Tag: Pontiac Park Expansion

Water a Pontiac Planter!

From: DANIEL BUCKLES <dbuckles@sas2.net>
Date: Sat, 09 Jun 2018 08:32:38 -0400

Dog Walkers and River Riders

The community now has 7 planters to beautify the extension of Champlain Park at Pontiac Avenue, cared for by volunteer gardeners. To help them along, we invite dog walkers and any others that enjoy going down to the river at Carleton Avenue to take some water with them for the plants. Soak a plant in a planter, rather than sprinkling water around, so that roots go deeper. This will help ease the worry of the volunteer gardeners throughout the season.

[Planter filled with freshly planted plants]

We would like to also give a big shout out to Councillor Jeff Leiper, and assistant Fiona Mitchell, for their dedication and hard work to get the planters in place and set for planting this season. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

SJAM Winter Trail arrives at Champlain Park

As you are well aware closing down a road, taking down part of an NCC fence to make for more park land is not a trivial matter but this has been accomplished with the efforts of many folks.

The Sir John A. Macdonald Winter Trail in Champlain Park has just opened unofficially, the initial grooming was done last Thursday afternoon to pack down the snow. Once we have more snow the classic X-ski tracks will be laid.

The SJAM – Champlain Park trail portion is a reality; it now crosses Pontiac Street (closed portion of Pontiac) into our park leading up to the Champlain Park Fieldhouse from Champlain Woods.

Three residents enjoying x-skiing into Champlain Park on the newly added trail across Pontiac Street from the SJAM Champlain Woods trail.

Continue reading “SJAM Winter Trail arrives at Champlain Park” →

Roads in the Woods – Pontiac and Other Street Expansion Plans

When you walk in the woods, you may encounter a few house foundations and manholes. They are hints of past development and ancient plans. I recently came across an old map that explains them.

There’s a 1930s manhole on Pontiac, west of Patricia, obviously part of Pontiac when it existed there. You can easily walk over it since the forest path goes over the old road. I should really get a photo of it, but it’s currently too cold and snowy outside to do that.

Relative Location of the Secret 1960s Manhole

Continue reading “Roads in the Woods – Pontiac and Other Street Expansion Plans” →

Adopt a Pontiac Planter!

Seven planters have been installed by the City at the Park on Pontiac, to create and beautify a new greenspace (pending removal of the NCC fence and some pavement). The Community is responsible for planting and caring for the Planters. Two have been adopted already by a generous neighbour (marked with a stake). Five more are available for adoption. Let the Environment Committee (dbuckles@sas2.net) know if you are willing to get some perennials started this fall, and care for further planting and watering of a planter in the Spring. The City rules require that no food plants be included in a City planter, for food safety and liability reasons.
[Concrete Planters on Pontiac, with dirt installed]

Pontiac Depaving Park Expansion Update

Seen in councillor Jeff Leiper’s Kitchissippi Ward Newsletter #100:

Pontiac closure

We are finally in a position to begin closing off the portion of Pontiac between Cowley and Carleton to car traffic after months of discussions with the City. Sometime in early July, planters will go in to block off the road and we’ll work with the NCC to bring down their fence quickly after to join the NCC and City parks. It’s still uncertain when we can de-pave the stretch, and we’re working with the community association on that, as well as some parking restrictions in the area to deal with Tunney’s Pasture parkers.

Pontiac Depaving Park Expansion Update

Seen in councillor Jeff Leiper’s Kitchissippi Ward Newsletter #88:

Pontiac Street partial closure update

It has been a bit of a slog to accomplish the street closure for a portion of Pontiac that we’ve been seeking since last fall. There were some outstanding questions about drainage from staff that we believe we’ve now worked through, and we expect to put jersey barriers in place as a first phase of closure relatively soon. In response to a community request, we’re delaying that until the end of the school year in order to minimize disruption to school buses and drop-off. The background to the closure is here. We’ve yet to figure out a timetable for de-paving, but are working on it!

Champlain Park – Parkland Expansion project – moving forward

<snippet source from:>

November 20, 2016  Jeff Leiper -Kitchissippi Ward Newsletter #72

pontiac-park-expansion

Moving forward with next steps on potential Pontiac closure

 

 

Over the past couple of months, we’ve heard a lot of feedback on whether to press ahead with a proposal I originally heard from community members to close a portion of Pontiac in order to join Champlain Park with the NCC property to the north. That idea captured my and others’ imagination, and we’ve had a rich consultation on it.

As we go into the Champlain Park Community Association annual general meeting next week, I’m preparing to let folks know I’ve decided to proceed with next steps toward achieving that. There’s no guarantee we can accomplish it, but I’ve had enough discussions with the City to be confident that the plan is achievable.

Clearly, it would have pros and cons. Our consultation has raised a number of separate but notionally-related issues on which we’ll also have to work. But, I’ve heard the overwhelming support, counted the traffic, listened to the concerns, and am feeling very comfortable that this step would be to the overall benefit of the quality of life year-round in Champlain Park. Read more here.

Champlain Park Community Association AGM

The Champlain Park Community Association is holding its AGM on Tuesday, November 22 in the field house at 149 Cowley Avenue. I’ll be on hand to provide an update about potential next steps for the Pontiac closure.

How we got here!

