PWG backs Mayor Chiarelli's Vision

After weeks of meetings and countless hours of community effort, the Public Working Group overwhelming recommended to re-use an urban Brownfield location near Walkley Road for a maintenance and storage facility for 105 train cars (2021 forecast). The selected and highly recommended site is a decaying and underutilized rail yard, and was chosen from among four potential sites – the selected Brownfield location, and three greenspaces located in the Greenbelt.

Amongst the people representing the residents around Walkley yard, no one objected to the decision, in fact the president of the Heatherington residents association spoke out in favour of the benefits this will have for the community. As stated by Louise,

“This is a tremendous opportunity for the community. Plans can now be made to revitalize the yard and surrounding environment for community use and employment opportunities.”

Credit needs to be extended as well to Mayor Chiarelli. In negotiating the Memorandum of Understanding that secured federal and provincial funding for this project, he identified the re-use of the Walkley rail yard as one of the key deliverables of the LRT project. Not resting on this commitment, he arranged to have his goal and vision of reusing the derelict rail yard reviewed by the citizens and businesses of Ottawa through the Public Working Group. As demonstrated by the overwhelming response, the PWG has backed his vision of redeveloping Brownfields and saving valuable greenspaces for current and future generations of Ottawa residents.

The Memorandum of Understanding highlighting Mayor Chiarelli’s commitment can be found here (PDF). The Project Definition, which includes the Walkley site and other deliverables committed to by the City, Province of Ontario and Government of Canada, is found starting on
Page 7.

The next step in the process of confirming the Walkley yard is a Public Open House being April 11, 2006. Ottawa residents are encouraged to come out and support the Mayor in realizing his vision of reusing the Walkley rail yard for the LRT.

This is an excellent opportunity for the city to take ownership of the yard. By turning over this new leaf, Ottawa will show the rest of the world how progressive it is by reusing a Brownfield rail yard for the new and exciting LRT project.

Please pass this note on to others so the people of Ottawa know of this true success story.

Sincerely,

Cheryl Doran
www.saveourgreenspace.ca