Annual General Meeting

Date: 2009-09-24
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Regina Street Public School, gymnasium
Organizer/Chair: Julia Goodman, 140 Lincoln Heights Road

Julia has volunteered to organize this meeting. 50 people participated at the inaugural meeting.

Thanks to Alex Cullen who has provided ongoing support (rental for facility, printing of flyer, advice). Residents and homeowner of the neighbourhood are all prospective members. All who have attended are requested to let organizers know who you are. Thanks to the following people who worked over the summer months to organize the proposed LHPCA:

Marion and Dave Agnew
Shirley Callard
Karen McIntosh and Dan Brunton
Parham Momtahan
Peter Caskey
Ron Purver
Chuck Letourneau

Julia summarized the activities planned for this meeting. Agenda copies are available and were also sent by e-mail.

No changes or additions were suggested.

Move to adopt agenda: Walter Baziuk

Motion: Passed (show of hands)

No changes or additions were suggested.
Move to adopt minutes of June 18, 2009: Elizabeth Geehan
Motion: Passed (show of hands)

Question from Roy Engfield: Can the minutes be sent as an attachment when the meeting notice is e-mailed. Yes, this can be done.

Julia reviewed the constitution and addressed suggested changes or comments from the last meeting.
Age of membership: 18 or over. This is confirmed. Non members may attend as non voting members.
Membership fee - should be nominal and will be decided at the AGM
Past president will be included in the executive.
Constitution can be changed at the AGM every year.
Term of office: 2 years.
President and secretary for this year will have a term of 1 year so that staggered representation can be established.
A maximum of 4 consecutive terms are permitted by a member of the executive.
Emergency meetings: there is a section in the constitution to address this. Julia summarized the process by which the emergency meetings could be held.

Draft constitution was developed based on examples from other community associations. We will be able to adjust ours as needed at each AGM.

Any suggestions or comments:

Parham Momtahan: suggested that consideration be given to extend the boundary of the proposed LHPCA area it to the river edge (thus including Mud Lake). We acknowledge the natural environment and its importance to the community. As co-residents, we are stewards for this environment.

The amendment is accepted by a show of hands.

Motion to accept the constitution as it shows on the web site and including the proposed amendment: Suzanne Gauthier Show of hands to accept: passed.

Proposal is to defer the membership fee until the next time we meet.
Elizabeth Geehan: Can the Association exist without funds?
Yes, thanks to some contributions from volunteers to date.
We don't want the prospect of a membership fee to deter anyone.
Walter Baziuk: Nominal fee could be considered? Would a nominal fee be a barrier?
The executive will take this away and discuss.

Are those who automatically received an e-mail considered a member? Should people sign up as a member? If you have registered, you are considered to be interested in being a member. The current list is maintained and will be used to keep people informed. We're assuming that, if you are receiving an e-mail, you are considered to be a member.
For those who were not at the inaugural meeting but who have come tonight, they are all considered members in good standing. Please give us your name and contact information before leaving the meeting tonight.

During the summer months, Marion Agnew recruited a full slate of candidates for this evening. Dave Agnew reviewed the list of those who have put their names forward:

• Julia Goodman - chair
• Gordon Doherty - vice chair
• Leigh Bain - secretary
• Walter Baziuk - Treasurer
• Members at large:
  • Jim Peach
  • Parham Momtahan
  • Nina Milner

Dave called for nominations from the floor. Last Call for nominations was issued.
No new nominations were suggested. Nominations were then closed.
The executive (as listed above) is nominated by acclamation.

Chuck Letourneau presented a prototype web site: http://www.starlingweb.com/lhpca/. The site is currently running on C. Letourneau's business server but this is a temporary measure until a more permanent home can be found. A new hosting server will need to be established and the domain name registered.

The biggest recent addition is the photo gallery (photos by D. Brunton and C. Letourneau) which is fully accessible. There are issues with posting these pictures. There is no copy protection for photos. Chuck has provided some basic protection but this will not prevent those who really want to download these photos. The easiest route is to state that, if you post a picture to the web site, that you give up the rights to the photo. We can include a request to have the owner contacted for rights to use.