22-Nov-2016 CPCA – AGM Meeting Jeff Leiper to provide update
20-Nov-2016 Jeff Leiper -Kitchissippi Ward Newsletter #72
21-Oct-2016 Update: Champlain Park – Park Land Expansion Proposal
01-Oct-2016 Jeff Leiper – Kitchissippi Ward Newsletter #65
27-Sept-2016 Friendly Reminder: Park Expansion Opportunity, We need your support!
25-Sept-2016 Jeff Leiper – Kitchissippi Ward Newsletter #64
20-Sept-2016 Park Expansion Opportunity, We need your support!
28-April-2016 The Park Extension was first proposed to Jeff by Carol Arnason on behalf of Adrian Bradley, who was unable to attend this meeting with Jeff. Adrian later met with Jeff at one of his pop-up meetings held at the Van Lang Fieldhouse to follow up on the status of this proposal. Where Jeff indicated he was looking into it, and would be setting up meeting with community to discuss further.

Traffic Counts along Pontiac

Traffic counts September 22 and 23, 2016 (snippet source: from Jeff’s Newsletter #65)

I want to understand the traffic implications better, so did some quick counts on Thursday and Friday.

On Friday, I was out from 3:15-5:05 and counted on Pontiac in the stretch we’re floating closing:

  • 15 cars westbound that came from Northwestern
  • 4 cars westbound that came from Carleton
  • 17 cars eastbound from Cowley. My impression is that these were almost all Tunney’s parkers.
  • 17 cars eastbound from Keyworth, including 7 that had a child visible in the car (my assumption is that these are pick-ups from the school), and 3 buses
  • 10 cars eastbound from Patricia, including 6 that had a child visible in the car (again, I’m making an assumption of pick-ups)
  • 2 bikes eastbound, and 15 bikes westbound
  • 14 pedestrians eastbound, and 25 pedestrians westbound. As you might imagine, a very large number of these westbound pedestrians looked like they were headed to their car from Tunney’s Pasture.

As an observation, the school rush lasts for about 10 minutes immediately after the bell. Traffic is extremely light outside of that period.

On Thursday morning, I did a count from 7:30 to 9:15 am.

On Pontiac westbound I observed:

  • From Northwestern: 9 vehicles, of which 8 had kids visible
  • From Carleton: 14 vehicles, of which 10 had kids visible and one bus
  • 4 bikes
  • 10 pedestrians

On Pontiac eastbound I observed:

  • One vehicle – a resident of the Keyworth/Cowley block
  • One vehicle from Cowley
  • 12 vehicles from Keyworth, of which 4 were buses
  • 7 vehicles from Patricia, of which 1 was a bus
  • 33 bikes
  • 6 pedestrians

Update: Champlain Park – Park Land Expansion Proposal

Important:
Closing date for Councillor receiving your comments is October 31, 2016.

We would like to give a big thank-you to all those who made it to our best attended community meeting on September 27, 2016 with Councillor Jeff Leiper, discussing the proposed park land expansion within Champlain Park, involving the closure and conversion of a portion of Pontiac street.

possible-champlian-park-parkland-expansion

On the following Thursday and Friday after the meeting, Jeff did his own traffic survey of the traffic flow along the part of Pontiac Street in question. Below is a snippet of Jeff’s traffic survey counts which were published in his weekly Kitchissipi Ward Newsletter. For the complete article of Jeff’s observations, comments and counts regarding this proposal, please see his newsletter at: http://kitchissippiward.ca/content/update-potential-pontiac-closure

Traffic counts (snippet from Jeff’s Kitchissippi Ward Newsletter – October 1)
On Thursday morning, I did a count from 7:30 to 9:15 am.
On Pontiac westbound I observed:
From Northwestern: 9 vehicles, of which 8 had kids visible
From Carleton: 14 vehicles, of which 10 had kids visible and one bus
4 bikes
10 pedestrians
On Pontiac eastbound I observed:
One vehicle – a resident of the Keyworth/Cowley block
One vehicle from Cowley
12 vehicles from Keyworth, of which 4 were buses
7 vehicles from Patricia, of which 1 was a bus
33 bikes
6 pedestrians
On Friday, I was out from 3:15-5:05 and counted on Pontiac in the stretch we’re floating closing:
15 cars westbound that came from Northwestern
4 cars westbound that came from Carleton
17 cars eastbound from Cowley. My impression is that these were almost all Tunney’s parkers.
17 cars eastbound from Keyworth, including 7 that had a child visible in the car (my assumption is that these are pick-ups from the school), and 3 buses
10 cars eastbound from Patricia, including 6 that had a child visible in the car (again, I’m making an assumption of pick-ups)
2 bikes eastbound, and 15 bikes westbound
14 pedestrians eastbound, and 25 pedestrians westbound. As you might imagine, a very large number of these westbound pedestrians looked like they were headed to their car from Tunney’s Pasture.
As an observation, the school rush lasts for about 10 minutes immediately after the bell. Traffic is extremely light outside of that period.

Councillors next update
Jeff Leiper will be updating the Community on this proposal in a mid-November time-frame after he has received additional community comments and made further consultations.  Jeff has also done a preliminary discussion of the proposal with the City and he found there were no infrastructure issues and that there may be funding options available through grants.

October 31, 2016  – Closing date for receiving your comments
We strongly encouraged you to send your comments if you haven’t already done so before the closing date to: Councillor Jeff Leiper  Jeff.Leiper@Ottawa.ca