The text of the Powerpoint presentation follows. Distributed with permission of Carmen Sanchez, DLRA President.
Dow’s Lake Residents Association:
It’s too early to lift the holding provisions for the new Civic Hospital
Prepared by: Dow’s Lake Residents Association, Special Committee on the new Civic Hospital
Destination: For presentation at the Oct 1, 2021 meeting of the City of Ottawa’s Planning Committee
Too many questions and risks to lift holding conditions and/or delegate authority to staff
▪ New Civic Hospital essentially adds the population of Whitehorse adjacent to dense downtown neighbourhoods and a world heritage site.
▪ Impacts on adjacent neighbourhoods (such as Dow’s Lake) will be significant.
- Increased dangers and serious inconveniences to residents due to increased volume of traffic, frequency/intensity of speeding, cut-through traffic on residential streets, air and noise pollution, parking overflow, etc.
- Significant financial uncertainty and risks.
- Serious negative environmental impacts including major loss of trees, green space and variety of further risks to Rideau Canal/Dow’s Lake , Arboretum and Experimental Farm.
- City has fiduciary and moral responsibility to ensure that the development of the hospital is done correctly. It cannot ask some residents and neighbourhoods to bear the brunt of the negative consequences without, at the very least, developing plans to mitigate those effects.
- The current state of the application does not achieve this.Thus:
– Holding conditions should not be lifted, nor should the authority over future decisionsbe delegated to city staff, at this time. - – At very least, city and hospital must guarantee it will work with DLRA to address all concerns.
1. Transportation
Paul Saurette, DLRA Resident
Transportation 1: Variety of increased dangers and inconveniences to Dow’s Lake community
- 20,000 predicted daily hospital visits in 2028, 35,000 daily visits in 2048.
- Dow’s Lake = small neighbourhood less than 1km from hospital site; high proportion of seniors/children; key access point to Commissioners Park.
- Highly predictable impacts of new hospital:
- – Bronson/Carling/QE: Increased volume of traffic + increased frequency and intensity of speeding and red light running.
- – DL residential streets: increased volume of cut-through traffic + increased frequency and intensity of speeding, running stop signs, etc.
- – DL residential streets: become de facto overflow parking for new hospital.
- Consequences for DL residents, pedestrians, cyclists and drivers
- – Significantly increased dangers to pedestrians, cyclists and drivers both within DL and when entering/exiting DL.
- – Significantly increased inconveniences to DL residents – including parking issues, noise pollution, air pollution, etc.
- ▪ TIA and city have so far failed to consult DLRA robustly-and have thus ignored / dismissed our justifiable concerns.
Transportation 2: City must work with DRLA to identify + enact solutions before construction begins
- ▪ Goal 1: Reduce dangers due to cut-through traffic in DL. E.g.,
- – 30 km sped limit
- – ‘Local only’ and ‘traffic calmed’ street designations
- – Extensive use of raised cross walks, speed bumps, traffic calming dividers and bike lanes
- – Optimized traffic flow rules and signage – e.g., more stop signs, one-way streets, ‘no left turning’ designations (onto Bronson), redesigned street entrances off Bronson
- ▪ Goal 2: Reduce dangers of increased volume/speed of traffic on Bronson. E.g.,
- – Designate Bronson (from Sunnyside to the 417) as Community Safety Zone
- – Lower speed limit of Bronson from Sunnyside north
- – Enhance traffic enforcement (red-light cameras, automated speed enforcement cameras)
- – Addition and enhancement of pedestrian crossings (raised and painted crosswalks, creation of new crosswalks)
- ▪ Goal 3: Enact parking restrictions to eliminate use as overflow parking. E.g.,
– No parking for non-residents during the day; time limited parking overnight (as in Civic Hospital neighbourhood) – Free permanent street parking passes for DL residents
– Significantly enhanced enforcement - ▪ Goal 4: Adopt wide variety of policies designed to encourage use of LRT, bus and bicycle to access hospital
- ▪ Goal 5: Ensure real-time, transparent and publicly-available monitoring of data – as well as effective processes to resolve – relevant to transportation and other impacts related to the new hospital
Transportation 3: City must not lift holding conditions and/or delegate to staff until these issues are addressed
- ▪ These consequences should not be ignored, downplayed, dismissed or postponed. They are predictable. And many will begin as soon as construction begins.
