Roads, traffic zones and road safety
Back to basics. Fix the street before you redesign it.
I support road safety. I also believe we need to be practical about how we achieve it.
Three problems, one map
Ward 9 does not have one traffic problem. It has three, on the same map.
Arterials: Greenbank, Baseline, Merivale, Woodroffe and West Hunt Club carry commuters, buses and school traffic.
Local streets in Craig Henry, Manordale, Trend-Arlington, Tanglewood, Fisher Heights and along Knoxdale Road are where children walk and neighbours back out of driveways.
Neighbourhood Unserviced (NU): A third pattern sits in the unserviced pockets. Merivale Gardens, north of Slack and east of Woodroffe, is the clearest example.
Arterials such as Greenbank, Baseline, Merivale, Woodroffe and West Hunt Club carry commuters, buses and school traffic.
Local streets in Craig Henry, Manordale, Trend-Arlington, Tanglewood, Fisher Heights and along Knoxdale Road are where children walk and neighbours back out of driveways.
Highwood Drive is the Fisher Heights case. It has no sidewalks, a wide road and a long straight. It is also seeing growing use as a cut-through from Fisher Avenue, Meadowlands Drive and Merivale Road.
Viewmount Drive is the collector on the Merivale edge. Schools, seniors and a shopping access sit on the same stretch as the arterial.
A third pattern sits in the unserviced pockets. Merivale Gardens, north of Slack and east of Woodroffe, is the clearest example.
About 155 to 160 homes sit on private wells and septic. The zoning is Neighbourhood Unserviced (NU). Residents describe no municipal storm sewers, and limited access in and out, through turns that were never designed for today’s volume.
NU, under Zoning By-law 2026-50, is the City’s zone for urban neighbourhoods that are not on both municipal water and municipal sewer. The new by-law writes a maximum of two dwelling units on a lot. It freezes new lots at the size that already existed on March 11, 2026.
Some neighbourhood-zone unit-count provisions remain under appeal. A complete application can still have to meet the more restrictive of By-law 2026-50 and By-law 2008-250.
It is not rural zoning. Wells and septic are the existing pattern in this pocket. They are not a rule that municipal water can never be extended to a lot.
One kit for three streets
The City too often treats all three patterns with the same kit: another flex post, another speed bump, another posted-speed drop on a road that was built to move people through the west end.
On NU streets, the habit residents describe is worse. Residents say the surface waits behind a storm-sewer project they do not see coming. That is the observed practice. It is not cited here as a written City rule.
Those measures cost money and add congestion. They do not fix the pothole that can take a wheel off. They do not fix the faded line you cannot see at dusk, the culvert that is eating the road from below, or the intersection that is actually dangerous.
Safe streets mean maintained pavement, visible markings, working turning lanes, clear ditches, and a specific fix at a specific location. They do not mean slowing an entire four-lane roadway because one movement is risky.
Merivale, the ward’s main north–south commercial arterial, is the clearest daily proof. Residents are stuck in congestion on a corridor that already carries too much of this ward’s traffic.
Housing is already approved on the Baseline corridor. The three-tower project at 780 Baseline Road is at Fisher Avenue, not at Merivale. A major application is now in for the Baseline and Merivale corner.
At Viewmount, residents report that a daytime right-turn restriction is already cutting a movement the corridor still uses. That daytime ban is a resident report, not a confirmed by-law.
What a committee transcript describes is different: no-right-turn-on-red restrictions at Merivale and Viewmount, mentioned at Public Works and Infrastructure Committee on August 27, 2026. That is a transcript, not a by-law citation in this note. It is not a daytime ban on the movement.
A site-plan file at the gas station on the southwest corner — 1660 Merivale — is described in a recirculated 2025 submission, and in a January 13, 2026 CTV report, as adding a restaurant and drive-thru across from Merivale High School. The March 2025 summary did not include the restaurant.
That lot sits on the College side of the ward line. The queue, the student crossing and any restricted turn do not.
