Attendees
Maria McCrea: NCC is appealing the designation of part of the Southern Corridor: The appeal concerns only a small part of the Southern Corridor: 37 hectares. The area in question is designated as Major Open Space but the NCC wants it to be General Urb an Area. Maria supports the existing designation and feels that more development will bring more traffic. Maria would like to have a public meeting in April to discuss the Southern Corridor.
Peter Brimacombe: The Southern Corridor needs to be developed to provide housing. Development in the Southern Corridor would allow a more compact and efficient city.
Alan Asselstine: Three years ago, the NCC proposed a major development on the Southern Corridor, at the time there was widespread opposition but this opposition is not unanimous.
Maria McCrea is serving on three committees: Emergency and Protective Services, Transportation & Corporate Services and Economic Development. She insists that the Hunt Club Community Association be consulted on Light Rail Expansion in Southern Ottawa. Red Pines is a name for the 8 hectares south of Hunt Club Road now planted with red pine trees. She expects that this area will be developed. Eight new houses will be developed at Hunt Club Private which is just off Hunt Club Road. There will be more h otels and restaurants going in around Hunt Club Road including a Star Bucks just south of the new Petro Canada gas station. The City Budget will be cut: $108 million from $2.2 billion, there will be real cuts in services such as bus routes. There will be no increase in the mill rate. As property increases in value its assessment increases, the increase in Ottawa is higher than the provincial average. Councillors Maria McCrea and Gord Hunter will host a public meeting on the Budget on February 24 at 19:00 at the Carleton Heights Community Centre, 1665 Apeldoorn Avenue.
Alan Asselstine: the present method of assessment based on property value is better than the old. The cap on increases to the assessment on commercial property puts more of a load on residential property.
Nancy Seaby reported on the Information Session on Securing Our Wealth: Investing in the Environmental Quality of Canadian Cities. This Session was held at the Congress Centre and was presented by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Eco nomy. Nancy Seaby, Peter Brimacombe and Bill Royds from our community attended the Session. Bob Chiarelli, the Mayor of Ottawa spoke of the importance of Canadian Cities: which are the centres of wealth and growth, where 80% of Canadians live, by 2025 t his figure will increase to 98%. He spoke of the need to restructure government to support cities. He said that the cities should be more compact and that urban sprawl had to be curtailed. Other speakers such as Edwin Aquilina and Ned Lathrop reiterated the need for compact cities. Brownfields were the topic of the second half of the Session: brownfields are sites which suffer from contaminated soil so that they cannot be developed. The solution is to limit liability to a specified period such as 15 ye ars: this limit will then make it attractive to clean up the contaminated sites.
Alan Asselstine said that Toronto is on the verge of collapse because of urban sprawl. Alan is a member of the Sawmill Creek Study Committee. He is concerned that all its tributaries are identified. He said that we still need a pedestrian/bicycle path from our community over to South Keys Shopping Plaza.
Nancy Seaby: received a letter from OC Transpo acknowledging our request for a bus shelter for the east-bound bus at Downpatrick and Hunt Club. Nancy asked about new development near Giant Tiger on Bank Street.
Next meeting: Mon 1 Mar 2004 at 7:30pm