Barrhaven

Barrhaven
Community

A group of homes in Barrhaven on Woodroffe Avenue, between Fallowfield Road and Earl Mulligan Drive
Country  Canada
Province  Ontario
City Ottawa
Established 1960s
City of Nepean 1978
City of Ottawa 2001
Government
 • Mayor Jim Watson
 • City councillors Steve Desroches, Jan Harder
 • Member of Parliament Chandra Arya
 • Member of Provincial Parliament Lisa MacLeod
Area
 • Total 42.93 km2 (16.58 sq mi)
Elevation 100 m (300 ft)
Population (2011)
 • Total 72,324
 • Density 1,684.7/km2 (4,363/sq mi)
Time zone Eastern (EST) (UTC−5)
 • Summer (DST) EDT (UTC−4)
Forward sortation area K2G, K2J
Area code(s) Area code 613

Barrhaven is a rapidly growing suburban neighbourhood in the southwest of the urban area of the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, about 17 km (11 mi) southwest of downtown Ottawa. Prior to amalgamation with Ottawa in 2001, Barrhaven was part of the City of Nepean. Its population as of the Canada 2011 Census was 72,324.[1]

Geography

Location of Barrhaven in Ottawa

Barrhaven is approximately bounded to the north by the Greenbelt, to the east by the Rideau River, to the west by Highway 416, and to the south by the new Half Moon Bay development along Cambrian Road south of the Jock River. The area is diagonally bisected by CN rail tracks. Barrhaven is surrounded by rural areas and farmland, with the exception of the growing Riverside South area across the Rideau River. Directly south of Barrhaven is Manotick a commuter town of the city.

Barrhaven is divided into several areas: Barrhaven proper or Old Barrhaven is the westernmost part of the neighbourhood, lying between Cedarview Road and Greenbank Road. New residential development is expanding the west side of Old Barrhaven between Cedarview and Strandherd Drive. Also included in this area is a triangle of land east of Greenbank between Fallowfield Road and the railway tracks known as Knollsbrook or The Triangle. South of this is the area known as Longfields, which stretches south to Strandherd and east to Woodroffe Avenue. Sandwiched between the railway tracks, Jockvale Road, Greenbank and Strandherd is the neighbourhood of Barrhaven on the Green. East of Woodroffe, next to the Rideau River, is the neighbourhood of Davidson Heights. South of Strandherd and east of Greenbank is a new community known as Chapman Mills. As Prince of Wales Drive approaches Jockvale, there is a thriving community known as Stonebridge that is located beside the Stonebridge Golf & Country Club.

History

One of the older parts of Barrhaven on Larkin

The Barrhaven area was long inhabited by First Nations peoples, and the modern Jockvale Road follows an ancient path that was originally a trail through the wilderness. In the 19th century the area became populated by European farmers as the area was divided into a number of rural homesteads.

The old Barrhaven School House located at Jockvale and Strandherd was in built in 1906. Today, the school stands as a historic site. In 1911, the Canadian Northern Railway built a rail line from Ottawa to Toronto through the area. Fast passenger service was offered for many years from Fallowfield Station (near the intersection of Strandherd Dr and Cedarview Rd) to Ottawa and beyond[2] After many years of absence, passenger rail service was reintroduced to the area by Via Rail in the fall of 2002 through a new Fallowfield Station located at the intersection of Fallowfield Road and Woodroffe Avenue.

Modern Barrhaven was established in the 1960s, one of a group of new suburbs built outside the Greenbelt from the main city of Ottawa. Building in the area was begun by Mel Barr, for whom the community is named. Barr had originally purchased a 200-acre (0.81 km2) farm with the intent of constructing a horse racing track. However the Rideau Carleton Raceway was built further to the east, and Barr instead decided to develop his land for housing. In 1968-69 Barrhaven Public School was built as the very first public school in Barrhaven.

Barrhaven subsequently grew rapidly into a community of several tens of thousands of people. Commercial centres were slower to arrive. In 1990 the area was served by a single grocery store, had no movie theatre, and not even a bar. This has changed with the opening in 1991 of the vast Barrhaven Town Centre complex of big box stores and smaller commercial establishments, as well as a few smaller shopping malls. The 1990s also saw the influx of high-tech companies into the area (such as JDS Uniphase and Nortel), and the growth of the Public Service in the National Capital Region. The area got its first high school in 1998 when Mother Teresa High School (Catholic) opened, followed by John McCrae Secondary School (public) in 1999. Barrhaven gained its third high school in 2002 when St. Joseph High School (Catholic) opened. In September 2009, Longfields-Davidson Heights Secondary School (Public) opened. The south-western Ottawa suburb still is in need of a gifted french public school, as students must be bused away to schools in other regions of the city, for the gifted french program.

Character

Davidson Heights section of Barrhaven

Since Barrhaven has been built so quickly and so recently like most North American suburbs, it has a very uniform feel, considering how big it is. Almost every street consists of town houses with some streets having comparatively large suburban houses. In the older parts of Barrhaven, the streets are curvilinear, never forming a grid as they do in older parts of Ottawa.