We cannot keep adding density, or a new drive-thru at an intersection that is already failing, without the transportation infrastructure needed to support it. That means traffic flow, intersection design, and the cumulative impact of new development — not one application at a time.
Woodroffe is the access proof for Merivale Gardens. Residents cite a posted 80 km/h on the Woodroffe stretch that serves this pocket, and 70 km/h on Slack. Those figures are resident reports until the signs are confirmed.
Combined with missing exit and merge lanes at Vaan and Pineland, residents describe ordinary turns as a daily risk.
Morning northbound congestion blocks right and left turns from Vaan. Midday lefts from Woodroffe onto West Hunt Club are a fight. Afternoon southbound volume makes lefts onto Woodroffe a fight as well. Speeding continues whether the road is congested or not.
That is a geometry and enforcement problem, not a neighbourhood-calming problem.
On Greenbank, Council lowered the posted limit from 60 km/h to 50 km/h on the roughly one-kilometre stretch between Harrison Street and Bellman Drive.
That vote followed an August 6 crash. A vehicle left the Shoppers Drug Mart plaza across from Knoxdale Public School, broke through the school fence and entered the playground. Ottawa Paramedic Service said the driver had a medical emergency.
The school yard needed a physical fix. The plaza access deserves a hard look. Dropping the speed on a four-lane arterial was not the tool that matched that incident.
What the money already does
Each ward has $100,000 a year for Temporary Traffic Calming — flex posts, display boards and other short-term devices.
Separate from that envelope, a permanent calming project on Conover Street in Craig Henry — three speed humps and a raised pedestrian crossover — was approved at $191,000 and is built.
Devices have their place. They are not a substitute for pavement, markings and intersections that work.
A councillor cannot resurface the city in one term. What a councillor can do is publish the condition list, change the test for new slowing devices, put corridor traffic on the planning record, treat unserviced streets as City roads, and get the known repairs done before the next construction season.
Priority is the order of the work, not a blank cheque.
The published-list standard
The City already collects pavement-condition data. It already says growth is to be phased to match infrastructure. It already knows how to open a street once — water, sewer and road in the same contract — instead of patching the same stretch three times.
What it does not do well is apply that logic to streets that do not have a water main today. Vaan Drive from Coleway to Bie is the current example.
A 2026 vacant-lot listing on Vaan said municipal water was available at the buyer’s cost. This note does not claim a main can never be extended.
Residents describe a surface that is unsafe for pedestrians and motorists, and an informal rule that work waits until underground work is scheduled. No City storm-sewer project is cited here.
The failure is not a missing theory. It is a missing public list, a habit of spending the safety budget on temporary plastic while the rebuild waits, and a habit of ranking unserviced streets last.
That is the standard I will apply. Not another study for the shelf. A ranked, costed, published list of Ward 9 roads and hazard locations — including NU streets scored on condition and risk — and a funding path, on a deadline.
The test is whether the list is funded and built, not whether it is written.
Commitment 1
A public Ward 9 road-condition ranking
If elected, I will move for that ranking in the first months of the term. Residents should be able to see where their street sits and when it is scheduled.
- A published condition list for Ward 9 streets, tied to the City’s own pavement data. Not to who emails loudest, and not to whether the street has municipal water or sewers.
- Resurfacing and reconstruction in that order. Potholes, shoulders and failed edges closed out on a posted timeline.
- Repair once, properly. Coordinate road work with water, sewer, hydro and utility cuts where those exist.
- On NU streets, coordinate instead with culvert replacement, ditching and any undergrounding Hydro is already planning, so the block is not opened twice.
- Warranty and quality standards enforced on contractors, so the same block is not patched again the next year.
- Annual progress reporting on every street on the list: funded, tendered, built, or slipped, and why.
Commitment 2
Before the next construction season
This is the work that does not wait for a new capital program. It does not require a new agency.
- Close out the worst potholes and failed patches on the streets already in the maintenance queue, with dates residents can see.