It will require some funds to have the community site hosted. The cost will be approximately 100.00 (and includes the fees for registering a domain name). For organizations, Freenet charges 100.00 per year. We need to have a service that provides technical support, technical features, etc.

Walter Baziuk has volunteered the funding to provide the domain name. The executive will need to discuss, finalize and register the domain name.

Chuck reviewed the content of the web site. Some suggestions: provide an online forum where people can exchange and discuss. We would need to find templates that are accessible.

There is the possibility of considering some advertising (i.e. from the Old Forge).

Question: does the City of Ottawa host sites? Alex Cullen: no, sorry they don't.

Chuck has not found any free hosting service.

Would anyone would like to volunteer to take on the responsibility for researching an appropriate hosting site and for maintaining the web site? If not, Chuck will continue to provide the service.

Any suggestions for web site changes should be directed to the executive.

The list as suggested at the June meeting is as follows:

• Proposed redevelopment of Parkway House
• Neighbourhood Watch (including park and bike paths)
• Improved access to transit way from this side of neighbourhood
• Performance of winter snowplowing
• Light-rail down the parkway connecting between Tunney's Pasture and Lincoln Fields along river parkway (or Richmond-Byron corridor, or Carling Ave.)
• Outreach to other association and bodies (e.g. businesses)
• Speeding in the neighbourhood
• Social, recreational events, summer, winter
• Winter parking on Regina

New issues suggested:

• Playground for the children on Regina Street
• Tenants association on Regina (Winthrop Association) is setting up a meeting to discuss playground facilities. LHPCA could potentially join with this effort.
• Neighborhood Watch - Flyers were supplied by a member. There was once a Neighbourhood Association for the area and the signs are still up.
• Yearly neighbourhood cleanup: this was organized by two neighbours who have since moved away so there was no spring cleanup. There is continued interest to hold these and Alex Cullen has brought a kit for a possible fall clean up.
• Winter parking issue on Regina Street.

Alex Cullen clarified the rules for parking:
If there is no sign, then overnight parking is permitted.
During the daytime, there is a 3-hour limit. This is the bylaw for the whole city. This is enforced on a complaint basis.

Health break: 15 minutes

People invited to discuss amongst each other with regard to the priorities and this will opened for discussion at 8:00 pm. Thank you to Joanne for supplying refreshments.

More suggestions:

• Retention pond depression: there was a public meeting to oppose the establishment of the new retention pond. Compromise was to use the Southern pond and not the northern pond. Concern is that the northern pond might be used for storm water run off. The member suggested that LHPCA (and members) keep tabs on the activity.

Alex Cullen provided a short history of the Britannia Storm water planning which include the two depressions being discussed. Alex stated that there are no plans to use the dry depression for any water storage. It will never be used for this purpose.

• Safe access to Transit way - several comments about the increased importance of this since the community has lost the # 50 bus route.

On the original drawings for the transit way station, there was supposed to be a bridge access built to the Lincoln Fields Mall which would have been funded by the mall owners. Recently, the mall owners, RioCan, confirmed that Walmart will be staying for seven more years but there are no plans for tunnel access to the mall be built. Alex Cullen stated that, if something happens to Lincoln Fields, this community will be kept informed.

Members present asked that the executive explore some of the issues to clarify them. They will all be kept on the list and the executive will discuss approaches for future presentation to the members.

There was a development proposal that was presented to the community on April 15 by Windmill Developments with significant rezoning of the land currently owned by the Parkway House organization, which is the charity organization responsible for Parkway House, a residence for mobility disabled adults on Regina Street. This includes a rezoning from current open space/parkland designation in the official plan to an extremely high-density development that included one 12 story and an over 20 story building with well over 200 units. It also meant re-positioning of the Parkway House residence from its current location displacing where there is currently trees and the green space right by the path that goes from Lincoln Heights to the Parkway.

A number of us from the community, including Dave & Marion Agnew, Peter Caskey, Ron Purver, Shirley Callard, Dan Brunton and Dr. Karen Mcintosh, Julia Goodman, and Joanne Hamilton who is an owner in the Halcyon Building across the parkway from Parkway house, as well as myself, have been following this issue and expressing the concerns of the communities in terms of the density, impact on parkland, impact on the surrounding residences. We have also has discussions with the residents and owners of Richmond Park Square buildings, and of course with our Councillor Alex Cullen. This has been an adhoc group since we were also forming the community association, but going forward will work in the context of the community association.

