Councillor Doug Thompson's motion to go forward with OSP

This motion supports the Ottawa Sports Park (OSP) concept for the location near Ottawa Airport, just another of many such sports facilities located near airports across Canada and around the world. Essentially we can have a LRT rail yard or a sports park. The sports park will preserve valuable greenspace the rail yard will not. The current rail yard at Walkley Yard is already a brownfield site and makes the most sense.

The vote to go forward (or not) will be April 26th when Council will vote on this Motion . This means each and every Councilor needs to be on board, aiming for a unanimous decsion to support it. With a project as positive as the OSP there is no reason why this shouldn't be acheived.

More Info: Larry Pegg, www.ecoview.com
613-821-1980

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April 12th, 2006 City of Ottawa Council Meeting

Moved by Councillor D. Thompson
Seconded by Councillor R. Bloess

WHEREAS the City of Ottawa has negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding for the use of the Bowesville site from the Ottawa Airport Authority;

AND WHEREAS the City has a sports field deficit of 200 fields;

AND WHEREAS the City is reviewing multiple sites for its rail maintenance yard;

AND WHEREAS the City has completed a study identifying potential sportsfield sites (June, 2005) identifying the Bowesville lands as entirely suitable for sportsfields;

AND WHEREAS the City received informally, conflicting data on lands at or near the Ottawa Airport in the context of aviation safety, bird hazards and crash zones;

AND WHEREAS the City has seen no study or report prepared by any authoritative bird hazard specialist in the context of (a) aviation safety, (b) bird hazards, (c) crash zones, (d) use of the Bowesville lands for a 30 soccer field facility or any other purposes, and (e) the Ottawa Airport;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the City undertake negotiations with the Ottawa Airport Authority for the potential use of the Bowesville site for use as multipurpose sports and recreation facilities, run by either the City or a Public-Private Partnership or other entity;

AND FURTHER that the City conduct a economic assessment of the financial impact of usage of the site for a 30 field soccer park, said assessment to include at the minimum the Canadian Sports Tourism Alliance economic assessment model known as STEAM (Sports Tourism Economic Assessment Model) to calculate the benefits to Ottawa, there being no apparent need to calculate the obviously immense social and health benefits to the City;

AND FURTHER that the City conduct a review of other municipalities that have similar large scale sports facilities to become acquainted with any topics that could prove important to the City should it choose to operate or procure the creation of a sports facility on the Bowesville lands, with particular attention paid to the sports parks in Winnipeg and Calgary that operate sports fields as in close proximity to airport operations;

AND FURTHER that the City in conjunction with Transport Canada and other experts in the field, undertake a review of hazards and risks associated with the proximity of the Bowesville lands to the Ottawa Airport.