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Committee recommendation
That Council approve the refined communication and consultation approach on the Urban Park design and programming proposal as described in this report.
RECOMMANDATION COMITÉ
Que le Conseil municipal approuve l’approche
affinée de consultation et de communication pour la proposition de
programmation et de conception du parc urbain telle qu’elle est décrite dans le
présent rapport.
Documentation
1. City Manager's report dated 24
August 2010 (ACS2010-CMR-OCM-0005).
Planning and Environment Committee
Comité de l'urbanisme et de l'environnement
and Council / et au Conseil
24
August 2010 / le 24 août 2010
Submitted by/Soumis par : Kent Kirkpatrick,
City Manager/directeur municipal
Contact
Person/Personne ressource :
Steve Box, Manager, Policy
Coordination and Outreach, Office of the City Manager/
Steve Box, Gestionnaire, Coordination de politque et Rayonnement, Bureau
du directeur muncipal (613) 580-2424 ext./poste 24200/ Steve.Box@ottawa.ca
SUBJECT:
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OBJET :
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That Planning and Environment Committee (PEC) recommend that Council approve the refined communication and consultation approach on the Urban Park design and programming proposal as described in this report.
Que le Comité de l'urbanisme et de l'environnement (CUE) recommande
au Conseil municipal d’approuver l’approche affinée de
consultation et de communication pour la proposition de programmation et de
conception du parc urbain telle qu’elle est décrite dans le présent rapport.
On June 28, 2010, City Council considered the Lansdowne Partnership Plan and Implementation Report (Ref N°: ACS2010-CMR-REP-0034). The report included an outline of the next steps of the implementation of the Lansdowne Partnership Plan (Document 27), which provided for the creation of an “Urban Park Steering Committee” and Council directed through Motion 92-37 that the Ward Councillor and the presidents of the Glebe and Old Ottawa South Community Associations be added to the membership of the “Urban Park Steering Committee” in an effort to improve communication and consultation between the Ward Councillor, the surrounding communities and the City of Ottawa on the Urban Park design.
It should be noted that, the original membership of the “Urban Park Steering Committee” as listed in Document 27 reflected a continuation of the multi-partite group that had established the technical and administrative roles and responsibilities of each government agency for the design of the Urban Park component of the Lansdowne Park revitalization. In the fall of 2009, the City entered into a partnership agreement with the National Capital Commission (NCC) and Parks Canada Agency (Parks Canada) to conduct the Urban Park Design Competition. A letter of Understanding (LOU) was entered into between the City, the NCC and Parks Canada defining the roles of each party in relation to conducting the competition. This group was referred to as the “Urban Park Steering Committee.”
The Urban Park Design
Competition concluded in early June with the selection of Phillips Farevaag
Smallenberg as the successful design firm. With the approval of report ACS2010-CMR-REP-0034 and the completion of the
design competition, the mandate of the Urban Park Steering Committee and the
existing LOU was complete. It was recognized by all three agencies (the City, the
NCC and Parks Canada) that a new LOU would be required for the completion of the
work associated with Phase 2 of the Urban Park design and implementation. While
Document 27 of report ACS2010-CMR-REP-0034
identified the membership of several committees and teams to be involved in the
completion of the Phase 2 implementation work, the roles of these committees
and teams was not explicitly specified. Subsequent discussion with the NCC and
Parks Canada has clarified these roles and, as a result, has informed the
proposal to refine the approach to the implementation of Council’s direction to
ensure that the intent of the direction is successfully achieved.
In keeping with Council direction, staff initiated discussions with the NCC and Parks Canada regarding the direction contained in Motion 92-37 and the completion of an LOU for Phase 2 of the Urban Park design. During these discussions, both the NCC and Parks Canada reconfirmed their intent to have the Steering Committee serve as an executive administrative body charged with the oversight of recommendations to their respective board of governors and not as a working committee in the development of the Urban Park design and implementation. The partner agencies were unanimous in their position that the ability to successfully implement the intent of Council’s direction to improve communications and consultation between the Ward Councillor, the communities adjacent to the Urban Park and the City would best be served through an alternative mechanism.