So this is a good opportunity to bring the community association up-to-date with what has evolved in this regard.

On July 6th Parham Momtahan, Dan Brunton, and Julia Goodman attended a Halcyon Owners meeting with Alex Cullen, organized by Joanne Hamilton, which was mainly concerned with the Parkway House development proposal. The main points of remark were:

• The Halcyon owners expressed their serious concerns about this proposal
• Alex again re-iterated that he felt the proposed development is out of scale for the neighbourhood. He mentioned that the intensification is not intended to alter the essential character of the neighbourhood, so the debate would be as to whether it is the high rises or the open space that is essential to the character of the neighbourhood. Obviously it's our firm belief that the open space zoning is in the official plan because it creates a transition zone from the high rises.

Interesting to note that Donald Bayne who is a director of Homestead, who own the Richmond Park square rental buildings on Regina and Malcolm Potvin who is the manager there attended this meeting. Homestead are seriously concerned about the proposed developments on their tenants and their properties. They have therefore secured the services of one of Ottawa's top real-estate lawyers, Janet Bradley for this file, who also attended this meeting.

The latest update on this issue is that apparently Windmill Developments have decided not to pursue this development. According to the information from Safe Housing Ottawa web site (thanks to Marion Agnew for spotting this) http://www.chemicalfreehousing.ca/:

• August 21st, ... received notification from Windmill Developments that they have been forced to withdraw from the project due to our under-funding, poor market conditions and overwhelming community opposition to the project.
• After news of August 21, [Ottawa Safe Housing] then returned to an original concept and offered to purchase a small piece of land outright from Parkway House on which to build 24 rental units only.
• This offer was flatly refused as they now want to sell half the land outright for $1.8 million dollars. It is highly unlikely that we will be able to come up with this amount of money... trying to come up with a rescue plan but clearly, ... must start the search for a new piece of land on which to build our project.

So while it appears that the original April 15th Windmill proposal is no longer active, clearly Parkway House would like to raise cash by sale of property and so we, as a community, need to remain concerned about the potential impact on the community, depending on how they go about it.

It is of note, that it appears from the covenant that the City of Ottawa which originally provided this land to the Parkway House organization in the 70s has the first right of purchase of this land. (Alex Cullen clarified that this was originally school board land. No formal request has yet been received by the City of Ottawa.)

Finally, Alex Cullen has kindly organized a meeting between Dan and Parham, as the community reps, to meet with the city planner who is responsible for this area: Bruce Bridgewater. We will have a meeting on October 6th with the planner to share our concerns and understand the planning perspectives and criteria for any future rezoning. We shall report back to the community association our findings.

Now given that Windmill has withdrawn why is this still important. It's important because the Parkway House organization still wants to sell the land and we still need establish a framework for community concerns and an approach with the City on any re-zoning applications, given that the open space zoning is already in the official plan for sound planning reasons, and the covenant that is attached to the use specific of this land needs to be seriously considered by the city in any moves going forward.

Questions:

How large is the land? 3/4 of a city block. The two proposed buildings did meet the required set backs (albeit with underground parking).

Was any thought given to helping them with fundraising? During early discussions, Parkway House preferred to pursue the sale of the property for development. Perhaps this can be revisited now.

Another general meeting is suggested to be held November. This will allow the Executive to meet and organize for the next AGM. All agreed.
A date will be set and a flyer distributed accordingly.

Meeting adjourned at 8:38

Julia brought members' attention to the following four items of information:

• Neighbourhood Watch Member Guide (ottawapolice.ca)
• Ottawa Good Food Box (613-860-6767 or Ottawa Good Food Box by email at: goodfoodbox@centretownchc.org. Web site: www.ottawagoodfoodbox.ca
• Sewing Seeds of Safety for 2010: a free community event (Sept. 26, 2009, 2:00 - 5:30) at Winthrop Court (38 Winthrop Private)
• Clean up kit (from Alex Cullen).