General Meeting – 27 February 2017

GREENSPACE ALLIANCE OF CANADA’S CAPITAL
Greenspace Watch
General Meeting
MINUTES
February 27, 2017
Hintonburg Community Centre
1064 Wellington Street West
K1Y 2Y3

Members present: Paul Johanis (chair), Amy Steele, Erwin Dreessen, Bruce Lindsay, Greg Elliott, Jason Kania

Guest: Matthew Le Blanc (notetaker)

Regrets: David McNicoll, Juan Pedro Unger, Iola Price, Sol Shuster, Nicole DesRoches

The meeting commenced at 7:20 PM.

1. Adoption of the Agenda

A modified agenda was agreed upon.

2. Administrative Items

a. Minutes of January 23, 2017. Erwin moved, seconded by Bruce, to adopt the Minutes of January 23, 2017. Agreed.

b. Membership Report:

  • Bruce moved, seconded by Erwin, to accept the memberships of Barbara Lobanova and Matthew Le Blanc. Agreed.
  • Bruce moved, seconded by Erwin, to renew the GA’s Volunteer Ottawa membership ($87.50). Agreed.
  • Amy moved, seconded by Bruce, to renew the GA’s FCA membership ($30.00). Agreed.

c. Treasurer’s Report:

  • Erwin moved, seconded by Amy, to pay Paul back for the GA’s annual corporate filing ($20.00) and the rental for the March 15 FCA meeting ($23.80).
  • Erwin and Amy signed a letter to Alterna confirming that Paul is to be added as a signing authority for the GA’s expense account.

d. Webmaster’s Report:

  • Jason informs that repair of the Twitter feed must await an update from the plug-in’s author.
  • Action: Jason will add a link to our Facebook page.
  • Migrating posts from the old website remains a challenge.

3. New Action Items

     a. Loss of greenspace at Stanley Park in New Edinburgh. Paul attended an information meeting on February 22 and spoke with city staff present. Part of Stanley Park (a.k.a. New Edinburgh Park) will be a staging area for the Combined Sewer Storage Tunnel (CSST) project.  In the central area 42 trees will be lost but the City’s restoration plan calls for planting 2 trees for every 1 lost. The GA’s role could be to monitor that this plan is carried out. Action: Put on the Oversight and Liaison list.

     b. March 15 FCA meeting preparation: In a 1-hour segment, the goal is to collaboratively engage with local community associations and devise methods to help them monitor and report on the greenspace in their areas. We aim to build an inventory of greenspace resources including a training manual for greenspace monitoring and a library of GIS maps. Lead: Serge Latino.

Amy and Erwin noted the importance of City zoning knowledge: the various protection levels associated with each and every greenspace’s status. Action: Erwin will send Serge Amy’s 2003 essay on zoning of NCC lands and his notes for a February 2015 presentation at an FCA meeting.

Action: Paul will ensure refreshments for the meeting. Amy moved, seconded by Jason, to allow up to $100 for the purpose. Agreed.

c. Merivale-Woodroffe corridor protection: It is now confirmed that the LRT maintenance shed will not be built in this location. The corridor is one of the most precious greenspaces along the Poets’ Pathway. Our suggested strategy is to persuade Canadian Heritage to designate the corridor as part of a heritage project. Action: Greg will organize a meeting with Councillor Chiarelli; Erwin will speak with Jane Moore.

d. Richcraft Plan of Subdivision, Kanata Highlands: Richcraft has submitted a plan of subdivision for a section of the Kanata Highlands that is not owned by KNL. Located on the last little arc of land where the Terry Fox Drive Extension runs to the tracks and borders Phase 7 of the KNL project. Action: Put on the Oversight and Liaison list.