Neighbourhoods

Barrhaven is divided into many neighbourhoods. The names are generally selected by developers.

Features and amenities

Barrhaven contains several public and Catholic schools and numerous parks and playgrounds, mainly built in since 2000. It is also home to the Walter Baker Sports Centre which contains a library and other facilities. As of 2015, it features a strip mall on 3 of the 4 corners at the intersection of Strandherd Drive and Greenbank Road, with a seven-screen cinema, Sobey's grocery store, a Wal-Mart, Indigo Books and Music, Staples, Winners, Sport Chek, Starbucks, Machine,[4] Loblaws, Heart & Crown, and Best Buy, among others. The Minto Recreation Complex, a new multi-use community center at the corner of Cambrian and Greenbank, opened in 2014.[5]

Transportation

Barrhaven is served by seven local bus routes: 170, 171, 173, 175, 176, 177 and 186. These routes serve the local roads of Barrhaven as well as serving Fallowfield Station and Strandherd Station, where a transfer can be made to Ottawa's Rapid Transit system with Route 95. There are five express bus routes, 70, 71, 73, 72 (previously the 76), and 77, that provide direct service to downtown Ottawa during the morning rush hour and from downtown during the afternoon rush hour; travel time is approximately 30 minutes. Route 186 runs from the Fallowfield Station to Manotick, stopping in the growing Stonebridge community before travelling on the lower half of Jockvale before connecting with Prince of Wales Drive.

Intercity rail connections can be made at Fallowfield, Ontario railway station to Montreal and Toronto.

The Ottawa Transitway (bus rapid transit) extends through a portion of Barrhaven

Until 2006, it had been planned that the north-south light-rail O-Train (today's Trillium Line) would be extended to the centre of Barrhaven near Riocan Marketplace via Riverside South. The project was cancelled on December 14, 2006, by Ottawa City Council, which decided to focus on building rail-based rapid transit lines in the inner city instead. Rail-based rapid transit to Barrhaven is not expected to be introduced until after 2031, when the three lines in the inner city are expected to be completed.

On January 2, 2007, OC Transpo opened the Strandherd Transitway Station and Park & Ride lot in Barrhaven. Directly across from the Riocan/Barrhaven Shopping Centre's Wal-Mart & TD Bank, the facility has parking space for about 330 cars. It was built to help with overcrowding at the Fallowfield Station and meet the increased demand for park and ride spaces in the community. Rapid transit route 95 takes approximately 10 minutes to travel between Fallowfield Station and Strandherd Station, and 2 minutes between Strandherd Station and Barrhaven Centre. The Province of Ontario funded one-third of the $5 million cost.

In April 2011, the bus rapid transit network was expanded in Barrhaven. One feature was the extension of Route 94 to the intersection of Woodroffe and Strandherd. A new stretch of transitway was also constructed between Fallowfield and Strandherd to reduce travel times on Route 95.[6]

Education

 

Public schools

Elementary

Intermediate

  • Cedarview Middle School

Secondary

  

Catholic schools

Elementary

  • L'école élémentaire catholique Jean-Robert Gauthier (French)
  • L'école élémentaire catholique Pierre Elliot Trudeau (French)
  • L'école élémentaire catholique Sainte-Kateri (French)
  • Monsignor Paul Baxter Catholic elementary school
  • St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic elementary school (opened February 1987)
  • St. Cecilia Catholic Elementary School
  • St. Emily Catholic elementary school
  • St. Luke Catholic elementary school
  • St. Patrick Catholic elementary school (opened November 1978)
  • St. Andrew Catholic elementary school

Secondary

  

Private schools

St Joseph Catholic High School, Barrhaven

Photos

Notes

  1. ↑ Population calculated by combining census tracts 5050140.05, 5050140.04, 5050140.07, 5050140.06, 5050141.08, 5050141.09, 5050141.13, 5050141.12, 5050140.03, 5050141.11, 5050141.10, 5050141.05, 5050141.04, 5050141.15
  2. ↑ Desmond Kennedy. "Coming of the Rail Era" The Kennedy Story (transcribed by Taylor Kennedy) Accessed July 3, 2007.
  3. ↑ "Minto launches Quinn's Pointe in Barrhaven". Retrieved 2015-10-05.
  4. ↑ "Small business week: Entrepreneurs take over Barrhaven condos - Special Reports - Ottawa Business Journal". www.obj.ca. Retrieved 2015-10-05.
  5. ↑ "Minto Recreation Complex - Barrhaven | City of Ottawa". ottawa.ca. Retrieved 2015-10-06.
  6. ↑ http://www.octranspo1.com/community-events/barrhaven_transplan

References

Coordinates: 45°16′30″N 75°45′00″W / 45.27500°N 75.75000°W / 45.27500; -75.75000

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