Infrastructure: Our Community Changes with New In-Fill Housing Projects

It is natural for most of us to welcome new housing projects in Queensway Terrance North (QTN) while, at the same time, wondering how they may eventually influence, even change, the character that makes this such a good place to live. It seems balancing renewal along with efforts to preserve and enhance as our community grows and develops is not easy to strike or maintain.

But regardless of where you stand when it comes to balancing priorities, I think we can all agree it is valuable if community members remain actively engaged in city of Ottawa planning decisions directly affecting our neighborhood. Current city planning practice makes active engagement very difficult to accomplish, however, because notices of impending infill projects are restricted to include only adjacent homeowners. So in the interests of achieving some kind of constructive balance between renewal and preservation/enhancement we ask community members to notify the board when you are aware of new applications. If you are an adjacent homeowner and receive a notice or if you see signs for a project that you feel might affect our neighborhood, please share this information with a member of the QTN board. Alternatively, if you want more information about, or would like assistance with, the planning and approval process for proposed projects, please contact Kathy Vandergrift. Kathy has a long-standing interest in our community and has graciously agreed to help facilitate information exchange and to enhance community engagement in planning decisions affecting QTN.

Going forward, the City of Ottawa is opening discussion for a new city plan and, as part of this, are interested in exploring new ways to support growth of strong local neighborhoods. The QTN board would like to get ahead of these discussions by asking your opinions about community involvement in infill projects now. Please take a few moments to think about what your position is and share it with the rest of us by completing a short survey. You may also be interested in further explaining your position to city officials by attending an upcoming public workshop dedicated to Ottawa’s new plan:

We hope to see you there!