HAVING DEVELOPERS OVERSEE PLANNING STUDIES UNDERMINES PUBLIC CONFIDENCE

One question I hear regularly is how could City planning staff allow more development in Bridlewood with all the traffic problems. I get similar questions about development near floodplains.

When the potential for problems exists – whether it is flooding, traffic or any other issue – there is a requirement that a study be conducted. The study is meant to check whether development can go ahead and, if it can, what measures are needed to avoid problems.

Under the process adopted by the City of Ottawa, developers fund the process, hire the consultants and oversee the studies. As it is developers who are profiting from the development, it makes sense that they would pay the costs. What worries people is that they are hiring the consultants and overseeing the studies.

If you are a traffic engineer doing studies required for development, you know that you will not get work unless developers are willing to hire you. You also know that developers have a lot of money riding on whether or not a development is approved. If the findings of your studies are that development should not go ahead or extensive mitigation measures will be required, it will cost the people who decide whether or not you get hired a lot of money.

The amount of money developers have riding on the outcome of studies also makes it a problem for them to be overseeing the work. When there is more than one possible conclusion you can be sure that the developer will be pushing for the one that allows their development to proceed at the lowest possible cost.

WHEN THERE ARE PROBLEMS BECAUSE OF DEVELOPMENT WE ALL PAY

If development takes place when the transportation system can’t support it or where there are flooding problems, all of us pay the cost. The cost may be in the form of more time spent stuck in traffic in the morning. It may be a flooded basement. It may be the cost of the work the city has to do to fix the problem. But at the end of the day we all pay the price when there are problems that are not resolved before development takes place.

Having city staff oversee planning surveys or hire the people conducting them will not guarantee we always like what they say. What it will mean is that we will at least have confidence that the conclusions are not influenced by the fact the person doing the study depends on the good will of developers for work.

THANKS FOR KANATA FOOD CUPBOARD VOLUNTEERS

I would like to express my thanks to Dan Carroll for years of service as Chair of the Board of the Kanata Food Cupboard. Poverty is a Kanata problem. Without the work of Dan and other volunteers there would be people in our community going hungry. Dan has done a great job at the Food Cupboard – to the point of having his efforts recognized by the President of the United States.

WORKING FULL-TIME FOR KANATA SOUTH

I appreciate the chance to hear from you about issues affecting our community. You can reach me at 580-2752 (office), 580-2762 (fax), www.feltmateforkanata.com or peggy.feltmate@ottawa.ca