STOP
the destruction of the Orleans Notting Hill woods!
March
12
Comments Due
The date
when comments and objections must be made to allow for an appeal.
March
12
7-9pm
Queenswood Heights Community Centre, 1485 Duford Dr.
Open house
meeting with
the developers.
Voice your concerns.
The Video
The City of Ottawa is in the process of accepting a proposal for rezoning our local woodland. This will destroy approximately 35% of the woods, severely strain and/or damage the remaining trees and destroy wildlife and their habitat.
The developers have little regard for the natural habitat. The woods and trails have been in our community as long as it has existed, and we have coexisted with this extraordinary ecosystem. Please join us in this fight to save the Notting Hill woods.
Open Letter
Stephen Blais
Manon Parrot
Natalie Montgomery
Andrew West
Candidates for February 27 By-Election/ Orleans
February 11, 2020
Dear Candidates,
We are members of the Orleans, Notting Hill and surrounding community and we are writing to express our concerns about a zoning bylaw amendment that will remove environmental protection from a significant woodland, and a massive development project which will overburden an area with no available rapid transportation infrastructure (i.e. transitway) until at least 2036.
Although this is a municipal concern, municipalities fall under provincial jurisdiction, and the Natural Heritage policies were developed by the Ontario government. Therefore, you will have the power as an elected MPP to intervene.
Under Significant Woodlands in the Natural Heritage Reference Manual, these treed areas provide “environmental and economic benefits” such as “erosion prevention, hydrological and nutrient cycling, provision of clean air and long-term storage of carbon, provision of wildlife habitat, and outdoor recreational activities.”
The Nantes Street Woods is the hub of our community, where neighbours meet, walk their dogs and admire nature. There are several mature trees, “40cm dbh to 88cm dbh” which translates to 250- to 484-year-old sugar maples (according to the Tree Conservation and Environmental Impact Statement), and the younger part of the forest, which still has 75- to 250-year-old trees, supports wildlife moving throughout. We have owls, a pileated woodpecker and several other species which this woodland could not support if it were partially destroyed. The Significant Wildlife Habitat Technical Guide lists raptor winter feeding and roosting areas as vital to the species survival, which would make our entire woodland a Natural Heritage System. In addition, the woodland is an important stopover point for migratory and feeding birds, since all woodlands in the area have been destroyed, and only tiny woodlots remain. It also behooves us to point out that in the current climate emergency, we should retain as many established trees as possible.
The woodland is currently designated environmental protection zone (EP). The amendment would remove protection for the entire forest and allow for the destruction of the east end and removal of nearly all the mature sugar maples along the north side.
This zoning amendment would also allow for a greater density project—four 6-storey luxury apartment buildings—to be crushed into a small space with no amenities, limited parking, and insufficient transportation infrastructure. (Please see the file on 2065 Portobello Boulevard.) A transitway is not slated to begin until 2036, and traffic backups are already a problem. This will also affect the safety of children going to and from the three elementary schools in the area, as the main exit from this project is at the crossroads of Nantes and Brianna Streets. The proposed extension of Brianna would also cross a newly constructed bike path that is now readily used by Orleans citizens, near and far.
We would like your intervention to stop this zoning amendment, keep the woodland designated as an environmental protection zone, and work with developers to create a more sustainable, logical plan for the community.
As an election is slated for February 27, we would like to hear back from you by February 20, 2020 on what your views are and what concrete action you would take for this project as well as all other projects zoned EP.
Thank you for taking the time to consider our concerns, and we look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Deborah Jackson, Monique Goyette, Dr Rod Coogan, Lisa Guindon, Stephen Boan, Stéphanie Ducharme, Yves Ducharme, Mary Sickinger, Brian Jackson, Jessica Jackson, Sarah White, Angelica Stewart, Khalid Hanafi, Tareq Hanafi, Zak Hanafi, Lucy De Andrade, Gary Chliszczyk, Mike MacLean, Christian Poirier, Pamela Burnley, Melanie Pauze, Nicole Lewis, Danielle Rochefort, Yves Rochefort, Harold McKay, Lisa Brunet, Marco Paventi, Tristan Paventi, Chloe Paventi, Marie McClenahan, Jason McClenahan and Jeremy McConnell.