- Inspect Vaan Drive from Coleway to Bie against Maintenance Quality Standards in the first weeks of the term. Log deficiencies with Roads staff and residents. Demand a written condition rating and a date for make-safe repairs — not a 3-1-1 ticket that disappears.
- Refresh pavement markings on Greenbank, Baseline, Merivale, Woodroffe, Knoxdale, Viewmount, Slack and West Hunt Club, and on school approaches. If you cannot see the line or the stop bar, the street is already unsafe.
- Restore or defend turning capacity at arterial intersections. The Baseline and Greenbank reconstruction reconfigured lanes for transit priority. I will ask staff for the before-and-after queue and collision numbers, and I will push to keep the movements Ward 9 traffic actually uses.
- Treat sidewalk gaps, crossings and lighting around schools and transit stops as part of the road, not an add-on. Highwood Drive in Fisher Heights is on that list. Residents say pedestrians are in the roadway today. A missing sidewalk is a road deficiency, not a future amenity.
- Clear culverts and ditches in Merivale Gardens and other unserviced pockets before spring melt and after major storms, so water is not cutting the road from below.
Commitment 3
Fix the actual hazard
When a location is dangerous, deal with that location. Do not slow the whole corridor and call it done.
Greenbank school-and-plaza frontage.
Physical protection of the yard. A review of the plaza access and the turning movement out of it. Markings that hold up at school times. Not a blanket 50 km/h on a four-lane arterial as the substitute for that work.
Highwood Drive, Fisher Heights.
This is a local street with no sidewalks, a wide cross-section and a long straight that makes speeding easy. It is seeing growing use as a through-route from Fisher Avenue, Meadowlands Drive and Merivale Road.
The people on the road are families with children and strollers, dog walkers and older residents.
Residents say the City previously counted speeds for 24 hours. The City’s own permanent-calming screen uses a 24-hour or 48-hour count, so that window is a study in the City’s process. It is still not a representative picture of this street.
I will ask for a multi-day speed and volume study, including the share of cut-through traffic, before a device is chosen and before a short count is treated as a no.
Hilliard Avenue, nearby, already has a sidewalk and calming that residents say works because the road is narrower and the measure matches the street. If the longer count confirms the problem, Highwood gets that kind of fix: pedestrian space first, then calming that meets the test in section 6. Not another one-day tube count filed as an answer.
Viewmount Drive, Merivale Road to Fisher Avenue.
This is a collector posted at 40 km/h, with schools, seniors’ housing and a commercial access, and a City traffic-calming study already open.
City figures for 2000–2024 record 84 collisions between Merivale and Grant Carman Drive. Fifty-three of them are conflicts between eastbound left turns and westbound through traffic near the shopping access and the Merivale High School entrance.
Residents also report a daytime right-turn restriction at Viewmount that is already tightening flow on Merivale. That report is not a confirmed by-law.
A committee transcript from August 27, 2026, describes no-right-turn-on-red at the Merivale and Viewmount intersection. This note does not treat that transcript as a by-law citation.
The published study leaves major changes to the Merivale and Viewmount intersection out of scope and points them to the Merivale transit-priority study. I will not accept that split. The intersection is the hazard.
A further no-right-turn at the school access, or a right-in/right-out island at the plaza, is not a substitute for sightlines, student crossings and the movements Merivale traffic actually uses.
I will ask staff for the before-and-after on any turn restriction already in place — queues, collisions, compliance. I will not support another ban as the answer to a capacity problem.
Woodroffe and Slack serving Merivale Gardens.
A focused intersection and access study, covering the movements residents have already named:
- Lefts southbound from Woodroffe onto Vaan.
- Rights northbound from Woodroffe onto Pineland and Vaan, with no exit lane.
- Rights from Vaan onto Woodroffe, with no merge lane.
- Lefts from Vaan onto Woodroffe.
- Rights westbound from Slack onto Vaan, and lefts eastbound from Slack onto Vaan.
- Both turns from Vaan onto Slack.
Options to evaluate, with cost and staging: deceleration lanes, merge treatments, left-turn protection where warrants are met, sightlines and markings at Slack and Vaan, and signal timing at Woodroffe and West Hunt Club so local traffic is not trapped in the midday left-turn queue.
