Politics-Ottawa

The Ottawa Citizen had an article that is reprinted on Nick Vandergragt’s space at OttawaForums which addressed the question of who owns the land that the newly approved Ottawa LRT will travel through.

It is a vast expanse of desolate land in the shadow of the Ottawa airport, a tangle of fields that are now home to wildlife. But what looks like a wasteland in Riverside South, is really a 3,600-acre gold mine, and the people who own it are poised to reap millions in profit….

The people who stand to benefit the most are the owners of Urbandale Corporation and Richcraft Homes, the two major homebuilders who own most of the land through a company called Riverside South Development Corporation. Between them, Urbandale and Richcraft own 70 per cent of the land, or about 2,500 acres. The principal beneficiaries are Lyon Sachs and Herb Nadolny, founders of Urbandale and Krishan Singhal, president of Richcraft.

Unlike Kanata or Barrhaven, where multiple developers own the land, Urbandale and Richcraft have a virtual stranglehold in Riverside South, due largely to shrewd buying going back 40 years.

The remaining 30 per cent of the land is owned by several individuals, families and public institutions such as the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, the National Capital Commission, RCMP and Parks Canada.

Nick Sala, a developer who has collaborated on projects with Claridge Homes, owns about 86 acres, largely along the rail corridor. Wilfred Carson and his wife, Iva, own 55 acres also along the rail corridor. Luigi Mion owns about 100 acres, while Kenneth Gordon has about 55 acres, both just inside the urban boundary.

There are many small holders clinging to their land in hopes of making money:
Malcolm Champion has owned about four acres along River Road since 1990. Patricia Farrell and Frederick Langevin own about 11 acres, also along River Road, for which they paid $345,000 in 2000, or about $31,000 an acre. Dave Wright Holdings Corporation also own about 11 acres along River Road, for which the company paid $450,000 in 2002. The land was worth $90,000 in 1971.

According to experts, the most coveted land for homes and retail is the portion within walking distance, or 500 to 800 metres, of the train stations. It is why the city is studying the impact on land prices within 500 metres of the stations. The area within 600 metres of the eight train stations is more than 2,000 acres. Riverside South Development Corporation owns about 80 per cent of the land in this high-value zone.

Not that it makes much of a difference, but I have put together a small grid indicating who has voted which way and how much they received from developers, builders and consultants in the last election. You can get a complete breakdown of what these entities donated to each councilor at this link. I do not think there is any direct correlation but the information is here for your perusal.

I also included whether or not the LRT is planned to go through their Ward. I tried to map the LRT route accurately through the Wards, and believe I got them correct, but I am willing to be corrected if I am wrong. Please feel free to comment.

(click to enlarge)

I believe that those Wards that will host the LRT have all voted yes which makes sense. Glen Brooks’ Ward is not far from the LRT route but would probably not benefit much from it’s route so his No vote understandable. And should the Barrhaven extension be further extended in the future and bend upwards towards the growing west end, the Ward of Janet Stavinga would stand to gain a quick route to downtown without having to go north and west through a busier section of the city. Doug Thompson’s Yes vote is also understandable since his Ward is now much closer to the LRT than it would have been should the East-West route been chosen. To me this is an indication that most of the council voted by whether or not they would benefit from the LRT and not necessarily on what system and what route is best for the city.

I will be continuing my assessment in future posts as I try to track down personal donations and correlating them to the above names of those who will be profiting from the LRT running through their land. I will point out that the two entities that stand to profit the most (Richcraft and Urbandale) purchased the land over 40 years ago which doesn’t eliminate them from our sites, but it does take the pressure off since both are strong developers across the whole city.

NOTE: This post is in no way an indictment by me of any of our councilors and is strictly meant to be informative. At this time I would also like to commend those councilors who have taken little or no money from developers, builders or consultants. Diane Holmes, Clive Doucet and Doug Thompson on the Yes side. (Bob Monette ran in a bi-election so I will omit his lack of donations for now). I would also like to commend Glen Brooks, Peggy Feltmate and Alex Cullen for their minimal acceptances of construction donations. I have been typically on the opposite end of issues with the latter two and wanted to make it known that I respect them fighting the good fight.

What’s wrong with this picture?

After the Sun reported yesterday that the $725-million budget for the north-south line could balloon to almost $900 million, Munter sent a letter to Mayor Bob Chiarelli, renewing his request that the city hire an independent auditor to look at the books to find the project’s true cost.

…

Chiarelli went on the defence yesterday, saying the real cost of the project is not $900 million. He said only portions of projects identified as raising the cost of the north-south line are related to building light-rail transit.

He said the list of projects reported in the Sun was “good news,” because portions of the $124 million worth of associated light-rail projects clearly identified in the 2006 budget will save the city money in the future. “We are taking advantage of the O-Train and increasing cost efficiencies substantially over the long haul,” he said.

The light rail system (O-Train) is going to be the issue which Bob Chiarelli will either be best known for, or live in infamy for. But I give him credit, he is plugging away at making sure it happens as hard as he can. So much so, that he has forgotten his grade 4 math.

My 9 year old helped me out with this one, sans calculator.

The O-Train was expected to cost $725 Million dollars.

The list of expenses is almost $900 Million dollars.

Mayor Bob says that $124 Million dollars of the $900 is programs which have already been accounted for through other city plans or will create future efficiencies.

Now for the tough mathematical part.

$900 Million (in overruns)
-$124 Million (mayor’s number which is not part of O-Train costs)
$776 Million

Hmmmmm……$725M has turned into $776M. We haven’t even approved the O-Train and the overrun is already mathematically $51 Million dollars.

I’m excited to see the CFRA poll on the topic indicate that over 86% of those who have voted on the subject think the O-Train should not be approved by the current city council. At last check after well over 2000 votes, 51% want it to wait until after the election, and over 35% want it added to the referendum in November, which means approval would fall to the next city council.

I have a feeling if the O-Train becomes the major election issue, that we will more than likely have a new mayor come November.