Open Letter: The Bungalow Belt Battles Back

This is a resident’s open letter to Kitchissippi Councillor Jeff Leiper, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe concerning the councillor’s remarks at planning committee on the “bungalow belt”:

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The residents of Ottawa deserve some respect from City Staff especially on public meetings.

Planning  committee chairman Jeff Leiper made disparaging comments at the public planning committee meeting last week saying: “Change will come to the bungalow belt”.  These comments were rude, unnecessary, and frankly Leiper you should be sanctioned by the mayor for his conduct along with your colleagues who thought your comment was amusing.

Let’s put the Bungalow Belt in some context when it comes to infill and intensification. It is assumed your target was at Alta Vista, and the same could apply to Bel-Air Park Bel-Air Heights, another of Robert Campeau’s developments in the 1950s.

Your planning committee heard from many residents last week presenting concerns over traffic and infrastructure  in Stittsville about a single building application, so here are a few facts from AltaVista, the heart of the Bungalow Belt.  I have lived here since 1966 and my wife since 1958 we have seen our share of change and intensification to the community since our first home purchase in 1982.

Your planning committee is also unaware of the many homes that are being replaced by duplexes in the Bungalow Belt which happens to the majority of bungalows sold and most without permits to build duplexes. You also have not considered that Alta Vista has approximately 20-plus high-rise applications in the works that include Othello Avenue, Bank and Riverside and the Train Yards to name a few. You have also missed out on the Riocan Development at Elmvale Mall that includes several new rental apartment buildings and the new buildings on St Laurent Boulevard where a new intersection traffic signal on the block will be required.

Time has stood still for much of Alta Vista if you want to talk about roads, parks, sewers and schools. As No. 5 in tax collection, there is very little spent in the Bungalow Belt over the past 60-plus years.

A Few Facts You Don’t Know or Acknowledge about Alta Vista

– Our schools are old, many in very poor condition (Ottawa Public Board). Many have portables. Many contain asbestos, Public Schools have no air conditioning. Hillcrest 1961, Vincent Massey 1958, Arch St 1959, Hawthorne 1963, Pleasant Park 1959
– Our streets are the worst in the city.  Alta Vista Drive is to be avoided in parts.  Virginia Drive will rattle you off the car seat.
– Many of our streets have no sidewalks and where there are sidewalks, they are crumbling and have temporary asphalt patches (take look at the Smyth Road-Roger Guindon Avenue intersection) and are unsafe to walk.

– Our hockey rink and pool are from 1967 and the lobby of our rink holds about 20 people.  Dressing rooms are moldy and small (Canterbury)

– Sewers routinely back up and flood basements to the top of the basement stairs and many residents can’t get insurance due to repeat floods (Adams Avenue, Hamlet Avenue) and still no sewer repairs have begun.

–  AltaVista has a large concentration of city housing (Russell Rd & Haig Dr, Russel Rd & Walkley Rd, Heron Rd, Station Blvd, to name a few.

–  Alta Vista is home to the Juvenile Detention Centre William E Hay Centre.
– Alta Vista has the Ottawa Business Park that takes up acres from St Laurent & Walkley to the south and well beyond Conroy Rd to the west that increased traffic and heavy truck traffic
Alta Vista is home to OC Transpo yard for buses and light rail  (Industrial Ave and Belfast access)

– Alta Vista has the City of Ottawa bylaw headquarters and City of Ottawa yards yet they are absent in Ward 18 in controlling hospital street parking. Apartment residents who park on our streets, and duplex owners who pave over the lawns to park 6 cars.

–  Alta Vista Archdiocese Ottawa building and surrounding land has been purchased by the city for interim and affordable Housing

– St Laurent Blvd and Innes Rd are being considered for Temporary Structures to house Refugees and Asylum seekers.
Our councillor has to plead with residents to Vote for OSEG Funds to build a basketball court at Alda Burt park

– Our community centres and hockey rinks were closed two-plus years to house homeless (Walkley Arena, Dempsey & Heron Rd Centres)

– Transit is basically non existent through the centre of AltaVista on Pleasant Park Rd where route 49 comes every 2 hours Mon-Sat in non peak times.  Imagine 5 Kms to Parliament Hill and buses come every 2 hours.

– The only traffic improvements are speed cameras.

– The only new road in Ward 18 since the 1950s is the Hospital Ring Rd that has very little usage and restricted access and exits (Alta Vista Dr).

– The planned Alta Vista Parkway from the 1950s will never be built in our lifetimes, yet the expanded city around Ward 18 has exploded and all these developments in Hunt Club, Riverside South, Findlay Creek, Manotick etc. use Ward 18 as a cut-through on roads through our community that were designed in the 1950s.

– Ottawa Police are absent in community safety for speeding, 4 way stop runners, motor cycle racing.

Don’t forget that The Ottawa General Hospital, CHEO, Rideau Vets, University of Ottawa Health complex are all in Alta Vista and bring thousands into our community daily on our 1950s infrastructure.  The Train Yards development has also increased traffic and congestion along with the Ottawa Business Park.  Much of the traffic is heavy trucks using non truck routes with zero enforcement.

So planning chairman Leiper when you make comments like “The end is coming for the bungalow belt”, you should be more knowledgeable of the community as whole.  Adding housing starts (or as Orleans South-Navan Councillor Catherine Kitts says DC’s or development charges) needs to also consider hospitals and commercial development as well as the impacted of what you have built surrounding these 1950 communities.  You should also be talking about all areas of the city that include Rockcliffe Park, Highland Park, McKellar Park, Whitehaven where your committee approves single-family McMansions to be build lot-line to lot-line after approving demolition permits for the existing homes.

Having read the online chat and articles in The Bulldog, many residents are upset with your comments.  You should publicly retract your comment and bring some respect back to City Council.

Mike Hayes

This letter is courtesy of the city-wide community group Your Applewood Acres (And Beyond) Neighbours

For You:

In Defence Of Jeff Leiper: POTTER

Evan Potter Is Wrong About Leiper: BENN

A Cruel Truth From The ‘Bungalow Belt’

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