Posted limits on the access stretch.
A formal speed-limit review on the Woodroffe stretch that serves Merivale Gardens, Pineland, Vaan and the approaches to West Hunt Club, and on Slack at Vaan.
If the resident-reported 80 km/h sign on that Woodroffe stretch is confirmed, a posted limit at that level on a multi-lane arterial that is also the only practical access for a residential pocket is a design conflict.
A lower posted limit is not enough on its own. Limits work when design, enforcement and driver expectation line up.
Enforcement and the right tool.
- Targeted Ottawa Police Service enforcement at peak periods and at the Vaan, Pineland and Slack intersections, plus collision and near-miss data so the case for redesign is on the record.
- Ask what mix of tools remains effective after provincial changes to automated speed enforcement.
- If the risk is a particular turn, examine a turn restriction, a signal change or a redesigned access before a posted-speed drop.
- If a crossing is unsafe, improve the crossing. School frontages at Knoxdale Public School, Sir Robert Borden, St. John XXIII, Manordale and the other Ward 9 schools get the targeted work. Arterials keep moving.
- Collision history and operating speeds on the table before any new device goes in. I will not claim a councillor can redesign an arterial from the dais. I will claim the right to make staff show the problem they are solving.
Commitment 4
A Merivale corridor program
Merivale is a priority if I am elected. Traffic and congestion on that road are not a side file.
- A public snapshot of where Merivale fails today: congestion points, intersection design, and what the capital plan already contains. One page, in the first months, so the argument is about the road and not about whether anyone is listening.
- A running list of intensification already approved, and applications already filed, along Merivale and the other Ward 9 arterials, set beside the road capacity those files assumed.
- Cumulative traffic impact on the planning record. When an application lands on Merivale or another arterial, the report has to show the corridor total — units already approved plus this application — not only the increment in front of staff.
- The Official Plan already directs growth onto existing corridors and requires servicing capacity to be faced, not assumed. I will hold every Ward 9 application to that test for traffic as well as pipes.
- Viewmount and Merivale on that same snapshot: the no-right-turn-on-red restrictions described in the August 27, 2026 committee transcript, any daytime right-turn ban residents report, the before-and-after on queues and collisions, and whether either restriction fixed a movement or only moved the frustration onto Merivale.
- The City’s Viewmount Drive study, updated in July 2026, already proposes more turn limits — no left turn into or out of the shopping access, and a no-right-turn at the eastern Merivale High School access — while stating that the intersection itself is out of scope. Ward 9’s ask is the intersection, not another prohibition on the approach.
1660 Merivale.
The site plan is a redevelopment of the gas station at the southwest corner of Merivale and Viewmount, with a proposed restaurant and drive-thru across from Merivale High School. Treat it as a corridor file, not a neighbouring-ward footnote.
The lot is in College ward and the application is a site plan, so it does not come to a Council vote. The effect does.
The comment record has to show drive-thru queue spillback onto Merivale and Viewmount, student crossings at school bell times, and the turns the intersection can still make once restrictions already in place are counted — the transcript-described no-right-on-red, and any daytime ban residents report.
I will ask that Ward 9 be on that record. I will not claim I can deliver another ward’s decision.
Work it with neighbouring wards at City Hall. Merivale does not stop at the ward line. I will ask for that coordination. I will not claim I can deliver another ward’s vote.
Commitment 5
Woodroffe access, and transit as a capacity tool
Woodroffe is a major transit corridor as well as the access spine for Merivale Gardens. Transit will not empty the road. Reliable peak service can take enough through-commuters off it that local turns become less of a fight.
Ward 9 has already lived through unreliable routes after network changes.
- Press OC Transpo for on-time performance, useful peak frequencies, and connections that do not strand west-end riders.
- Treat transit reliability as part of the Woodroffe safety file, not a separate brochure.
