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 through residential streets and is designed to fit into an urban neighbourhood.

"Our concern is primarily traffic," said Peter Eady, vice-president of the Civic Hospital Neighbourhood Association, which asked for a meeting with Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper and Ottawa-Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi. 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 and the high-rises and condominiums being developed there."

The federal government agreed in December 2016 to offer the hospital the Sir John Carling site at the eastern edge of the Central Experimental Farm. 

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Leiper, Naqvi and the hospital's director of communications all joined the circle of some 50 people to listen to their concerns and advice, but acknowledged the hospital is still being planned and there are few details.

Move 'H' sign on highway, create Rochester ramps

Residents want the entrance to the future hospital positioned to encourage people to use arterial roads such as Carling Avenue, rather than residential streets such as Sherwood Drive and Bayswater Avenue.

They also want the hospital tied into the city's O-Train and some suggested the hospital subsidize transit passes for employees.

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

Shirley Reyes wants the blue and white 'H' sign on the highway relocated from the westbound Parkdale exit to the Carling exit to 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 fewer homes, but a member of the adjacent Dalhousie neighbourhood association countered that it hopes to see Rochester turned 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 want taller buildings that connect to greenspace and the Rideau Canal, and allow old trees to be preserved. 

Erinn Cunningham has lived near hospital row in downtown Toronto and 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 will see her at many public meetings in the months to come.