e. KNL Phase 9: Planning Committee on February 28 considered an Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendment that will result in a City-owned corridor establishing connectivity between Beaver Pond and Trillium Woods; it will be designated EP (environmental protection area). Paul will attend the meeting in support of the amendment only if the approval does not precludes any future storm water management options that would minimize the loss of greenspace. Specifically, it should entail a holistic approach, encompassing Phases 7 and 8 as well as the newly submitted Richcraft Plan of Subdivision for the area west of Phase 7. Post-meeting note: These concerns are logged in PC’s draft minutes as well as a concern for a potential mapping error in the recommended zoning changes in the report that might require a technical amendment. Staff indicated they would be reviewing the mapping and would bring a motion to Council on March 8, 2017 to amend the document if needed.

f. Stephen Willis replacing John Moser at City Hall: Stephen Willis’ first day as General Manager of the Planning Department was Feb 27. Action: Paul will draft a letter of welcome.

g. Development Charges: Most appeals of the June 2014 By-law were granted. The City must include more works on the development charges side. In the interim, on Planning Committee’s February 28 agenda is a proposal for delegated authority to the General Manager to reimburse the developers for road works: up to $950,000 for traffic signalization and up to $2,000,000 for roundabouts. Once again there is no public consultation on the implementation of Bill 73; proposals will come to Committee in May.

h. LRT Phase 2: There will be a public meeting on March 1 (available on YouTube). A meeting on March 6 is specifically concerning the Bayshore section of Phase 2. Action: Paul will attend.

4. Report on previous action items:

a. 2017 Plans and Priorities

  • Rockcliffe Airforce Base: To be added to Oversight and Liaison list. Lead: Al Crosby.
  • Planning and Action Framework: Inventory monitoring is moving forward.

– Area 1 (Kanata): Paul wrote a letter to Murray Chown but we haven’t heard back yet.

– KNL Lands: We have received a response from Jack Sterling. More to come.

– Area 8/Remer: Erwin and Paul will attend a meeting with Regional and City staff on March 1.

b. KNL Lands: On February 13, Erwin, Paul, Judy Makin and Faith Blacquière met with City staff regarding the questions submitted. We learned that the original Conditions of draft subdivision approval (OMB sanctioned) have now been superseded by the Registered Subdivision Agreement (RSA). Action: Paul will reconcile the list of questions with the meeting outcomes and report back before sending a report to the City.

c. Site alteration By-law review: The project is currently in a stakeholder pre-consultation period before going public. After review by Erwin, Iola and FCA members, two major issues remain: 1) whether they will have a permit system or not (it is ambiguous in the draft) and 2) that the bylaw would apply only to Natural Environment Areas, Urban Natural Features, and other areas already protected to varying degrees. Erwin asserted that the bylaw “misses the key reason why a site alteration bylaw review is needed prior to a development application,” and that we should oppose this and make it as public as possible. Action: Erwin will finalize the GA/FCA Working Group’s input before the March 3 deadline.

d. Healthy Transportation Coalition road toll event, March 28: Our $25 check was delivered. We will wait to hear from Trevor Haché.

e. GA list Subscriber survey analysis report: Matthew provided some highlights of the report he has prepared about the survey’s results. Action: Matthew will circulate for feedback before general distribution.

f. Eastern Ontario Green Plan – February 2 meeting update: A draft of what a plan might look like has been developed including a mission statement and who would be involved in implementation. The plan will be summarized, reported, and circulated before the group meets again in April.

g. Public engagement: At the invitation of Councillors Nussbaum and Leiper, an ad hoc group of FCA and GA members, led by Erwin, has made a proposal for a Planning Advisory Committee. They are awaiting a response.

 5. Upcoming Items

 a. Ottawa Conservation and Stewardship visioning meeting, February 28: Action: Paul will attend and report later.

b. NCC Urbanism Lab: Parks planning, March 9: Action: Matthew will attend and report later.

c. Transportation Master Plan review: FCA Workshop, Saturday April 8, Location TBD: We will meet again before this event to determine a course of action.

6. Information Items

a. CEF – Baseline Road Rapid Transit Corridor, letter to Transportation Committee: A letter was sent expressing concern about the continuing erosion of the boundaries of the CEF.

The meeting adjourned at 9:35 PM.

The next meeting will be on March 27, 2017 at the Hintonburg CC, starting at 7:15 PM.