Search string: "uplands"
Matches found: 3Friday, September 5, 2003
Moffatt farm study gives go ahead
A study (ordered by the OMB in its decision awhile back) recommends protecting half of Ottawa's Moffatt Farm from development, including the part bordering the river. The remainder will likely be developed for 200 single-family homes.
The NCC has become a commercial private developer. I have been struck by the banality and mediocrity of the proposal for developing that land. - Senator Anne Cools, Ottawa Citizen
One thing about the Moffatt Farm controversy, it has raised questions about the NCC's role as land speculator in the region. Regardless of the merits of any particular development proposal, what public purpose was served by having a federal agency acquire the land in the first place? And what public purpose does that agency serve today?
Banal and mediocre development is the NCC's signature - just take a stroll around Confederation Heights or Tunney's Pasture (in winter for best effect). And they're still at it - in January 2002 they proposed building a business park on Greenbelt land between Uplands Drive and the Airport Parkway. Well any developer with a sackful of cash and a city councillor in his back pocket can build one of those, why does Ottawa need a federal agency?
CBC: Moffatt farm study gives go ahead [5 Sep 2003]
Citizen: 'No NCC greenspace is safe,' councillor warns [5 Sep 2003]
NCC Watch: Uplands development
NCC: Uplands development information page
Wednesday, January 23, 2002
Residents oppose Greenbelt development
The NCC's latest Greenbelt business park development proposal (between Uplands Drive and the Airport Parkway) received a cool reception at their public meeting. The NCC's senior planner Robert Walters harrumphed that they could "develop property right now with current zoning." Robert, you don't have to tell us the whole exercise is a charade - we know. The development: 800,000 square feet of office and research space in one- and two-storey buildings in the middle of nowhere. Smart growth indeed.
CBC: Residents oppose Greenbelt development [23 January 2002]
OBJ: NCC to rezone land near airport for biz park [23 January 2002]
Monday, January 21, 2002
NCC to pave over more Greenbelt
The NCC is proposing to amend the NCC's Greenbelt Master Plan and Plan for Canada's Capital to permit "commercial and institutional uses in a green, open setting, and rural landscape" on greenbelt land north of the airport between the Airport Parkway and Uplands Drive. In laymen's terms, they call it a "business park," itself a euphemism for low rent office space in the suburbs. Good thing we have the NCC around to preserve land for generations so that banal office parks can be built in the future.
Citizen: NCC sets sights on patch of Greenbelt [22 Jan 2002]
NCC Uplands development information page