Community battles on

Tonight there was a community meeting regarding the on-going saga of the development on the convent site. The meeting gave us an overview of the proposed site plan and highlighted some of the outstanding issues.

This whole story has been very discouraging for the community surrounding the development site. Right from the start the community has worked hard to express our concerns to the city, our Councillors and the developers. Time after time we find that public interests are trumped by the will and power of developers. It’s been a very negative lesson in municipal politics for me.

At this meeting, the planner-consultant hired by a local community group went over the proposed site plans which the developer has given to the city. It was interesting to hear her point of view since she is not emotionally vested like many of the people who speak at these meetings and she also has the experience to identify what aspects of the site plan are unusual or which do not fully address the issues at hand.

One of the problems she pointed out is that normally by the time a development gets to the ‘site plan’ stage, all the big issues like density, drainage and vehicular access have been addressed. In this case, these have not been fully addressed – not just to the community’s satisfaction, but even city staffers and councillors admit that all these issues have not been sorted out.

However, since site plans usually address such things as ‘birch tree here, fir tree there; red paving stones here, brick here, etc’ so there are not the mechanisms for real community input. So even though the big issues have not been answered, we’ve somehow skipped ahead to approving the colour of the building façade. Wtf?

But another big problem we face is that the developers have split the development into two phases (which apparently is quite typical) but they’re being purposefully vague about what will happen during the second phase. Essentially there’s a large 9-storey building smack in the middle of the property to which developers are mum about how there will be vehicle access.

There’s much more to say about this, so I’ll continue tomorrow.

David loses to Goliath

The developers have bought out community groups opposing them in order to secure their 600-unit development plans for the Convent site.

Ashcroft Developments and the opposition community groups have signed a deal to drop their respective appeals with the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB). The community groups had been in opposition to the height and density of the development. Ashcroft’s response was to make an appeal for even greater height and density. This raised the stakes since community groups stood not just to lose their appeal, but to see Ashcroft awarded a decision that would make things even worse.

As part of the settlement, Ashcroft will give the community a $200,000 donation. Knowing the millions Ashcroft stands to gain, this seems a very paltry sum indeed.

The community groups and individuals involved in the appeal will form a non-profit corporation that will administer the money, the purpose of which is not yet determined.

I’m wondering what happens to the money that has been raised thus far by the community in support of these OMB appeals. Part of the fundraising included the sale of lawn-signs with slogans such as ‘Respect Community Plans’ and ‘Just say no to over development’. I contributed funds not only by purchasing a sign, but also though the fundraiser parade I organized – so I feel an obligation to all who came out and who donated to know what will happen to the funds raised by the community as well with the buy-out money offered by Ashcroft.

I’m discouraged about this for several reasons, not the least of which is that Ashcroft gets to go ahead with their plan without, as far as I can tell, any concessions to the community’s concerns about height and density.

I’m also sad for the community which put its hopes and money into local associations who ended up being backed into a corner and forced to make a deal to avoid further losses. Was this indeed the best course of action – accepting small gains instead of risking big losses? There were few options.

In this story, David does not beat Goliath. Goliath is not only 9-stories taller, he has deeper pockets and friends in all the right places.

Parade!

As soon as I woke up this morning a list of things to do started running through my head. Get the coffee, pack the noise makers, check if the bubble machines work... Today was parade day.

There was a lot of last minute rushing around this morning – and last night there’d been a late trip to Walmart to exchange a broken bubble machine – but with help from V and a great co-organizer, we had everything ready before 10.

V was at our destination park, waiting with coffee, lemonade and baked goods for a bake sale. M and I headed off to the starting point. The weather was perfect – couldn’t have asked for a better day.

M and I met a couple of families on the way over, which gave me hope that we would not be the only ones to show up. A reporter from the local community paper was waiting when we arrived. She asked me how many I expected and I said honestly that I had no idea. At this point we were about 10 and I was worried that might be all.

