Ideas Floated Around For Ottawa Riverfront Development

Could Ottawa be home to its own version of Millennium Park?  A planning consultant says it’s possible.

An overflow crowd showed up at Ottawa City Hall last night to talk about what to do with the old Central School and Jordan Block properties.  Ferhat Zerin of Gingko Planning and Design says the land is big enough to have just about anything developed when you treat it as one single piece of riverfront property.

Some ideas brainstormed at last night’s forum were a venue for live music like a small amphitheater, outdoor restaurants and retail, a bike park, more boat launches, a beach area, and downtown skywalk.  Zerin says the riverfront of Ottawa has so much history and potential that people should think big and be bold in their ideas.  Other suggestions included extending Ottawa’s Riverwalk to loop around and connect up with the I & M Canal.

Developers plan to have another public forum in late September where they will have drawings of what people’s ideas would look like along the riverfront.  If you have some ideas of what should be built along the Fox and Illinois River in Ottawa, send them to the city planner Tami Huftel.