Orleans Weekly Journal
Published: Friday, December 21, 2007 

Ways to make Orléans sustainable

Back in the third week of November, Team Ottawa-Orléans held an information and visioning session where participants shared their aspirations for what Orléans could and should be.  Presently our community, if you measure by federal electoral district boundaries, is home to 110,000-plus people and we can boast of the most bilingual and educated workforce in the country along with the distinction of having second highest median family income in the province.

In other words, we are very smart and very affluent.

But, compared to other parts of our city, we have fallen behind when it comes to local economic development and balancing residential versus commercial growth just to name a few measures. Apart from our language duality and closer proximity to downtown (15 minutes) compared to Barrhaven (22 minutes) or Kanata (close to 30 minutes), we are essentially a big and sprawling – and sprawling further – bedroom community.

While this may appeal to some, it is not sustainable over the next 20 years – economically, socially or environmentally. And this was the general conclusion of the recent visioning exercise noted earlier. Which leads us to the obvious question: How do we make our community sustainable across these varied dimensions?

To be fair, we’re not starting from scratch. St. Joseph Boulevard has a unique and historic character. Innes Road, for better or for worse, is now big box retail central. And the 20-storey, yellow crane beside the Orléans Client Centre heralds the arrival of the long-awaited Town Centre project which – when fully complete – will be home to our new arts centre, mixed-use office-residential-retail and even a hotel if all goes according to plan.

But what’s next after that? Interconnecting all our communities by walking and biking trails? Ensuring that all new industrial development is LEED- (read: green and eco-friendly buildings) certified? A new industrial park with a mixture of government and private sector enterprise? Modern and modular manufacturing plants down at Taylor Creek and Trim Road? New mid- to high-rise buildings along Innes?

All of the above or none of the above?

This is the discussion that we must now embrace in our community. In future columns I will periodically highlight some of the more innovative ideas and concepts (email me at orleansouttakes@transcontinental.ca) to take our community to the proverbial “next level.”

In the interim, folks should surf by the Team Ottawa-Orléans website www.teamottawaorleans.com) and contact executive director Robert Paiement if they have any stellar ideas or want to get in on the ground floor of building our community. And yes, in the spirit of full transparency, I am a director on their board. But as I sometimes joke, where there is no conflict, there is no interest.

Finally, Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all Weekly Journal readers. May 2008 be your best year yet!