General Meeting – 17 October 1997

MINUTES OF MEETING HELD OCT. 17, 1997

A group of people interested in forming a coalition to deal with the preservation of greenspace held their second meeting on October 17, 1997, at 7:30 p.m. at the Fairlea Park Cooperative at 30 f 1Fairlea Crescent.  Erica Burns chaired the meeting.  Barbara Barr volunteered to take minutes.  The proposed agenda was accepted after amendment to include an update about the re-zoned lands next to the railroad marshalling yard in Greenboro.  Minutes from the first meeting were deferred.

The group discussed some concerns, primarily that there was a need for the coalition to get formed and organized enough to designate agreed-upon spokespersons for agreed-upon actions rather than individuals or potential member groups taking on too much independent activity under the umbrella of the proposed coalition during the early stages of coalition formation.

Erwin Dreessen made a thoughtful proposal for a National Memorial Greenspace System in the National Capital Region, and accompanied it with a seven-page handout titled, “A potential focus for the Coalition…”. He made the point that many of the threatened greenspace lands are owned by the NCC and suggested a lobbying campaign.

Tom Gabor presented a one-page paper titled, “Our Vision of the Greenspace Coalition.” Using that paper as a framework for discussion, the group spent some time discussing the proposed aim, guiding principles, and possible activities of the coalition, and the geographical area that the coalition might cover.  Tom was charged with assimilating the suggestions into a new draft for discussion at the next meeting.  Also discussed was a name for the coalition and a proposed definition of greenspace.  Bill Royds volunteered to draft a definition of greenspace for discussion at the next meeting.

Agenda item 6, Organizational Structure and Voting Structure, was deferred to a future meeting.

Bryan Hawley gave an update about the appeal of the Walkley-Heron NCC lands decision to the Ontario Municipal Board.  The appellants had attended an OMB pre-hearing earlier in the week.  Bryan explained that the appellants have a big task before them and could use the help of a lawyer and need to find persons to serve as expert witnesses.

Tom Gabor gave an update about the re-zoned lands next to the railroad marshalling yard in Greenboro.  Some members of the community intend to appeal the decision to the Ontario Municipal Board.

The group decided that e-mail and fax are reasonable means to use to communicate with one another and discussed use of the Internet.  The next meeting will be held November 7 at 7:30 p.m. at 301 Fairlea Crescent.

Barbara Barr