Ottawa Sun
Published: Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Lansdowne not a jewel

City council decides today on two competing stadium proposals. In turn, this decision dictates the future of Lansdowne Park, one way or the other. If Monday's joint corporate services and planning committee meeting is any indication, sadly, Eugene Melnyk's bid for a stadium complex in Kanata to host Major League Soccer has been given a red card.

This is unfortunate since professional soccer is a better and more sustainable play when it comes to a second professional sports franchise for our city. As well, he had his own skin in the game to the tune of $10 million, plus the MLS franchise fee (another $40 million or more).

Barring a meltdown, council will direct city officials to enter into negotiations with the Lansdowne Live group fronted by Minto CEO Roger Greenberg and 67's owner Jeff Hunt to redevelop Lansdowne Park. And it will be a long overdue first step as successive city and regional councils have dropped the proverbial ball on this file.

In an effort to minimize rhetoric around the council table, perhaps today's column can be kept close for easy reference.

To start, Lansdowne is not a park, and it never has been a park. It has been a fairground, exhibition space and home to some form of stadium or another for more than 100 years. If councillors have visions of turning it into Central Park North, they should do some homework. Central Park is an engineered urban forest and to accomplish the same in today's dollars would cost tens of millions of dollars just to accomplish, let alone maintain.

Lansdowne is not a jewel. It is 40 acres of underutilized asphalt and a few crumbling buildings.

Yes the Lansdowne Live group is comprised of business people, so what? They are also community builders who live, work and play in our community. They are not speculating suits or absentee landlords based in Toronto, London or Beijing.

As for fears expressed by local businesses in the Glebe, whatever happened to competition? The retail space envisaged could not sustain big box given the shopping demographic of the Glebe. Unique stores and great service make the Glebe a shopping and dining destination.

Of course, the Lansdowne Live group shouldn't be left off the hook, either. Real concerns still exist with respect to transportation to and from Lansdowne Park. And contrary to what some councillors and some of my fellow east-enders believe, Kanata is not in another time zone. If you time things properly, you can get to Scotiabank Place from Trim Rd. in Orleans in 30 minutes or so.

Coming to Lansdowne for a football game or major trade show from Trim Rd. can take almost as long, as the site is not properly serviced by OC Transpo and parking access is limited to routes via Bank St. or Queen Elizabeth Driveway along the canal. Any negotiations between the city and the proponents have to address and solve this access issue. Lansdowne is centrally located, but this in and of itself does not make it accessible.

The city should also insist that Lansdowne is a showcase of new urbanism, including greenroof technologies, novel approaches to waste collection and composting, innovative building materials and a model for energy use and generation, and pony up its share of resources to make this happen.

With proper public guidelines and oversight in place, we can unleash private-sector creativity so Lansdowne Park can be redeveloped to be a place for our community to buy, sell, gather and celebrate.