- A site meeting on Vaan, Pineland, Slack and Woodroffe with Traffic Services, the Merivale Gardens Community Association, and residents who use those turns daily — in the first 90 days.
- Public reporting back to Merivale Gardens on timelines, costs, and what can be done in year one versus later capital years.
I will not promise a rebuilt interchange on a campaign flyer. I will promise to get the study started and put the worst movements on the work plan.
Commitment 6
Change the test for traffic calming
I support road safety. I do not believe the answer to every concern should automatically be another flex post, speed bump or measure that adds congestion.
- No new speed bump, flex-post run or posted-speed drop in Ward 9 unless staff table collision history, operating speeds, emergency-route impact, and a maintenance or design alternative that was considered and rejected.
- The City’s permanent-calming screen is a 24-hour or 48-hour count. That is a study in the City’s process. On a local street such as Highwood Drive, speeding and cut-through use vary by day, by school bell and by whether Merivale is jammed.
- I will not treat a single-day tube count as enough to approve a device, or to refuse one. The longer count comes first. The device, if the data warrants it, comes after.
- On a sidewalk-less street, the first design alternative is pedestrian space, as on Hilliard, not a bump on an unmarked roadway.
- An inventory of every temporary device already in the ward: cost, install date, data before and after, and a keep, modify or remove recommendation before the next Temporary Traffic Calming season.
- Consistent, familiar speed environments: 40 on local streets and on collectors already posted at 40, such as Viewmount, and 50 or 60 on arterials as the road was designed, so drivers know what to expect.
- Where an arterial is also the only access for an unserviced pocket, the posted limit has to be reviewed against that dual use, not left at a rural-highway posted limit if that is what the sign says.
- The $100,000 ward allocation is real money. It is spent where it prevents the next crash or the next blown tire, not where it only looks like action.
Commitment 7
School approaches, NU roads, and paid-from-the-system work
School safety is not in dispute. Neither is the right of an unserviced street to a safe surface. The tool has to match the street.
- Sidewalk links, crossings, lighting and school-time protections at Ward 9 schools, from the safety and state-of-good-repair envelopes that already exist.
- Nominate Highwood Drive for a sidewalk or equivalent pedestrian space, and for calming only after the multi-day count. Fisher Heights residents say they are walking in the lane now. That is the same envelope as other school and local-street gaps, not a new program.
- Merivale High School and the Viewmount frontage get the same school-approach treatment as the other Ward 9 schools: crossings, lighting and a hard look at any new driveway that will draw students across Merivale at bell times.
- A restaurant and drive-thru at the gas station corner is an off-site draw. It is not a reason to ban another turn and call the intersection finished.
- Nominate Vaan Drive (Coleway to Bie) for the next available resurfacing or reconstruction window on safety grounds. Short-term make-safe work first. A published year for reconstruction second.
- Oppose any internal priority rule that delays local-road safety work solely because the street has no water or sewer mains. Rural and NU roads are still City of Ottawa roads. Residents pay property taxes.
- A standing culvert and roadside-drainage inspection cycle for Merivale Gardens and similar pockets — before spring melt and after major storms — that does not depend on a storm-sewer project.
- This is not a reason for a new tax, and it cannot be paid for by promising a lower tax bill. Road renewal and targeted safety work are funded first from capital dollars and program money already collected.
- A levy is worth discussing only after that accounting, and only if it is locked to the published list.
- Winter maintenance standards that hold up in February are part of the same file. A safe street in September is not a safe street if the crossing disappears under a ridge of ice.