- ▪ In response to our queries, both the hospital and city staff have essentially told us that any problems that arise will be addressed after the fact.
- ▪ This is a highly inefficient way to try to solve problems – it is well known in project management that it is far more costly and usually much less effective to try to retrofit solutions after the fact.
- ▪ These responses are also rather insulting – since they completely ignore our lived experience and they ensure that, at the minimum, we will have to live with these (highly predictable) negative consequences for some time before they are addressed…if they are addressed at all.
- ▪ This is no way to treat the legitimate, reasonable concerns of citizens whose everyday life will be deeply impacted – in a negative way – by the new hospital if our concerns are not addressed. The city must do better.
- ▪ As such, we urge you not to lift the holding conditions and/or delegate such decisions to staff until these, and other concerns, are fully addressed.
2. Finance
Monica Olney, DLRA Resident
Finance 1: City must not lift holding conditions and/or delegate to staff until we have more clarity around costs and how they are to be apportioned
- There is a significant lack of clarity regarding the realistic cost of the new Civic Hospital, as well as about how they will be apportioned and who will cover them.
- This means that the city is potentially assuming a high level of financial risk.
- Given this lack of information and transparency, as well as the high level of risk to the city, the city should not lift the holding provision at this time.
- Below are some examples that support this position.
Finance 2: Cost estimates are likely outdated and comparisons suggest they are optimistic
Oakville Trafalgar Hospital
- ▪ December 2015 opening
- ▪ 340 beds on opening
- ▪ 1.6 million sq. ft
- ▪ $2.7 BILLION total cost
- ▪ $8.0 M/Bed or $1,687/sq ft
- ▪ Contribution from City ofOakville = $130 million
- ▪ Increased city taxes = NONE
- ▪ Community contribution=$60million
New Civic Hospital
▪ 2028 opening
▪ 640 beds on opening
▪ 2 million sq. ft.
▪ $2.8 BILLION total cost
▪ $4.4 M/Bed or $1,400/sq ft ▪ Contribution from City of
Ottawa=UNKNOWN
▪ Increase in city taxes = UNKNOWN
▪ Community contribution =$700 million (2016 estimate)
Finance 3: High level of uncertainty about sources of additional funding as well as potential additional costs to city
No clarity about how $700 million+ will be raised
- ▪ No details as to how this amount is to be raised.
- ▪ City staff suggested that the $700 million will be raised by the hospital through fundraising, parking fees, retail and restaurant operations. Of note: for fiscal year 2021, net parking revenues (3 campuses) totaled $11 million. Parking revenue usually goes to the purchase of new equipment.
Variety of additional potl costs to City
- ▪ Challenges with water servicing because of topography.
- ▪ Need to relocate Private Sanitary Infrastructure on the Farm
- ▪ Need to relocate Stormwater sewers on the Farm
- ▪ Significant flooding risks in lower Mooney’s Bay Collector and Nepean Bay Trunk
- ▪ Increased traffic gridlock and congestion at key intersections (Carling, Bronson, Preston, Queen Elizabeth, Prince of Wales, etc)
- ▪ Bike path rebuilding,etc
- ▪ What is the estimate of these costs? Who will pay for these infrastructure costs (especially in a context where these costs usually accrue to the city)?
Finance 4: City must not lift holding conditions and/or delegate to staff until we have more clarity around costs and how they are to be apportioned
- In sum, there is far too much financial uncertainty and vulnerability for the city to lift the holding conditions
- With such incomplete information, the fiscally responsible course of action is to keep the holding provision in place until further information is available.
- Both the city and the hospital would be in breach of their fiduciary duties if the holding provision is lifted.
3. Environment
Joseph Federico, DLRA Resident
A New Civic Campus at Dow’s Lake
Dow’sLake. EnvironmentallySensitive. Ecologically Rich.
- The Ottawa Hospital – a 99-year lease of federal lands.
- A major development on federal lands.
- An Independent Environmental Impact Assessment must be done.
Do not lift the Holding Provisions.
Summary
Carmen Sanchez, DLRA President
brianmcarroll 