But I shouldn’t have worried. We have such a great community and word of the parade had gone viral on several different networks – and by word of mouth. There were probably 60 or more people who turned out – young and old.

Two guys from a local band led the parade – setting a great marching rhythm on various drums. People had been encouraged to dress fun and bring noise makers – so there were whistles, rattles, kazoos, cow bells, recorders... a great sound. There were also the requisite girls dressed as princesses and fairies and boys in super hero costume. M and I went with a beach theme and she wore a giant straw hat and a purple lei.

We got the park and our little bake sale was swarmed by hungry kids. Many people gave above the suggested price and we managed to raise $200 for the community’s OMB appeal.

What a fun morning. Love this community.

p.s. I hope to be able to add some pictures from friends to this blog soon. Here’s a link to a video someone made.

Community worth fighting for

This morning at our local park families from around the neighbourhood got together to celebrate spring with a flower-planting party. Flowers and planters were provided; some people brought baked goods and fruit. One of the dads showed little girls how to run with kites; one of the moms did some elaborate face painting.

Also this morning there was a rally at the Byron Linear pathway as the community continues to express frustration with the development project that ignores local interests for private gain. Some people from the neighbourhood also set up tables to collect signatures and raise funds for the community appeal before the Ontario Municipal Board.

These two events, though organized separately, show not only that this community willing to fight, but what we are fighting for.

We are fighting to keep our green space – and to oppose changes to city by-laws that could see other parks cut up to make room for development and private laneways – because we use and value this space. Our kids play in the parks every day. On the Byron path, young ones learn to scoot and bike and parents walk their kids to school and back. We don’t just value our green space as some NIMBY excuse, we value our green space because it is important to the quality of our lives.

We are not celebrating yet, but it does seem that the proposal to cut through the Byron pathway is off the table – at least for now. Our councillor has reversed her position and it seems the November 2010 ruling – which said access across the Byron pathway would not be allowed – still stands.

Unfortunately, our councillor is publically suggesting that the community sold out the residents of Shannon Street by rejecting this proposal. A local community association responded with an open letter asking that she not misrepresent our position and that residents not be pitted against one another when there are alternatives which “are respectful of local residents and of the Community Design Plans that citizens and the City have invested so heavily in developing”.

The politics are discouraging and what is at stake is more than a few metres of pathway – its our quality of life.

Community vs. Goliath, again

I have written before about the development planned for the old convent site across the street from our house. The community’s struggle against the developers has been a series of disappointments and losses as city staffers, committees and councillors repeatedly capitulate to the demands of Ashcroft, the private company developing the site.

Once again we find the interests of the community being threatened by the developer’s plans.

On Tuesday, May 24, the City of Ottawa Planning Committee will meet to discuss the proposed “Vehicular Access through the Byron Avenue Linear Park to the Proposed Development at 90 Richmond Road, 114 Richmond Road and 380 Leighton Terrace”. In other words – that despite being told all along that they would not be allowed to cut through the public green space and pedestrian/bike path on the south side of the property, Ashcroft wants to do just that. And it looks like the city is prepared to let them.

Cutting across Byron’s bike path is proposed as being “the only way to preserve the row of mature maple trees and the integrity of the overall public accessible landscaped area”. The report also claims it will “minimize the direct impact” on the five homes siding or facing a small road (Shannon Street) that may be the alternate point of entry to the development site.

I fully sympathize with Shannon Street residents. They are looking at the possibility of having their narrow, dead-end street widened and having the traffic on their street significantly increased. It is not fair to them, especially since they were told at the beginning that their street would not be used. But as we’ve seen with Ashcroft and the city, promises and plans can easily be disregarded.

Reading over the report regarding this proposal, it’s interesting that they argue that the impact to Byron’s path would be “minimal” since the parking on site is capped at 65 spaces. But when they defend not using Shannon street, they point out that access to this street will include garbage trucks and site visitors.

If the city had held Ashcroft to the density restrictions mandated in the community plan for this area we would not be in this position now.