ANOTHER STEP TAKEN TO REDUCE COMMUTING TIMES FOR KANATA RESIDENTS

This week the City’s Transit Committee discussed the Statement of Work for the Environmental Assessment of the section of the Transitway between Pinecrest and the existing Southwest Transitway. With the Western Transitway between Pinecrest and Bayshore, which is expected to be completed next year, this will speed up commuting between Kanata and Downtown or Tunney’s Pasture. Even people whose only option is driving can expect to see some benefit as improved travel times cause people to switch to transit and reduce congestion.

The environmental assessment is required after the Value Engineering Study looked at ways of reducing the cost of the original plan for the Western Transitway between Pinecrest and the existing transitway. Because the original plan included a bus tunnel under Connaught Avenue the estimated cost of this section of the transitway was $138 million. This led council to look for cheaper alternatives.

Under the statement of work for the Environment Assessment, both the temporary identified in the Value Engineering Report and the long-term solution of using the land set aside for a seventh and eighth lane on the Queensway between Pinecrest and Woodroffe will be examined. Issues that must be addressed include whether solutions will be acceptable to the provincial Ministry of Transportation and how easily structures like transit stations can be converted to light rail.

The Ministry of Transportation has said that it does not support permanently giving up space to widen the Queensway for the transitway. However, that still leaves the short and medium term options for speeding up transit. With the plans to gradually expand light rail west, short and medium term solutions to speed up commuting time at what we need.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO SPOKE OUT ON PROPOPOSALS FOR DEVELOPMENT ON STONEHAVEN AND HEARST

Because of deadlines I am writing this before the Planning and Environment Committee meeting on Monday August 18. It is still not clear what will happen with the proposals to rezone land on Stonehaven Drive and Hearst Way. I would, however, like to thank everyone who took the time to speak out on these proposals.

Adding several hundred homes to Stonehaven Drive and changing the Town Centre Plan to add a hotel on Hearst Way have the potential to create problems for our community. With the ability of developers to threaten to go to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) if they don’t get what they want at council, making sure community concerns are addressed is a challenge.  However, regardless of the outcome, based on what I have heard so far, I can assure you that the messages and comments Kanata South residents took the time to provide made a difference.

SAVING MONEY WITH SOLAR HOT WATER

The Kanata Environmental Network (KEN) will be organizing a presentation on solar hot water systems this September. The presentation will be:

Wednesday, September 17th at 7:00 p.m.
Holy Trinity Catholic High School, 180 Katimavik Road

The presentation about how different types of hot-water systems work, what type of system would meet you needs, and how to access existing financial incentives.

For more information on the project please visit: http://www.sustainableottawa.ca/page.php?51.

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