July 6, 2010
7:30 – 9:30 PM
St. Margaret Mary's Church
Attendees:
Mohammad al-Asad
Kathy Krywicki
Donald Leffers
Mary Martel- Cantelon
Brendan McCoy
Geoffrey Murphy
Gary Shechtman
Brian Tansey
Graham Deline
Regrets:
Neil Grant
Heather Martin
Neal Hill
Greg Reilly
Approval of meeting agenda
Agenda was approved
Approval of June minutes
June minutes were approved
- Presentation on project for a community garden by Lori Waller: Lori Waller is affiliated with the Community Garden Network of Ottawa and the Just Food Group. She would like to start a community garden in Brewer or Windsor parks. The garden would need to be in a location where no other activities - such as sports or dog walking - take place. The garden may be used to grow vegetables in it. The vegetables may be donated or used by those who grow them. It was suggested that she may want to develop this project through the OSCA's, ECOS committee, which is not active at the present. In this case, she could be the person to activate it. OSWatch in principle supports such projects and encourages those working on them to coordinate with OSCA to realize them.
- Lansdowne flyer: Edwina von Bayer had paid $316 to print a flyer that was posted around the neighborhood. The flyer articulated the community's position on the planned Lansdowne development project and encouraged residents to take an active role in voicing their position on the project through attending public meetings and writing to city councilors. OSWatch decided to cover the full cost of printing the flyer.
- Lansdowne-Planning Committee hearing – hiring of planner?: A motion was passed to give Brendan a mandate to develop a strategy for engagement with the City's Planning Committee at its August 24 meeting. The meeting is dedicated for rezoning Lansdowne to accommodate the new functions (residential, retail, ...) that are planned to take place there. He would coordinate with relevant community organizations to develop a joint strategy, and OSWatch would be willing to contribute up to $1500 from its funds to the efforts that other organizations may make to hire a planner. The planner would advise these other community organizations on how to best engage with the Planning Committee and articulate the communities' serious concerns about the site's proposed rezoning to accommodate significant retail and residential uses.
- Infill/CDP statement: A motion was passed in regard to the Statement of Community Direction (SCD). Neal already had developed a first draft of it. The SCD concentrates on the issue of infills. The statement is to be further developed (by Don and Neil) into a second draft. This will be used as the starter document / file for the two people who we are hoping to recruit to create and manage a process whereby an attempt to attain community consensus will be made.
-Traffic study: Brendan will contact the City to get a commitment from them to send a representative for a meeting to be organized on the City's traffic study in OOS. The meeting also will discuss potential traffic implications of the Lansdowne project on the neighborhood in general, and on Sunnyside Avenue in particular. Volunteers from the community will be sought to organize the meeting.
- Other items: It was decided that the proposed agendas for OSWatch meetings will be published on the OSCA web site before the meetings. Regarding minutes, draft minutes will be prepared within a week of the meeting and distributed to those present at the meeting for review. After input from those present is received and incorporated, the minutes will be placed on the OSCA web site, but specified as "draft" minutes. Once the minutes are approved at the following OSWatch meeting, the word "draft" would be removed, and the minutes would be considered final.