Civic neighbourhood weighs in on traffic concerns, design for future hospital

Residents who live near the Ottawa Hospital's Civic campus want to see a future hospital at Dow's Lake that limits vehicles weaving throughresidential streets and is designed tofit intoan urban neighbourhood.

"Our concern is primarily traffic,"said Peter Eady, vice-president of the Civic Hospital Neighbourhood Association, which asked for a meeting with KitchissippiCoun. JeffLeiper andOttawa-Centre MPPYasirNaqvi. The meeting was held Monday night.

"There is already a great degree of intensification at that end of the neighbourhood with the O-Train corridor andthe high-rises and condominiums being developed there."

The federal government agreed in December 2016 toofferthe hospital the Sir John Carling siteat the eastern edge of the Central Experimental Farm.

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Leiper, Naqvi and the hospital's director of communications alljoined the circle of some 50 people to listen to their concerns and advice, butacknowledged the hospital is still being plannedand there are few details.

Move 'H' sign on highway, create Rochester ramps

Residents wantthe entrance to the future hospital positioned toencouragepeople to use arterial roadssuch as Carling Avenue, rather than residential streets such as Sherwood Drive andBayswater Avenue.

They also want the hospital tied into the city's O-Trainand some suggested the hospital subsidize transit passes foremployees.

Theissue of how hospital workers and patients travel from Highway 417 to the current hospital site has beenan issue for decades, noted some residents.

ShirleyReyes wantsthe blue and white 'H' sign on the highway relocatedfrom the westbound Parkdaleexit to the Carlingexitto reduce traffic on Parkdale, something she had once succeeded in doing decades earlier.

Others suggested the Ontario Ministry of Transportation build on- and off-ramps eastbound at Rochester Street, because it has fewerhomes,but a member of the adjacentDalhousie neighbourhood association countered that it hopes to seeRochesterturned into a bike-friendly street.

Wanted: design worthy of site on Rideau Canal

Even though the community association was focused on traffic, residents had much to say on how the Ottawa Hospital will approach the site's design.

They don't want to see parking and buildings sprawled across hectares. Instead, they wanttaller buildings that connect togreenspace and the Rideau Canal, and allowold trees to be preserved.

ErinnCunningham has lived near hospital row in downtownTorontoand said it's possible to create hospitals that fit their surroundings.

"I want to see the community's going to have some impact on this," said Cunningham."For some of us, this is going to be a couple of blocks from where we live.It's where our kids are growing up."

The hospital's director of communications, Kate Eggins,promised the hospital's past missteps with consultation would not be repeated, and that residents willsee her at many public meetings in the months to come.