The order of the work
The goal is safer streets and moving traffic in this term, without pretending a councillor can rebuild every arterial in four years. The sequence is:
| Step | Work |
|---|---|
| 1 | Before the next construction season: close out known potholes, refresh markings on the arterials and school approaches, put the Greenbank plaza access on a staff review, inspect Vaan Drive (Coleway to Bie) as a safety deficiency, and log Highwood Drive for a multi-day speed and volume count rather than another 24-hour tube. |
| 2 | Public condition ranking: a ranked, costed Ward 9 list, with a deadline. NU and unserviced streets sit on that list by condition and risk, not by whether a water main is due. |
| 3 | Fix the actual hazard: turns, accesses and crossings — Greenbank plaza, Woodroffe–Vaan–Slack–Pineland, Viewmount at Merivale, Highwood in Fisher Heights, school frontages — not a blanket slowdown of a four-lane road, and not another turn ban as a substitute for the intersection. |
| 4 | The Merivale program: a public snapshot, cumulative traffic on every arterial application, the Viewmount turn restrictions — transcript-described no-right-on-red, and any daytime ban residents report — on the before-and-after record, the 1660 Merivale drive-thru file treated as a corridor impact, and work with neighbouring wards. |
| 5 | A Woodroffe and Slack access study for Merivale Gardens: the turning movements listed above, a speed-limit review where a resident-reported 80 km/h no longer matches local access, once the posted sign is confirmed, and peak-period enforcement. |
| 6 | A new test for calming devices, and an inventory of what is already on the street. |
| 7 | School approaches, winter standards, and culvert and ditch cycles, paid first from money already in the system. No new levy until that accounting is public. |
That combination deals with the daily failure on Merivale, the specific hazard on Greenbank, the access geometry on Woodroffe and Slack, the Viewmount intersection and the Highwood cut-through, and the maintenance backlog residents hit with a tire before they ever hit a flex post — including the NU streets residents say have been treated as optional.
Safe streets start with roads that are maintained, marked and designed for the way people actually use them. We need to get back to basics: maintain our roads, address genuinely dangerous locations, keep traffic moving safely, and spend taxpayers’ money where it will have the greatest impact.
Where I stand
Definitive policy platform of Anna Ielo-Tal
These are the positions. They are not another study.
1. Publish the list
In the first months of the term I will move for a ranked, costed public list of Ward 9 roads and hazard locations. NU and unserviced streets are scored on condition and risk, not on whether a water main is due. Every street on the list is reported each year as funded, tendered, built, or slipped, and why.
2. Repair before the next construction season
Known potholes and failed patches on streets already in the maintenance queue are closed out on dates residents can see. Markings are refreshed on Greenbank, Baseline, Merivale, Woodroffe, Knoxdale, Viewmount, Slack, West Hunt Club and school approaches. Vaan Drive from Coleway to Bie is inspected against Maintenance Quality Standards, with a written condition rating and a date for make-safe repairs.
3. No device without the test
I will not support a new speed bump, flex-post run or posted-speed drop in Ward 9 unless staff table collision history, operating speeds, emergency-route impact, and a maintenance or design alternative that was considered and rejected. The $100,000 ward allocation is spent where it prevents the next crash or the next blown tire.
4. A one-day count is not an answer
A 24-hour or 48-hour tube count is not enough to approve a device, or to refuse one. Highwood Drive gets a multi-day speed and volume count, including the share of cut-through traffic. If that count confirms the problem, pedestrian space comes first, then calming. Not another one-day count filed as a no.
5. Greenbank: fix the yard and the plaza access
The Knoxdale Public School yard gets physical protection. The plaza access and the turning movement out of it get a review. A blanket 50 km/h on that four-lane arterial is not the fix for the August 6 incident, and I will not treat it as one.
6. Viewmount at Merivale stays in scope
The intersection is the hazard. I will not accept it being left out of the Viewmount study while more turn bans are added on the approaches. I will not support another turn restriction as the answer to a capacity problem. Any restriction already in place — the no-right-on-red described in the August 27, 2026 committee transcript, and any daytime ban residents report — is tabled with before-and-after queues, collisions and compliance. A transcript is not a by-law, and a resident report is not a by-law. Both still go on the record.
7. Merivale carries the corridor total
Every Ward 9 arterial application must show units already approved plus the application, not only the increment in front of staff. The 1660 Merivale drive-thru file is a Ward 9 corridor impact: queue spillback, student crossings at bell times, and the turns the intersection can still make. I will put Ward 9 on that comment record. I will not claim College ward’s vote.
