What We Own (Assets)
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and contributions.
Land
Hunt Club encompasses approximately 500 hectares (5 square kilometers).
What is the value of this land?
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properties owned by people living in the community
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properties owned by people living outside the community
Environmental Features
Elevation. Not
the usual accounting item; however, elevation is an asset (for us) because
the higher land gives us a view over the city, and because other people
may want to come and visit, or live here, for that view. It is not without
reason that one major street is called "Uplands Drive", that a poem has
been written about "Winter at Uplands", and that the Ottawa International
Airport, formerly called "Uplands Airport", was built here.
Winter at Uplands
The frost that stings like fire upon my cheek,
The loneliness of this forsaken ground,
The long white drift upon whose powdered peak
I sit in the great silence as one bound;
The rippled sheet of snow where the wind blew
Across the open fields for miles ahead;
The far-off city towered and roofed in blue
A tender line upon the western red;
The stars that singly, then in flocks appear,
Like jets of silver from the violet dome,
So wonderful, so many and so near,
And then the golden moon to light me home;
The crunching snowshoes and the stinging air,
And silence, frost and beauty everywhere.
by: Archibald Lampman
written January 1899
Alternating forest environments.
Within and just south of Hunt Club we have distinct forests: poplar forests,
pine forests, mixed hardwood forests, groupings of black locusts (black
wood and fragrent clusters of white flowers in June), each with its own
distinctive biology (sounds, smells, moisture content, animal and plant
life). A cyclist going through from a poplar forest to a pine forest near
the Conroy pits said that if he had blinked when crossing he would have
thought he had gone through a time warp.
Open (green) spaces.
The value of these assets is based on a dilemma: the more people there
are (in Hunt Club) who benefit from having and using open spaces, the greater
their value; the more people there are in Hunt Club, the less open space
we have. The more open space we have, the less value we place on each unit
of open space; the less open space we have, the more valuable each individual
remaining unit becomes. What is the best balance? What are the units we
measure? What gives the greatest open space asset (the best value per unit
times all units)?
Heritage sites.
Officially we don't have any in Hunt Club; however, unofficially there
are locations and areas (see map)
of historical value. One area is the open space, the greenway linkage that
separates us from Riverside Park to the north because that open land (could
be called "The Uplands") is the subject of Archibald Lampman's poem (above).
Urban Features
Focal points.
In other cities, fountains, churches, gardens, imposing structures, provide
visual appeal. In Hunt Club, we have none of these. Perhaps we should
build some?