Architects, councillor urge Ottawa to open bid process for Lansdowne Park

The City of Ottawa's consideration of only a single, unsolicited proposal for the future of Lansdowne Park is not the right way to manage a valuable piece of public property, says a group of local architects and the councillor for the ward containing the park.

Barry Padolsky, who has worked as an architect in Ottawa for 40 years, was one of four architects who held a news conference with Capital Ward Coun. Clive Doucet Monday to criticize the cancellation of a municipal competition to redesign the park.

"It seems that that process has been aborted and that we are acting something like a totalitarian regime somewhere in southern Africa or South America," Padolsky said. "This is really not Canadian. It's really not open. It's not transparent."

Ottawa councillors decided in November to spend until January reviewing a plan for the central Ottawa park released in October. The plan was submitted by a group that includes Jeff Hunt — owner of the Ontario Hockey League Ottawa 67's — and Minto property developer Roger Greenberg.

The group has been awarded a CFL franchise conditional on a lease agreement with the city that includes a reconstruction plan for Frank Clair Stadium, located inside the park. The offer for the franchise expires in March.

The plan, called "Lansdowne Live," included an upgraded soccer and football stadium, a refurbished arena and exhibition hall, an aquarium, an outdoor amphitheatre, a retail and restaurant complex, soccer pitches, event lawns, an ultimate-disc field and formal gardens and ponds.

Only if the plan is rejected at a council meeting in February will council open the competition to other bids.

Public doesn't want park planned around football, says councillor

Rob McKay, head of the City of Ottawa's community sustainability branch, said those behind the Lansdowne Live plan have a good reputation and extensive business dealings within the city.

"They certainly have the covenant to pull a project like that off, so we thought it best to just look at the proposal," he said.

CFL commissioner Mark Cohon held a news conference late last week to support the Lansdowne Live bid, saying those behind the proposal are passionate about Ottawa and passionate about "our game."

But Doucet said Cohon himself doesn't know Ottawa.

"The message from the public — from Orleans to Kanata — has been really clear," he said Monday. "We should not be deciding the fate of Lansdowne Park based on 10 football games a year."

Lansdowne is the city's oldest public park, its most central and a key part of the city's future, Doucet added.

"Even if I was in agreement with a shopping centre and a hotel and a commercial building at Lansdowne Park, I would not be in accord with the lack of competitive process," he said. "I would not be in accord with the lack of transparency that must be there to be fair to the City of Ottawa and to all those who wish to compete."

Every other city in North America uses a competitive process to determine the fate of a "really essential piece of urban land," Doucet said.

Architects Nan Griffiths, Ralph Wiesbrock and Rick MacEwen also spoke out at the news conference against the consideration of only the Lansdowne Live bid. The group hopes to generate wide public opposition to the bid before city council makes its decision.