8. Woodroffe and Slack: the turns residents named
In the first 90 days I will call a site meeting and start an access study of the movements already named at Vaan, Pineland, Slack and Woodroffe. If the resident-reported 80 km/h sign on that Woodroffe stretch is confirmed, I will move for a formal speed-limit review. A lower posted limit alone is not the fix. I will not promise a rebuilt interchange.
9. An unserviced street is still a City road
I will oppose any internal rule that delays a safety repair solely because a street has no water or sewer main. Vaan Drive from Coleway to Bie is nominated for the next resurfacing or reconstruction window. Make-safe work comes first. A published year for reconstruction comes second. Culverts and ditches in Merivale Gardens are inspected before spring melt and after major storms, whether or not a storm sewer is scheduled.
10. No new levy until the books are public
Road renewal and targeted safety work are paid first from capital dollars and program money already collected. A levy is on the table only after that accounting is public, and only if it is locked to the published list. I will not fund this work by promising a lower tax bill.
— Anna
Evidence
Figures Used Here
Greenbank posted limit. Council approved the drop from 60 km/h to 50 km/h, Harrison Street to Bellman Drive, on August 26, 2026, after the August 6 incident at Knoxdale Public School. Ottawa Paramedic Service said the driver had a medical emergency.
Temporary Traffic Calming. $100,000 per ward in 2026.
Conover Street, Craig Henry. Three speed humps built in 2024 and a raised pedestrian crossover completed in 2025. Approved project funds: $191,000.
Baseline and Greenbank. Intersection reconstruction, with reconfigured lanes and transit-priority measures, is underway. Completion is anticipated in fall 2026.
780 Baseline Road. Three-tower project at Fisher Avenue, not at the Merivale corner: two 24-storey towers and one 32-storey tower, nearly 1,100 residential units. The February 7, 2024 zoning amendment covered two further towers, of 24 and 32 storeys, after the Fisher Avenue tower had already been approved in late 2023.
1200 Baseline Road. A seven-building application at Merivale was filed in 2026. It is not treated here as an approval.
Merivale Gardens. About 155 to 160 homes. Neighbourhood Unserviced (NU) zoning under Zoning By-law 2026-50: an urban private-service enclave. The new by-law writes a maximum of two dwelling units per lot. Some neighbourhood unit-count provisions are still under appeal. New lot size is frozen at March 11, 2026. Private wells and septic are the existing pattern. Residents describe no municipal storm sewers. Access is primarily from Woodroffe Avenue and Slack Road via Vaan Drive and Pineland.
Posted limits, access stretch. 80 km/h on Woodroffe and 70 km/h on Slack are cited by residents and are not confirmed here against the speed by-law.
65 Vaan Drive. A January 2026 vacant-lot listing said municipal water was available at the buyer’s cost. That is not a City servicing confirmation.
Highwood Drive, Fisher Heights. Local street with no sidewalks. Residents report a prior City speed assessment of 24 hours, a wide straight section, and cut-through use from Fisher Avenue, Meadowlands Drive and Merivale Road. Hilliard Avenue is cited by those residents as the nearby street where a sidewalk and calming have narrowed the road.
Viewmount Drive. Collector, posted 40 km/h, Merivale Road to Fisher Avenue. City of Ottawa Viewmount Drive Traffic Calming Study (Engage Ottawa, page updated 22 July 2026): 84 reported collisions, 2000–2024, between Merivale and Grant Carman Drive; 53 involving eastbound left-turn conflicts with westbound through traffic. Proposed right-in/right-out at the shopping access and a no-right-turn at the eastern Merivale High School access. Major changes to the Merivale/Viewmount intersection are stated as out of scope and referred to the Merivale Road (Baseline to Slack) Transit Priority Environmental Assessment.
Turn restrictions at Viewmount. A daytime right-turn restriction is reported by residents in 2026 and is not a confirmed by-law citation. A committee transcript from Public Works and Infrastructure Committee on August 27, 2026, describes no-right-turn-on-red restrictions at Merivale and Viewmount, installed about a year after a June 2025 conflict study. That is a transcript, not a by-law citation. A red-light restriction is not a daytime ban on the movement. Either restriction is to be tabled with before-and-after data.