Concurrently, the City proceeded with the development of the scope of work for the Urban Park design and implementation with Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg (PFS). The scope of work PFS was engaged to undertake includes leading the process to establish and recommend the programming plan for the Urban Park, the Aberdeen Pavilion and the Horticulture Building, which includes the requirement to develop a proposal for the engagement of the surrounding community and a consultation strategy involving key stakeholders among the public at large.
In light of the feedback from the NCC and Parks Canada, City staff met with the Ward Councillor to solicit his feedback regarding viable alternative approaches to fulfilling the intent of Motion 92-37. Additionally, staff met with the presidents of the Glebe and Old Ottawa South Community Associations and PFS to explore approaches to strengthen communication and engagement between all parties in the development and implementation of the Urban Park design and programming proposal. The approach developed by PFS through these discussions is outlined in the discussion section of this report.
The purpose of this report is to outline how the City proposes to fulfill the intent of Motion 92-37 within the context of the ongoing relationships with the National Capital Commission (NCC) and Parks Canada Agency (Parks Canada), which had previously made up the membership of the “Urban Park Steering Committee.”
Council Motion 92-37 is clear in directing staff to ensure that an enhanced level of communication and engagement occur with the community surrounding Lansdowne Park and that the Ward Councillor and that the presidents of the Glebe and Old Ottawa South serve as the community representatives to facilitate this. Unfortunately the mechanism identified to fulfill Council’s direction, the Steering Committee, is not a viable alternative to implementing this direction. In light of this, staff has worked in collaboration with the presidents of the Glebe and Old Ottawa South Community Associations and PFS to develop a mutually agreed upon approach to fulfill the objectives of Motion 92-37.
Through discussions between the City, PFS and the presidents of the Glebe and Old Ottawa South Community Associations the following consultation approach was developed and is recommended for consideration:
A process has been established to enable an ongoing dialogue between PFS, the Ward Councillor, the presidents of the Glebe and Old Ottawa South Community Associations and the Lansdowne Project Team to enable the presidents, serving as the key neighbourhood representatives, to influence the development of a broader consultation process tailored to their community’s interests regarding the Urban Park.
To ensure the community representatives are in a position to identify the details of the desired approach and to engage targeted community stakeholders, a meeting will be scheduled to review the updated concept plan and to facilitate a discussion on local programming preferences for the Urban Park. It is anticipated that future meetings with the community association presidents will be held prior to, and in parallel with, scheduled public consultation events.
Consultations were undertaken with each of the Rural Issues Advisory Committees and Members from the Board of Director’s of the Ottawa Farmers’ Market.
There are no environmental implications associated with this report.
Staff met with Councillor Doucet to provide an overview of the proposed option and received feedback that the Councillor wished to speak with the presidents of the Glebe and Old Ottawa South Community Associations directly. Councillor Doucet indicated that he was inclined to defer to the position of the presidents of the Glebe and Old Ottawa South Community Associations with respect to the proposed approach to community consultation.
Councillor Doucet was provided with a copy of the draft report and agreed to be included in all future meeting requests related to the proposed community consultation process.
The NCC and Parks Canada were consulted with respect to entering into an LOU for the Phase 2 development of the Urban Park design.
The presidents of the Glebe and Old Ottawa South Community Associations and principles from PFS were engaged to discuss, develop and agree upon an approach to fulfill the intent of Council Motion 92-37.
There are no legal or risk management impediments to
implementing the recommendations in this report.
The report supports the key City Strategic Plan priority to identify key municipal facilities of city-wide significance and implement an effective remediation and restoration plan for these assets where required.
N/A
Funds to conduct the community engagement and public consultation approaches outlined in this report are accommodated in the capital project for the Lansdowne Partnership Plan Implementation – Phase 2.
Subject to Planning and Environment Committee and Council approval, staff will implement the recommendations as outlined in this report.