It’s that time of year, again. It’s time to change the clocks for daylight saving time.

This evening most of North America sets its clocks forward an hour in a vain attempt to save energy. I say vain attempt because there hasn’t been any sound evidence that adjusting the clocks to chase the sunshine has actually resulted in any reduction in the demand for energy.

CBC had an article this morning that talks a little bit about the history of daylight saving time, and then points out that sleep experts say that many people who make the change will feel sleep deprived and probably take two or three days to fully adapt. If you’re already sleep deprived, well, good luck! As I mentioned last year, your risk of experiencing a heart attack goes up by 10% for the first couple of days, and you’re more likely to be in an accident.

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According to various reports in the media, the NCC received proposals to redevelop Lebreton Flats from five groups, of which four have been selected to prepare more detailed proposals. Each of the four will receive $75,000 to expand on their initial proposals.

According to their website, these are the four groups that have been selected:

• Claridge Homes proposes indoor and outdoor concert facilities, cultural enterprises surrounded by green spaces, and residential and commercial developments.
• Devcore Group proposes a concept with multiple cultural institutions developed around a grande allée, green spaces, and residential and commercial developments.
• Focus Equities proposes to house the headquarters of an international organization, accompanied by cultural venues, green spaces, and residential and commercial developments.
• Rendez Vous LeBreton Group proposes a major event centre for sports and entertainment performances, complemented by green spaces, and residential and commercial developments.

The first three listed above are builders and developers. Claridge Homes has experience developing in Lebreton Flats with their Fusion condominium project in addition to other residential projects in the city. Devcore Group is a Quebec-based developer with experience building on both sides of the Ottawa River. According to its website, Focus Equities is both a developer of large complex project and an active financial investor, who has been involved with more than 10,000 residential/condominium units throughout North America. From what I’ve been able to determine, and based on the proposal, the Rendez Vous LeBreton Group represents the Ottawa Senators.

There isn’t any more information about the proposals beyond what I’ve mentioned above. Based solely on these summaries, I’d have to rank my preferences in the following order:

• Devcore Group
• Focus Equities
• Claridge Homes
• Rendez Vous LeBreton Group

As I mentioned at the end of December, I really do not want to see a new hockey arena “event centre for sports and entertainment performances” built in LeBreton Flats because it’s just not the best use for this parcel of land. I know there are a lot of hockey fans in Ottawa who probably feel otherwise. I’m sorry, but it wasn’t that long ago that the owner of the Senators was complaining about taxes and how he might have to rethink where the team is located because it wasn’t that profitable. That doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in me when they turn around a couple of years later proposing to spend millions and millions on a new arena when nothing really has changed.

The other three proposals all talk about cultural venues, which can mean a lot of things from art galleries to concert halls to museums and libraries. The design element of a grand allée has a lot of potential to be visually impressive and keep the intensity of the development under control.

As I said before, one thing that could be a cornerstone for development would be a new home for the Canada Museum of Science and Technology. And the Ottawa Public Library needs a new home, too, and this would fit nicely in the site, too. There would still be left over land for some residential development and probably even a little more space for events like Bluesfest.

The selected proposals all have until November 2015 to submit their high-quality design proposals and financial plans, with the NCC making a decision in about a year’s time. Hopefully there will be public consultation sessions at some point to solicit input from the public on the various proposals.

Avid football fans please take note:

I was talking about the development of Lebreton Flats with some people at work yesterday. One thing that came up was how the Lebreton Flats site compares to the Canadian Tire Centre site. While I suspected that the CTC is larger than the available site in Lebreton Flats, I didn’t have anything firm to base that on so I pulled some features out of OpenStreetMap and worked a little GIS magic to produce this map showing Lebreton Flats as it appears today with the Canadian Tire Centre and its parking lots superimposed on top: (you can click to make it bigger)

Even if you were to pack the parking lots (the red polygons) tightly, it looks like there wouldn’t be enough space (assuming the parcel built on is in the southwest corner bounded by the Parkway, Booth Street, the aqueduct and the extension of Preston). I suppose that you could pave the piece of land east of Booth, south of Fleet and north of the aqueduct, but that means a huge portion of Lebreton Flats would still be parking lot. Even assuming that the number of parking spaces needed would be reduced because of the O-Train station that will be built in Lebreton Flats, the arena would presumably be larger than the current CTC (otherwise, why spend all that money moving) and that could offset any reduction in parking spaces.

In the 1960s the federal government expropriated the land in Lebreton Flats from homeowners, companies and industry so that they could built a government office complex similar to Tunney’s Pasture. Fast forward to today and there’s still no government office complex. Some of the land has been dedicated to the War Museum and another parcel has condos on it. The remaining land should be used for something like a new home for the Canada Museum of Science and Technology, rather than an NHL franchise’s arena. Besides being much more accessible to the general public, financially speaking (i.e. it’s cheaper to go to the museum than to a Sens game), it would fit in with the War Museum and also be a nice reminder of the industrial heritage of the lumber and paper industries that used to be in Lebreton Flats.

There has been much discussion recently about what should be built on the vacant land at Lebreton Flats, with a new home for the Senators (the hockey team, not the Red Chamber) getting a lot of people excited. While I can understand the desire by some people to have a more centrally-located arena built there, I don’t think that would be the best use of the land. (more…)