1660 Merivale Road. Site plan control application D07-12-25-0019. The March 2025 application summary describes redevelopment of the gas station with a new convenience store, relocated pumps and the car wash retained, on the College ward side of the Merivale/Viewmount corner, across from Merivale High School. CTV News Ottawa, 13 January 2026, reports a proposed restaurant with a drive-thru at the same corner. Not treated here as an approval.
Evidence
Sources
Entries are listed alphabetically. Resident names are omitted.
- City of Ottawa. 2024. Planning and Housing Committee, January 31, and Council, February 7. Zoning record on 780 Baseline Road.
- City of Ottawa. 2025. Site plan control application D07-12-25-0019, 1660 Merivale Road. Application summary, 28 March 2025.
- City of Ottawa. 2025–2026. Baseline/Greenbank transit-priority intersection project pages.
- City of Ottawa. 2026. Conover Street Accelerated Neighbourhood Traffic Calming project page. Approved funds $191,000.
- City of Ottawa. 2026. Council, August 26. Greenbank Road posted-speed change, Harrison Street to Bellman Drive. As reported by CTV News Ottawa, August 26, 2026.
- City of Ottawa. 2026. Implications of Bill 56 and Strategic Road Safety Action Plan reporting. Temporary Traffic Calming allocation of $100,000 per ward.
- City of Ottawa. 2026. Official Plan. Growth-management and servicing-capacity policies.
- City of Ottawa. 2026. Viewmount Drive Traffic Calming Study. Engage Ottawa, existing conditions and recommended measures. Page updated 22 July 2026.
- City of Ottawa. 2026. Application record, 1200 Baseline Road at Merivale Road. Filed 2026. Not treated here as an approval.
- City of Ottawa. Zoning By-law 2026-50, section 803, Neighbourhood Unserviced Zone. Unappealed provisions in force retroactive to March 11, 2026, after the Ontario Land Tribunal order of July 2, 2026.
- CTV News Ottawa. 2024, February 7. Council approval of the 780 Baseline Road towers. See also Ottawa Citizen, February 7, 2024.
- CTV News Ottawa. 2026, January 13. Proposed restaurant and drive-thru at the Merivale and Viewmount gas station.
- CTV News Ottawa. 2026, August 26. Council decision on the Greenbank Road posted-speed change, Harrison Street to Bellman Drive.
- Merivale Gardens Community Association and residents. 2026. Questions and descriptions of Woodroffe, Slack, Vaan and Pineland turning movements; posted speeds; Vaan Drive (Coleway to Bie) condition; and culvert and drainage maintenance. Names omitted.
- Ottawa Citizen. 2024, February 7. Council approval of the 780 Baseline Road towers. See also CTV News Ottawa, February 7, 2024.
- Public Works and Infrastructure Committee. 2026, August 27. Transcript description of no-right-turn-on-red restrictions at Merivale and Viewmount. Not a by-law citation.
- Residents, and statements by the candidate. 2026, September. Correspondence on Greenbank, maintenance, flex posts and Merivale congestion.
- Residents. 2026. Correspondence on Highwood Drive speeding, the 24-hour count, the Hilliard Avenue comparison, the Viewmount daytime right-turn restriction, and the gas-station restaurant at Merivale. Names omitted.
- Vacant-lot listing. 2026, January. 65 Vaan Drive. Municipal water described as available at the buyer’s cost. Not a City servicing confirmation.
Get involved
Let's build this together
VOLUNTEER WITH US
From door-knocking to community outreach, every voice makes a difference. Join the team today.
REQUEST A LAWN SIGN
Show your support! Let us know where to drop off a sign and we’ll bring it to you in September.
Please make cheques payable to
Campaign to Elect Anna Ielo-Tal
Drop me a line at anna4council@gmail.com and a volunteer can pick it up