23 June 2007 (updated 17 July 2007)

The Citizen reported on June 19, 2007 that the NCC has advertised for a consulting firm to study federal land holdings in the National Capital Region outside Gatineau Park and the Greenbelt. The study is expected to start in a month and be completed in a year. (Read the article here.)

NCC Director of Planning François Lapointe puts this study in the context of the Commission’s Capital Urban Lands Master Plan. This Plan has seen two previous false starts over the last ten years.

This time, however, it may manage to proceed. It is yet another implementation of one of the recommendations of the NCC Mandate Review Panel, namely that the Commission’s so-called “surplus lands” be thoroughly evaluated. This new $175,000 study has an even wider scope, however, as it will include all federal land holdings, not just those that are on the NCC’s books. (On the other hand, it is not clear whether NCC or other federal land holdings in rural areas will be covered.)

An analysis of the NCC’s so-called surplus land holdings is in Annex D of the submission by the Coalition for NCC Renewal (303 KB; Annex D is on pages 35-48. This piece was, in slightly modified form, published in the July-September 2007 issue of Trail & Landscape, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 160-172.)

Both before 2007 and since, announcements were made about the start of the project in earnest, only to disappear from view repeatedly. E.g., in February 2008, along with a large number of groups, we received an invitation to be part of a Consultative Public Committee and ten groups confirmed their attendance for a long meeting (lunch provided) on February 23, 2008. When we asked for an update in October, we were told that the consultants were beavering away at their report. More than two years later, in February 2011, we received a questionnaire about the Capital Urban Lands and replied to it.

– Again nothing was heard further for more than two years until a report on the Urban Lands Plan featured on the agenda of the Board of Directors meeting of June 27, 2013. [Documents not currently online]

– In August 2013, at our insistence, we received 3 paper copies of the draft MP that had been shown to Directors in June.

– On September 6, 2013 members of the Alliance met with NCC staff to discuss the status of the Urban Lands Master Plan. Invitations for a Public Advisory Committee would go out soon. Later we were told that the dates were slipping, again.