sacrificed, all or in part, without destroying the ecological integrity of the site.

We will comment on the EIS process and the revision of the documentation so that it assigns proper value to forests and greenspace values at some later date.

The CDP does show some areas set aside as greenspace but these are District, Community or Neighbourhood Parks - all of which are designed for sporting or other active recreation uses. None of these lands identified for set-aside protect ecological integrity of important natural features. None of these parks will be heavily treed -- they will have little or no value for wildlife.

We therefore recommend that you ensure the long term and permanent protection of UNA No 184 and to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that sites 105-108 are also protected from development until their ecological ranking under the UNAEES can be determined.

Iola Price, Chair
Ottawa Forests and Greenspace Advisory Committee