Website to close info gap between Ottawa developers, residents
Last Updated: Friday, May 9, 2008 | 4:20 PM ET
CBC News
Ottawa residents looking for more information about a development planned for their neighbourhood will soon have access to a database of all development documents submitted to the city.
The database will contain site plans, traffic studies and environmental assessments that had been hard to obtain until now. They will be accessible through the City of Ottawa website starting Tuesday.
Coun. Peter Hume, who gave reporters a sneak preview of the site on Friday, said there has been an information gap between developers and neighbourhood residents who opposed specific developments.
"It leads to the feeling in the community that something conspiratorial is going on," he said. "You have information and I don't." But not everyone thinks making that information so easily available is a good thing.
Dean Karakasis, executive director of the Ottawa Business Owners and Managers Association, said he is concerned that the database could lead to a flood of criticism about a given development from people that the development doesn't directly affect.
"You'll have people that are coming out of left field," he said.
Hume said some staff within the city share those concerns, but it is important to make the information available.
