P4X, or the Plant Pool, Plouffe Park Expansion Coalition, is a committee created in November 2021 to bring together key community organizations that work in the neighbourhood and ensure broad community engagement in the development process of 1010 Somerset. The organizations include:
Plant Pool Recreation Association
Dalhousie Community Association
Hintonburg Community Association
Recreation Association of Hintonburg
Somerset West Community Health Centre
P4X meets regularly to review the development proposals for 1010 Somerset and share feedback. For more information on our current activities, please contact president@ottawadalhousie.ca
#SavePlouffePark (past campaign)
Plouffe Park has been at the heart of Dalhousie for more than 100 years. It’s our community green space, our recreation hub, our lungs. We all breathe more deeply as we walk by and see our kids playing soccer or skating at Plouffe Park.
Now the City plans to sell it off – so we’ve established this campaign to stop it from happening. Because we need our parkland, now more than ever. And because, if the City sells Plouffe Park, there’s no park in Ottawa that’s not at risk.
What’s so special about Plouffe Park?
Plouffe Park has been at the heart of Dalhousie for more than 100 years. It’s our community green space, our recreation hub, our lungs.
It’s also the only City-owned playing field in Dalhousie, serving a large and growing population – and a community that has less than ¼ the amount of green space called for in the Official Plan.
What’s wrong with the City selling off Plouffe Park for another public use?
The community worked with the City in good faith for more than a decade to develop a plan for Gladstone Village and 1010 Somerset that allows for thousands of new homes, including affordable, family-oriented units, as well as an expanded Plouffe Park and improved recreation facilities.
Instead, the City proposes to sell off Plouffe Park – in contravention of its Parks and Recreation Policy and the City’s Official Plan. If the City gets away with selling off Plouffe Park, there isn’t a park in Ottawa that’s not at risk.
Why do you object to a new school being built on Plouffe Park?
We enthusiastically support the building of a new French-language school to serve local students, but there are alternatives nearby that would better meet students’ needs without depriving the community of much-needed green space. So, there’s no reason to jam a new school onto Plouffe Park.
But haven’t you been offered a replacement park?
Construction on Plouffe Park would begin next year yet the promised green space won’t be available for eight to ten years! That leaves us without a park for the next decade.
This area already has far less parkland than other parts of the city – and its population, including many young families – is about to boom. The new parkland was supposed to be a long-overdue addition to Plouffe Park, not a replacement.
RESOURCES
Want to learn more about the proposal to sell Plouffe Park? Below are documents produced by P4X (Plant Pool, Plouffe Park Expansion Coalition) on the details of the proposal.
IN THE NEWS:
Local advocates save Plouffe Park from development. Kitchissippi Times, February 2024 (web)
*See page 14
https://issuu.com/greatrivermedia/docs/kitchissippi_times_february_2024?ff
New Ottawa school won’t be built on Plouffe Park, ward councillor says. Ottawa Citizen, January 30, 2024 (web)
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/new-ottawa-school-wont-be-built-on-plouffe-park-ward-councillor-says
City revising plan that pits park against school in Little Italy. CBC News, November 25, 2023 (web)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/little-italy-plans-revisions-1.7038942
Need for new school and green space collide in a fight over Ottawa’s Plouffe Park. Capital Current, November 25, 2023 (web)
https://capitalcurrent.ca/need-for-new-school-and-green-space-collide-in-a-fight-over-ottawas-plouffe-park/
Pitting a park against a French-language school is an unfair choice. Ottawa Citizen, October 11, 2023 (web)
https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/troster-pitting-an-ottawa-park-against-a-french-language-school-is-an-unfair-choice
We shouldn’t have to choose between schools and green space. Ottawa Citizen, October 11, 2023 (web)
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/deachman-we-shouldnt-have-to-choose-between-schools-and-green-space
Le télé-journal Ottawa-Gatineau, October 3, 2023 (radio)
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/tele/le-telejournal-ottawa-gatineau/site/episodes/811750/episode-du-3-octobre-2023
(Skip ahead to 14:16)
Parents desperate for new school worry about delay over green space fears. Ottawa Morning with Robyn Bresnahan, October 2, 2023 (radio)
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-100-ottawa-morning/clip/16013035-parents-desperate-school-worry-delay-green-space-fears
The Sam Laprade Show, CityNews Ottawa, September 12, 2023 (radio)
https://ottawa.citynews.ca/audio/the-sam-laprade-show/
(Skip ahead to 23:06 from the first hour of their September 12 episode)
Development could leave generations of Little Italy kids without greenspace, residents say. CBC News, September 11, 2023 (web)
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6953862
Centretown Buzz, August 11, 2023 (newspaper)
Centretown Buzz, January 21, 2022 (newspaper)