Hunt Club

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hunt Club is a large suburban neighbourhood in the southern part of Ottawa, Canada. The area is named after the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club, which used to own much of the land where the community is now situated and is still a major presence. It is also named after Hunt Club Road, which forms the southern boundary of the neighbourhood.

Hunt Club is located south of Downtown Ottawa and south of older suburbs such as Alta Vista. It is located just north of the Ottawa International Airport and to the east of the Rideau River. The exact borders of Hunt Club are uncertain. It unquestionably contains the area north of Hunt Club Road and west of Bank Street the northern border is sometimes Walkley Road or the rail road tracks. The older neighbourhood between Riverside Drive and the Rideau River is sometimes considered the western edge of Hunt Club, but is also often considered its own separate neighbourhood. The newer suburbs east of Bank Street are also sometimes considered part of Hunt Club. One of the newest developments, considerably to the east of the older Hunt Club is named Hunt Club Park and it stretches all the way to Hawthorne. The areas around South Keys are also sometimes considered part of Hunt Club. While there is a West Hunt Club Rd west of the Rideau River, areas along it are never considered part of Hunt Club.

Hunt Club was originally settled by Europeans in the early nineteenth century. It was originally part of Gloucester Township. In 1950 the still largely rural area was annexed to the city of Ottawa. Development of the area got underway in the 1970s, and that is when most of the current housing dates from. It was designed as a suburban bedroom community with many single family houses and little commercial area.

One of the more prominent, and controversial areas, of the neighbourhood is the large Hunt Club Woods area. This region next to the CN rail lines was purchased by the National Capital Commission in 1953 with plans of turning it into part of a major ring road around Ottawa. These plans never materialized and the area has been an undeveloped mix of farm land, open meadows, and forests ever since. The NCC hopes to sell their considerable holdings to developers, and have the area turned into a new subdivision. Residents and greenspace advocates have fought this, hoping to preserve much of the area as open land.

Hunt Club is in the federal and provincial riding of Ottawa South, and the area is one of the more conservative portions of that riding. Municipally central Hunt Club it is part of River Ward, while the portions east of Bank Street at part of the Gloucester-Southgate Ward.