Ottawa's City Council voted in favour of Lansdowne Live on Monday, giving a life extension to the controversial plan to develop Lansdowne Park in partnership with a consortium of private businesses.
Following days of public hearings and heated exchanges, fifteen municipal representatives decided to support the plan while nine voted against. The passage of this agreement does not guarantee that the City and Ottawa Sports and Entertainment will have shovels in the ground anytime soon, but the deal means the plan will receive the necessary time and resources to study its feasibility and potential.
Supporters of the deal are pleased that Ottawa will finally renew what is commonly regarded as a crumbling eyesore. Developers promise a revitalized park that includes green space, retail stores, housing, and the likelihood of a new CFL franchise in Ottawa.
Detractors consider the pact as nothing less than a single-sourced sell-out to private interests that will clog traffic, rack up debt, and threaten the peace and quiet of a residential community.
The recent outrage of the latter group did have an effect, although perhaps not the desired result. While ardent opponents of Lansdowne Live wanted the partnership scrapped all together, enough public interest was aroused that some councillors were pressed to propose amendments that will give the City a fairer share of the return on investment.
It was these councillors, including Marianne Wilkinson, Peter Hume and Alex Cullen, whose cool heads and balanced perspective made compromise possible. The motions tabled by Wilkinson and Hume were passed while Cullen's was not.
Now the familiar exercise of commissioning reports begins. Ottawa residents are justified to be wary of more studies and more planning. On more than one occasion, this particular council has spent significant taxpayer dollars on such endeavours only to see contracts fall apart.
Only time will tell if Monday's vote will be seen as the beginning of a reinvigorating and worthwhile change to Ottawa's Glebe neighbourhood or if it will instead go down as the moment that the City was duped by the private sector. It seems everyone has an opinion about that.
Regardless, it is highly probable that wanton references to that single vote will mean certain political careers hang in the balance, depending on the outcome. But in this moment, while the future of Lansdowne Park is still unclear, it seems that the usual tug-of-war between two sides has resulted in a reasonable decision.
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