General Meeting – 17 December 2003

 Greenspace Alliance of Canada’s Capital

DRAFT Minutes of Meeting of December 17; 2003

Billings Room, City Hall

ATTENDANCE

Members: Bill Royds (meeting chair), Chris Szpak (minute taker), Barbara Barr, Erwin Dreessen, Bill Grant; Amy Kempster; TP. Unger; Svetlana Venetsky

Guest: Lynne Bricker

  1. Adoption of the Agenda

Motion: B. Barr moved and A Kempster seconded acceptance of the Agenda. Carried.

  1. Approval of the meeting minutes of November 6, 2003:

Motion: B. Barr moved and A Kempster seconded to defer approval of the minutes of the November 26th meeting to the next general meeting in January. Carried.

  1. Membership/Treasurer’s Report:

A bill of $75 to renew the Alliance’s subscription for Volunteer Ottawa services was presented.

Motion: J.P. Unger moved and C. Szpak seconded to renew the subscription. Carried.

A discussion ensued about difficulty of keeping new volunteers with the Alliance.  It was recognized that the Alliance did not have a very good system for assimilating volunteers and getting them involved in the work of the Alliance.  J.P. Unger agreed to act as volunteer coordinator for the next several months and to see how this situation could be improved.

B. Royds brought to the meeting’s attention the possibility of using welfare volunteers.

4. Adoption of Revised By-Law:

At the November 26 meeting it was agreed to delete Article VIII(4) from the Alliance’s by-laws in order to expedite the Ministry of Industry’s approval for the incorporation of the Alliance.  As per the by-laws, the membership was duly notified to consider the proposed change.  Members had sufficient time to comment on the amendment and to be present at the current meeting to vote on its acceptance or not.

Motion: B. Barr moved and Szpak seconded to delete Article VIII(4) from the Alliance’s by-laws. Carried.

Business Arising from the Minutes:

(a) 2901 Lester Road:

B. Royds considered an appeal to the OMB by the Greenspace Alliance of the approval of a subdivision at 2901 Lester Road and recommended against it. David Gladstone has appealed. Because David did not make a submission at Planning Committee, and his appeal risked getting thrown out on that technicality, he contacted the Alliance about the possibility of associating his appeal with our submission. No action was taken.

(b)  NRTEE Workshop:

An invitation was received by the Alliance to attend the NRTEE Workshop on Urban Development and the Environment to be held in Ottawa, January 30.

B. Royds & C. Szpak to register to attend.

(c)    Leitrim Community Design Study:

B. Barr reported on the meeting held on the Leitrim Community Design Study held 1-2 December, 2003.

(d)   Official Plan Appeal Status:

The Alliance has sent in an appeal of the Official Plan concentrating specifically on disallowing country lot subdivisions, extending the Urban Natural Areas  Environmental Features Study to 5 milometers beyond the urban area, the meaning of “minor” adjustments in various provisions to be made to boundaries without amendment to the Official plan, and the lifting of holding zone designations without a zoning amendment regarding NCC owner property.

(e)    Wildlife Festival:

The Alliance has registered for cost-free exhibit space at the Wildlife Festival to be Carlingwood Mall in the first week of April. The Poets’ Pathway committee will work with the Alliance.  J.P. Unger will take the lead in organizing the exhibit and preparing an updated brochure for the Alliance.

J.P. Unger to prepare an updated brochure with draft text ready by January meeting.

(f)    Newsletter:

The newsletter has not yet been drafted but J.P. Unger promised that it will be done by the next general meeting in January.  J.P. Unger to prepare draft newsletter.

Most of the Christmas cards had already been delivered with the rest to be done by the end of the week.

(g)    Urban Design Study (NCC):

The NCC will be holding a workshop in 2004 as part of creating an Urban Area Master Plan for the urban lands outside the core area. C. Szpak volunteered to represent the Alliance. A. Kempster reported about attending an NCC vision meeting about public programming activities for the core area. Greenspace is not a major issue in this exercise.

New Business:

(a) 8480 Ashton Station Road:

A golf course is proposed at 8480 Ashton Station Road. An area of locally significant wetland has been preserved by zoning; however, the wetland probably should have been complexed with nearby provincially significant wetland and been zoned accordingly. The point needs to be made to the City that wetlands are being improperly evaluated and that we don’t want it to continue.

(b) Kanata Compensation Lands:

An agreement about compensation with lands outside the current urban boundary was approved by PDC. Some residents want the compensation lands to be forested lands inside the boundary. A meeting to discuss compensation lands was being held at the same time as the Greenspace Alliance meeting. An update of what transpired at the Kanata meeting will be presented at the January meeting of the Alliance.

(c) City Expenditure Review:

A CD has been received holding the 1,300 page City expenditure review. It was decided that the membership review the document to see where items of interest to the Alliance might be threatened, and to think of alternative forms of taxation that could be proposed to the City.

B. Royds to search document to find sections relevant Ito greenspace and assemble for Alliance review.

7. Meeting Adjournment:

Motion: B.Barr moved, seconded by J.P.Unger, to adjourn the meeting. Carried.

Meeting adjourned at 9:45 p.m.

Acronyms

MOE      Ministry of the Environment

NCC       National Capital Commission

NTREE    National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy

OP          Official Plan of thew City

PDC        Planning and Development Committee