Interesting links and notes on updates to my main website.



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questions about downtown mobility

This is what I asked on the Centretown Design Plan blog:

Will you be representing the Centretown Design Plan at the Downtown Moves (Mobility Overlay) events? http://ottawa.ca/residents/public_consult/mobility_overlay/program_en.html

At Diane Holmes' Sidewalk Summit?  http://dianeholmes.ca/detail.php?news_id=333

Is there a newer version of the Mobility Position Paper?  http://midcentretown.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/mid-centretown-mobility-paper-draft.pdf 

What specific information has been/will be passed to the Downtown Moves (Mobility Overlay) study?  Is there more relevant material than the Mobility Position Paper (e.g. a chapter of the design plan)?

What is the impact of the fact that the Study Area for Downtown Moves http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/public_consult/mobility_overlay/study_area_en.html only covers the CBD, and not all of Centretown?

Where is the mechanism to move ideas like fixing the arterials (by making them 2 way, and eventually by reducing the number of lanes or adding bike lanes)?

UPDATE 2011-11-03: I got a response (Ross at the Mid-Centretown Tomorrow blog has always been great with fast, detailed responses).

Hi Richard – No, Urban Strategies is not involved in the Mobility Overlay, although Delcan (who were our transportation consultants) are the folks who are actually leading the Mobility Overlay Study. Teh good news there is that they will be able to transfer all their work over from the CDP to the DOMO study, so they will be well versed in local Centretown issues. Related to that, there is an updated Mobility Position paper that will be published with the final CDP – some further work on parking, TDM, two way conversions and the implications of removing metcalfe street from the Museum of Nature lawns.

With regard to your questions around the Mobility Overlay, your best bet for answers and understanding how transportation networks might be improved and/or impact on adjacent communities is to contact Nelson Edwards at the City of Ottawa (nelson.edwards@ottawa.ca). Nelson is the project manager and will have the most recent information on the scope and methods of the study. It was our understanding that DOMO was to look at the two way conversions as part of its scope. I hope that this is still the case. As you know, Centretown has been included as the Area of Influence….but I am not really sure what this means with regard to work being undertaken locally.

All the best
Ross

Previously:
October 31, 2011  Downtown Moves - Public Lecture Program - Nov 2 & 3, 2011
October 31, 2011  Ottawa Sidewalk (pedestrian) Summit Nov 8, 2011

Labels: ccdp2011, ottawa, urban planning

posted by Richard at 11:09 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Centretown Design Plan - feedback by June 13

The Mid-Centretown Community Design Plan has been renamed "Ottawa Centretown: A Community Design Plan for the Heart of Centretown", it's a 51MB PDF.

Draft Centretown Design Plan (May 27, 2011)

from the Mid-Centretown Tomorrow blog: The Draft Community Design Plan is Available!

You can leave feedback as a comment to the blog post by June 13, 2011.

Note: If you're viewing it on an iPad (or an iPhone) many of the images do not render, showing either as blank pages or as diagrams with labels but no content.

There will be a final Open House on Wednesday June 29th at the Museum of Nature.

There's a lot of good stuff in here, and I will have more to say later, but if you want to jump right to the proposed zoning changes, they're on page 107 (page 111 of the PDF).

A residential tower zone (which they call "residential apartment neighbourhood") of up to 27 storeys (83m) is proposed from Gloucester down to between Cooper and Somerset. I think this is fine and reflects certain realities on the ground. A further high-rise district is proposed near Catherine (up to 77m in height).

Between Catherine and Somerset either existing zoning is retained or new clear 7 to 9 storey zoning is proposed.

The only part I disagree with is their "Traditional Mainstreet" type e (27 storeys) on Bank and Kent north of the midline between Cooper and Somerset. While this is their residential apartment zone dividing line, I don't think 27 storeys is appropriate along a mainstreet segment even as it heads into the CBD, and it doesn't align with their recommendation of having height mainly on east-west mid-blocks.

Labels: ccdp2011, ottawa, urban planning

posted by Richard at 17:06 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Mid-Centretown presentations available

The presentations from the first Mid-Centretown Community Design Plan meeting are now available online:

* presentation slides (4.5 MB PDF) and information panels (24.2 MB PDF)

(from the official Mid-Centretown Tomorrow blog)

It's great to see the ongoing sharing of information through the blog.
Since the presentations are very rich in information about Mid-Centretown, obviously based on some great data sources, I've asked for the underlying data to be released as part of the City of Ottawa Open Data initiative.

I've posted my request to the blog, here's what I wrote:

It’s great to see the presentations posted – I wish I had been able to attend the first meeting.

To further open up the consultation, it would be great if the underlying data from the presentations (particularly the 3D model) could be released as part of Ottawa’s open data initiative

City of Ottawa – Open Data Ottawa

Opening the data would provide even more ways for the residents of the area to analyse and visualise Mid-Centretown.

I have also posted this idea to the DataOtt site – Mid-Centretown open data.

Note: there is also a French language URL micentrevillededemain.com but it just points to the same Mid-Centretown Tomorrow blog. They've translated Mid-Centretown as either «Le Centre-ville médian de demain» or «Mi-centreville de Demain».

Labels: ccdp2011, mid-centretown, ottawa, urban planning

posted by Richard at 14:03 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)