COMMUNITY SUPPORT



OCUA Support for sports park on the Bowesville site
Tuesday 25 April, 2006

Your Worship and Councillors,

On behalf of the Ottawa-Carleton Ultimate Association (OCUA), a non-profit sports organization that is the largest Ultimate league in the world and brings the sport of Ultimate to 5000 Ottawa-region players every year, the Board of Directors expresses its enthusiastic support for Councillor Thompson's April 12th motion to develop the Bowesville site for sports and recreational facilities.

Ottawa is fortunate to have a wealth of greenspace and a large and growing percentage of health-conscious, active citizens. Just as maintaining a healthy lifestyle is important to the well-being of each of us, meeting the needs of a healthy community must be foremost in all our community planning. Demographic studies and economic projections show that we literally cannot afford to exclude sports and recreation from the process of urban development.

The admirable diversity of sports and recreational activities represented in the Ottawa region can only be sustained by wise decisions today that support a successful vision of tomorrow.

The Ottawa Sports Park (OSP) proposal is a vision of our community that every person who is concerned about our future can support without reservation. As you know, the key element of this proposal is the availability of the Bowesville site.

We urge all Councillors to champion this extraordinary vision of our future community by voting in favour of Councillor Thompson's motion.

Yours truly,
Marc Gobeil,
President, Ottawa-Carleton Ultimate Association




St. Anthony Italia Soccer Club supports OSP site
Tuesday 25 April, 2006

The Ottawa St. Anthony Italia Soccer Club supports the Motion put forward by Mr. Doug Thompson on April 12th, 2006. We understand that the motion proposes a study of the various aspects concerning the development of a large (LRT transit-served) multi-sports facility on the Bowesville lands on the south side of Ottawa Airport. We are very impressed with the Ecoview plan (currently highlighted at www.ecoview.com) for the Ottawa Sports Park (OSP)on these lands and our Soccer Program would like to be involved should the OSP development go forward.

We consider this study to be important to quantify the tremendous positive economic, social and environmental impacts associated with a facility of this nature. Our location on Preston St. will be close to the Gladstone Station, and getting to and from this facility by light rail would help us tremendously with our annual tournaments and league games.

In addition, this motion will bring focus to the important issue of Ottawa's overall shortfall on the supply of sportsfields. We understand that the City's own study shows this shortfall to be in the range of 200 fields. Addressing this issue now is important for the health of our membership and the well being and quality of life for all Ottawa residents.

Our club has been established since 1952 and has been continuously devoted to the promotion and development of soccer in Ottawa. We serve a very important social function in developing the players character as resourceful and responsible members of their community by providing opportunities, through the game of soccer, for their mental, physical, social and leadership development. The shortage of soccer fields in our club area has been re-occurring limitation to our soccer development programs in recent years. Furthermore, we anticipate that the need for soccer fields will become more critical as the City of Ottawa has been selected as one of the six host cities for the upcoming 2007 FIFA World Youth Championship. This event will bring to Canada the best under 20 year old soccer players in the world and will be a major factor contributing to the promotion of soccer in Canada.

In summary, we are excited about the plan for the OSP and the creation of more accessible and sustainable soccer fields in our community. Accordingly, we will continue to inform our club membership that we expect nothing less than a unanimous vote in favour of this very positive motion. Undoubtedly, the outcome of this motion will have significant interest on our membership interest and they will be informed as they prepare to cast their vote in the upcoming municipal elections. Sincerely,

Ottawa St. Anthony Soccer Program,
Giovanni Mattioli, Director
Federico Fernandez, Registrar



City Centre Coalition strongly supports OSP
Tuesday 25 April, 2006

Mayor Chiarelli and Councillors,

The City Centre Coalition strongly supports putting a sports park into greenspace near the Ottawa Airport, on the understanding - which is very much the intention of the project proponent - that the park be served by the O-Train and that on-site car parking be kept to a minimum.

Please support Councillor Doug Thompson's motion, whose initiative we very much appreciate.

Yours sincerely,

David Gladstone
Chair, City Centre Coalition



Message of Support from Mayoral Candidate Alex Munter
Wednesday 26 April, 2006

I regret that I can not join you this noonhour as I am speaking at the Council on Aging luncheon but I wanted to express my support for your cause.

Ottawa does not have enough sportsfields for athletes of all ages and many existing fields are only accessible by car, putting them out-of-reach of many residents. The Ottawa Sports Park proposal offers numerous potential benefits: 30 new fields, without major public costs, on the proposed light-rail line.

I call on Ottawa City Council to give this plan serious consideration. This opportunity should not be cavalierly discarded. It should be carefully examined because these kinds of opportunities do not come frequently.

Throughout our city, I hear from residents and businesses who want the LRT expansion done right and for the right reasons. Getting it right, in this case, means doing our homework about the Ottawa Sports Park proposal. The city should not slam the door on the tens of thousands of soccer and ultimate players who could benefit from this innovative idea.

Alex Munter
Candidate for Mayor of Ottawa