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Thursday 04 April, 2013

I hope everyone enjoyed a great Easter long-weekend with family celebrating Easter, Passover, or just some time off last week! My family gathered at Cedarhill Golf Course as is our tradition for a delicious buffet.  We are a large group and always get a great table overlooking the 18th hole.  The outing includes an Easter Egg Hunt which is popular with all our grandchildren even little Rachel! 

I understand that many of you are passionate about what is being developed in your neighbourhood, which I love to see, so I wanted to provide you with more information about a very important upcoming development at 4225 Strandherd Drive (Strandherd lands by Highway 416, the former Nortel lands).

If you live within 120m of the property a letter was sent to inform you what was in the works for this land. Others of you may have noticed the City of Ottawa signs posted near the property that included information regarding the proposed application and maybe the rest of you found the application on the City of Ottawa’s website.

I was very pleased to see a number of residents attend the Open House on March 7th at the Walter Baker Sports Centre regarding the development. Attendees which included long time land owners like the Clarke’s, the McKenna’s and the Casey’s plus a number of new Barrhaven residents and the Barrhaven Business Community provided their feedback and comments to myself, Regional Group representatives (the developer), and City of Ottawa staff.  We are all working hard to address the issues and suggestions in the best possible manner. Everyone who has provided comments and their contact information will receive further notices related to the proposal.

Trinity Development Group Inc., the commercial property developer developing the small piece of the land that will hold retail/commercial services/stores for the Barrhaven area. Trinity is possibly the largest retail developer in Canada.  They have yet to sign leases but they are in negotiation with companies eager to come to our community. The certainty is that there will be a retail plaza of approximately 30,000 sq m gross floor area within the 12 ha land, with a mix of uses and tenants and at least one large anchor.  At this time, the uses for the zoning by-law amendment requested will reflect the nature of the commercial land and allow a range of service and commercial uses such as professional offices, community services, retail store and cinema.  There is also land designated for a hotel which I know many of you have been asking for over the years. 

I encourage all of you to attend the public meeting of the City of Ottawa’s Planning Committee for the zoning by-law amendment and the Official Plan amendment that is tentatively scheduled for May 28th at City Hall to learn more about this proposed subdivision application. I will ensure to keep everyone posted about this meeting and the subdivision application on my website (www.JanHarder.com).  Our City planner is Lily Xu and Lily can be reached at 613 580-2424 ext. 27505 or Lily.Xu@ottawa.ca.

Heads Up:

I wanted to provide residents of Barrhaven, specifically those located near Strandherd Drive from Maravista Drive to south of Kennevale Drive, with a heads up of work being completed by Hydro Ottawa. Hydro Ottawa proposes to construct an overhead pole line on Strandherd from McKenna Casey Drive to Maravista to assist with the growing electrical demands in the Barrhaven Area. The proposed construction dates are from April 29, 2013 to July 19, 2013. I hope this construction does not cause an inconvenience to too many of you.

Keep in Touch:

As always I’m eager to know what you think about what you read in my article each week, so drop me a line at jan.harder@Ottawa.ca to let me know.
And don’t forget information on other community news and events is one click away at my website www.janharder.com , where you can also sign up for my e-newsletter and follow me on Twitter (@BarrhavenJan).  If you have something you would like me to post to my website or write about please let me know.