(The Shea Woods in September 2017. Photo by Glen Gower)
Stittsville’s Shea Woods running along Abbott Street, East has been a haven for many years in our community for dog walkers, runners or just taking a leisurely stroll. Being privately owned by CRT Developments, the former Councillor, Shad Qadri, placed pressure on City staff to find funding options to purchase the 7 hectares of Shea Woods land. In 2015, a motion was approved by Council to investigate the options.
Two years later in October 2017, the City announced a $1.5-million agreement to protect a part of the Shea Woods – 5 hectares. The forest is part of the approved Fernbank Community Development Plan and is located southeast of Holy Spirit Church. It is also popular with dog walkers – often referred to as Stittsville’s unofficial dog park.
Step forward to today, markers have recently been positioned for the future Cope Road corridor, running east-west between Robert Grant and Shea, north of Fernbank and just south of the future protected area of Shea Woods. Residents were quick to alert Councillor Gower of this installation.
Councillor Gower provided an update to the status of Shea Woods in his weekly notebook – “City is still finalizing a purchase agreement to acquire about five hectares of Shea Woods. Things are moving along, but it’s taking much longer than anticipated, partly due to some complexities with land use along the Hydro One corridor. The intention is still to create an off-leash dog park in the forested area. I’ll continue to provide updates once we have more information to share”.
He also told Stittsville Central, “I’ve been pushing City staff to complete the acquisition of the forest as soon as possible”.
Stittsville residents have long awaited the purchase of Shea Woods by the City – even if a smaller piece of this haven – we hopefully are getting closer.
Update April 16, 2021: we just got a letter from the city today that there’s been a proposal to build townhomes on what is now the Shea woods!! The city is asking for public input before the May 17 deadline.
Quite honestly, I do not want to look out the back of my house to see rows of townhomes in my backyard!!
And the blasting that’s been going on already for the existing construction is shaking the very foundations of the houses whose backyards are adjacent to the Shea woods.
Terrible, keep those woods. Once they are gone, they are gone forever. Keep our green space.