Sprung Structures Are ‘Inappropriate’: LO

10/31/2024

This is an excerpt from the newsletter of Barrhaven East Councillor Wilson Lo:

Public virtual information session Thursday November 7 at 7:00 pm— no registration required: look for a link to the session in next week’s newsletter, on our social media, and on our website as soon as it becomes available. Previous updates can be found here (under the sprung structure shelters tab).

Quick recap
Since the proposal was made public in July, I have been opposed to the proposal. My position continues to remain the same. The type of structure proposed is not appropriate for housing people in Barrhaven or anywhere, even on a temporary basis.

To quickly recap, at a City Council meeting back in July, I motioned to withdraw staff’s authority to advance the sprung structure proposal. The vote failed 3 to 21, with 20 other councillors and the Mayor voting to continue to support the project.

Despite that, Councillor Hill and I continued engaging with City staff, the Mayor, and the Mayor’s office, to challenge some of the earlier assumptions and conclusions.

It is still a bad policy, and we have been working since July to secure a better outcome for everybody involved. This is from existing residents in our community, to the asylum seekers who would be temporarily housed under the City’s care while they awaited processing by the federal government.

Additionally, the City’s application for federal funding for the proposal has not yet been submitted and won’t be until the preferred sites are confirmed by an engineering report currently underway.

The next two weeks will perhaps be the most important time period for the overall process.

The report will be complete soon and is expected to be released late next week. A freedom of information request I opened against city staff for the full list of sites considered and the selection criteria, is due mid-November.

Councillor Hill and I will also be hosting a public information virtual session on Thursday, November 7, at 7:00 pm. Details are below.

Later this week, I also have another meeting with a stakeholder relations person at the Queensway-Carleton Hospital to further discussions about a potential Barrhaven urgent care clinic at Greenbank/Highbury Park. Exciting!

Ongoing engineering evaluations
The third-party engineering firm will complete its field work and report, which staff will release by memo, late next week. The memo will include a ranking of preferred sites, plus information about the site selection process.

Interestingly, the information about the site selection process was part of my freedom of information request, though I’m unsure if it will include a list of all sites considered throughout the entire process. I will not be withdrawing my information request, and staff will still have to meet the mid-November deadline.

An intrusive environmental investigation will also be underway at the Greenbank/Highbury Park site as part of the engineer’s field work, briefly described as follows:

October 29 (today) – utility locates and geophysical survey
October 30 – test pitting, a series of small excavations with a backhoe to collect soil samples
November 13 to November 15 – more holes to be drilled for soil sampling, with wells installed in select holes
November 22 – wells to be installed to allow for groundwater sample collection
November 27 – groundwater sampling to be collected

Excess soil and water will be stored on site in sealed, labelled drums, until the lab results confirm the appropriate disposal method.

There will be noise and dust during test pitting and drilling operations. Work will not occur outside 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.

The type of work is required by provincial environmental legislation, where former industrial lands are to become residential/residential-type (including shelter) lands. 1005 Greenbank used to be a snow dump, while 1045 Greenbank was a Nav Canada facility which included a diesel generator.

The work determines if soil remediation will be necessary as part of the construction, which will add significant time and cost to any project. It is possible that prospect may mean it falls outside the federal government funding’s “rapid deployment” criteria.

The work is also being done at another west-end property outside Barrhaven, another recently added site for consideration, for a sprung structure shelter.

Your first thought may be “wow, that’s a lot of taxpayer money,” and you’d be right, but my failed motion at Council back in July, means staff have the authority to continue advancing the project, including detailed site evaluations.

Although staff have stated the detailed work does not seal either site’s fate, I understand you’ll be uneasy about the sunk costs and level of work being done, because I share that unease.

You may also notice some of the work is scheduled after the report is to be completed. Staff also added there’s also an overall desire to complete environmental due diligence on city-owned lands across Ottawa, to which this evaluation contributes.

Public information virtual session
Councillor Hill and I will be hosting a public information virtual session the evening of November 7, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

The session will be an opportunity for us to provide a concise account of what the proposal is, what has happened so far, what we have done and will continue to do to oppose it, and what to expect next.

There will also be an opportunity for residents to ask questions and share their concerns and feedback about the proposal.

Although we have both been sharing lots of information through our newsletters, we understand there are challenges and gaps in our reach. The overall timeline has also fragmented the way information has been shared as well.

Please share the session with as many people as possible. We hope to see you there!

I truly appreciate your continued care and engagement on the issue. Thank you to the residents who have emailed and called my office to share their feedback and express their concerns about the proposal, including many who copied me in emails to the Mayor’s office.

Housing long range financial plan, committee meeting
Additionally, a joint meeting of the Finance and Corporate Services and of the Planning and Housing committees will be held Wednesday November 6 at 11:00 am (or 15 minutes after the main Finance and Corporate Services Committee ends).

At that meeting, staff will provide an update on the long range financial plan (2025 to 2030)? for subsidised, supportive, and transitional housing in Ottawa.

The report briefly mentions the City working with the federal government to secure funding for two “newcomer reception centres.” The ongoing work is the sprung structure shelter proposal.

Given the concerns highlighted earlier and throughout the summer about the use of an inappropriate type of structure for housing, Councillor Hill and I will be speaking against the item at committee.

Residents interested in the overall sprung structure discussion can choose to send a written submission (email is fine) for the committee’s consideration, or even make a public delegation at next Wednesday’s committee meeting.

To find out more about sending a written submission or making a public delegation, please reach out to me by replying to this newsletter: Lo, Wilson wilson.lo@ottawa.ca

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