April 16, 2010 - Glebe Report

Community parks of the Glebe
by Carol MacLeod
The 2.56 hectare park at 10 Fifth Avenue and bounded by Fifth, O’Connor,
Lansdowne Park and the Driveway, is the major recreation space in the Glebe.
Variously called the community or recreation park by residents, it has been
identified as Sylvia Holden Park on city maps and in documents as Lansdowne
Community Park. Many of us were dismayed to see this land (whatever its
name) included in the scope of the overall “front lawn” design for Lansdowne
Park, despite resolutions to the contrary from city council.
Where is the real Sylvia Holden Park? How does this community park fit
into our park system? In order to address some of these concerns, I turned to
city officials. Questions about Glebe parks, and Sylvia Holden Park in particular,
were referred to city staff responsible for the Lansdowne Park project.
I also relied on the city’s website, the Parks and Recreation Master Plan (in
process) and particularly, the Greenspace Master Plan: Strategies for Ottawa’s
Urban Greenspaces.
The Parks, Recreation and Culture Department lists parks by sector,
east and west, along a divide formed by the Rideau Canal and the Rideau
River. Glebe parks are the following:
• Brown’s Inlet (65 Craig, 2.7 ha)
• Capital (10 Ella, 0.4 ha)
• Central, aka Patterson’s Creek (19 Clemow, 0.8 ha)
• Chamberlain (80 Chamberlain, 0.88 ha)
• Glebe Community Centre and St. James Tennis (690 Lyon, 0.42 ha)
• Glebe Memorial (75 Glendale, 0.71 ha)
• Lansdowne (945 Bank, 15.6 ha)
• Lionel Britton (19 Fifth, 0.09 ha)
• Senator Eugene Forsey (964 Bronson, 0.2 ha) and,
• finally Sylvia Holden (10 Fifth, 2.56 ha).
Interestingly enough, Lansdowne Community Park is not listed. The City of
Ottawa Park Inventory Report was revised some time between March 9 and
March 29, 2010; the description for Sylvia Holden Park (945 Bank Street,
0.46 ha) was changed and Central (no address given, 2.97 Ha) and Lansdowne
Community Park (10 Fifth, 2.56 ha) were added.
A Brief History
Dan Chenier, Department of Parks, Recreation and Culture, explained by
email that the old City of Ottawa officially approved Sylvia Holden Park as a
park in 1994, based on a document entitled: “Excerpt from the Glebe Report-
Multi-purpose Park planned for Holmwood/Bank.” That document, apparently
prepared in 1975 and submitted to the then-Board of Control of the old city,
was not approved at that time for reasons unknown. The part of the park with
baseball diamonds, wading pools, swings and day care building “is undedicated
parkland, commonly referred to as Lansdowne Community Park and not
part of Sylvia Holden Park.” Sylvia Holden at the corner of Bank and Holmwood
is a passive park.
One recommendation of the Lansdowne Park Development Strategy, approved
by Council in 1984, was to develop a community play area in the
northeast section of Lansdowne. Work was completed in 1990-1991. In “Lansdowne
Community Park”, the city operates a wading pool program, which
includes supervised water play, arts and craft activities by the pool and special
events from late June to late August. In 2009, the “Lansdowne Community
Park” wading pool recorded 20,493 users over the summer, the busiest in the
City. The two baseball diamonds in this park are booked seven days a week
from May to July, and five days a week for August and September. The Glebe
Little League is the main user group. The park includes a fenced dog park, one
of only two the city operates.
Do we have enough greenspace?
The City of Ottawa Official Plan sets a target of 4.0 hectares of total greenspace
per 1,000 population. This includes natural land, open space and leisure
land, including “federal land recognized by the NCC as a park.” (The Greenbelt
is excluded.) Two hectares of this is to be park and leisure land. According
to the Greenspace Master Plan, the “Inner Area” of which we are part has less
than 2 hectares of greenspace per 1,000 in total, with half of that being park.
This is the lowest in the city. The western boundary of the Glebe for the purpose
of figuring total parkland is the O Train line, Carling and Bronson.
To calculate total greenspace in a community, the Greenspace Master Plan
includes both “primary” lands and “active and passive open space in public
ownership identified in the 2005 Land Use Survey.”
Photo: Elaine Marlin
Glebe Report April 16, 2010 23
Distribution of parks and greenspace sub-areas of urbam Ottawa
Primary lands are defined as including “the natural landscapes and major
rivers that are recognized as having high environmental quality or rarity”
and specifically include “public parks, sports fields, river access points, major
pathway corridors, children’s play areas and civic squares owned by municipal,
provincial and federal agencies”. For the Glebe, most designated city
parks and NCC lands bordering the Rideau Canal, including all land around
Dow’s Lake as far as the O Train track are included in this definition.
Supporting lands are “intended for uses other than the provision of open
space and leisure, but allow for public access and contribute to the overall
greenspace experience….” These include municipal forests, school grounds,
grounds of public facilities and institutions, some utility infrastructure and
transit and abandoned rail corridors. Examples are Lansdowne Park (included
in the city’s lists of its parks), and parcels of NCC land west of the Driveway,
the cutoff from Bank to the Driveway at Wilton, and surrounding the westbound
lane of the Driveway from Bank Street to Bronson. Elsewhere in the
Greenspace Master Plan, they are said to include “tributaries to rivers, isolated
natural features, and habitats that link the primary areas … public lands that
potentially contribute to leisure opportunities because they permit public access.”
The map of Open Space and Leisure Land in the Greenspace Master
Plan appears to suggest that, in the Glebe, this includes the community centre,
all our school lands, Central Park, Lansdowne and parts of the Dow’s Lake
lands occupied by the Pavilion and Department of National Defence.
The current population of the Glebe approaches 11,000. Thus, according
to the Official Plan, we should have 44 hectares of greenspace, of which 22
should be park and leisure land. Excluding the Lansdowne Park Complex, not
to be confused with the Lansdowne Community Park, and including the tot lot
and St. James tennis courts at the community centre, the Glebe has, in total,
12.19 hectares of city-owned parks in our neighbourhood or a ratio of 1.1082
hectares per 1,000 population.
Recreational facilities
As for recreational facilities in our community of 11,000, we have rooms
at the community centre. We use our schools. We have six tennis courts, two
baseball diamonds, two basketball courts, one soccer field, a spray pad, a splash
pad and wading pool, half a dozen banks of swings, a community-maintained
outdoor rink in winter (a second is maintained in the Mutchmor play yard) and
a dog park. We have no indoor recreation centres, fitness centres, pools (standard:
1:35,000 residents) or indoor skating (standard: 1:22,000). Our nearest
recreational facilities, Brewer Pool and the Plant Bath, Brewer Rink and Tom
Brown Arena, serve a total population well over 70,000.
Despite the relative lack of recreational facilities, we are expected to absorb
increased population as a result of a policy of densification. And council
wonders why we react with concern when faced with the potential loss of our
largest recreational park?
Our parks are part of the legacy passed on from active community volunteers
such as Sylvia Holden; we can best honour that legacy by remaining vigilant
stewards of those lands so that the next generation may enjoy them.
Both Elaine Marlin and Carol MacLeod have been active for many years
in creating and sustaining volunteer organizations in the Glebe, to the great
benefit of all those living in the area. We thank them for their ongoing contributions
to the community.
A great gift -
A wonderful keepsake
House
Portraits
$175.00
by Donna Edwards
613-233-4775
Courtesy of Greenspace master plan