A group of OTTAWA residents is asking for plans for a new addiction recovery center in a green space patch to stop, while those who support the project accuse them of spreading the wrong information.
The common sense planning coalition tells him that the Matthew Perry house, proposed following the 2023 death of the actor raised in Ottawa, of an overdose of ketamine, would take care of “valuable community green spaces” on the grounds of the real mental health center of Ottawa.
He wants the proposed lease negotiations to be finished and says that the center should climb to an adjacent parking lot.
“It is not about Nimbyism. It is an intelligent, sustainable and responsible planning that benefits all, including those who need addiction recovery services and the communities that support them,” says the group in an online petition.
But Royal officials and the Matthew Perry Foundation say that some of their arguments about the project are not in fact precise.
Perhaps better known for his role as Chandler Bing in the situation comedy FriendsPerry was found dead in his Los Angeles hydromassage bathtub in October 2023.
According to a report from the Los Angeles County Forensic Physician office, his death was an accident, caused by the “acute effects” of the Ketamine drug.
According to reports, the 54 -year -old man had undergone ketamine infusion therapy to deal with depression and anxiety. While Perry had fought with drug addiction in the past, he “reported that he was” clean for 19 months “at the time of his death, according to the report.
After his death, Perry’s sister, Caitlin Morrison, with the help of the family, the childhood friends of his brother and others, launched the Matthew Perry Foundation in his memory.
It is not a public park
According to the Foundation, the Matthew Perry house would offer a “integral range of support services” to approximately 160 people who go through the recovery process. Residents would have already completed a treatment program for when they arrive.
If everything goes according to the plan with the approval process, the construction would begin in the spring of 2026.
But the leader of the coalition, Robert Simpson, said that instead of going to a ground patch covered with interspersed grass between Island Park and Byng Drives, the house would be better located in an adjacent parking lot.
The members have distributed around 3,000 brochures that oppose the plans throughout the neighborhood, Simpson said. In them, the coalition criticizes the royalty for, among other things, to work to sign a “75 -year lease that will make the excavators and level three acres of public green space.”
“We have been very clear that we support the Matthew Perry Foundation. We have been much clear that we support what they do and its mission,” Simpson told CBC.
“Our concern is bad urban planning.”
But not only real needs to provide parking for staff, the land where the recovery center would go is divided into areas for institutional use and “absolutely not a public park,” said the president and CEO Haccarino face.
Our concern is bad urban planning.– Robert Simpson
Vaccarino said that royalty has been dedicated to “sincere and sincere” communication on the project with people who live nearby, who carry out multiple consultation sessions, including another scheduled for April 29.
“It is in our commitment, as public servants, doing everything possible to take advantage of public assets for the good of the community,” said Vaccarino, and pointed out that the recovery center would help reduce support times of support for people with mental health struggles or addictions.
He also said that the coalition campaign had misrepresented the land where he would go.
“There is no playground. It is not a community tennis court. There is no grass -covered playing field. There are no real walking paths,” he told CBC, which refers to the claims made in the group’s brochure.
“We want our neighbors to be happy. We want our neighbors to prosper and enjoy their homes,” Vaccarino added. “But we also feel that, you know, in many cases … people with mental illnesses and addiction, they do not have the opportunity to live in beautiful neighborhoods [like this one]”
Space used for decades, says Coalition
Morrison, who serves as executive director of the Matthew Perry Foundation in Canada, told CBC that it is not surprised that there has been a rejection, but it remains in the hope of being able to take the opponents of the project.
“It was a bit sad, discouraging, I suppose, see a document like this where many of the things we are doing … They seem to be the opposite of what we are really doing,” he told CBC.
Meanwhile, the Island Park community association said it supports the efforts of the coalition, approving a motion last week that requested that development be transferred to the parking lot.
Even if the earth is the private property of royalty, it is still important to preserve the green space in Ottawa, said Interim President Bill Brooks.
“It is a land of a public hospital, which I consider to be a public benefit,” Brooks said.
Brooks said the association also approved a motion asking that royalty suspend its negotiations with Ottawa Community Housing, which acts as a camera developer.
As for Simpson, he said he did not feel that the brochure of the coalition misrepresent the nature of a space that dogs, tennis players, children and others in the area have accessed a space for more than four decades.
“It describes precisely that the public is used daily that area that they intend to drag daily.”
