GACA Board Meeting – November 20, 2018

7:03 p.m.

The motion to accept the agenda made by Maja, seconded by Carrie. 

The motion to accept the minutes of October 16, 2018 was made by David and seconded by Maja.

Date of the next GACA AGM: Based on available dates for a large room to accommodate 50 or more, Thursday, May 9th, 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. has been requested by Sue.   

The Glebe Report reached out to Sue about publishing GACA meetings in the “Save the Date” section of their paper.  They asked if we would like to have our meetings included.  We have been open to having people joining us, we have just never made it publicly announced.  Maja made a motion to accept the Glebe Report offer to publish our meetings, Carrie seconded. 

It has been almost a year since Maja took over from Chris. Maja deposited $200.00 today. We had $980.00 in revenue, mostly from memberships and about $100.00 from the Glebe Garage Sale.  Our balance is $2,901.99. By December’s statement, the balance will be $3,200.00   Our expenses include the bank monthly fees – they are $45.00 annually.   Maja would like to find a bank with lower or no fees, Buduchnist Credit Union is one possibility.  They have sponsored our spring and fall clean-ups, it would be nice to give them our business.  It was noted that the Dalhousie Park re-opening costs were absorbed by David and Sue.  It was mentioned that these costs should come from GACA to get a more complete picture of our expenses. 

 

FCA fees were paid in May 2018. They have not yet cashed their cheque.  We pay the Glebe Community Association $2.00 per GACA member, per year.  Sue will connect Maja to the treasurer of the Glebe Community Association for this year’s payment.  

 

The GACA contingency fund was created when the Ontario Municipal Board still existed. It is not yet clear how much any challenge might cost community associations under the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal.  There is currently $1039.00 earmarked in the contingency fund.  We will discuss the contingency fund at the next meeting.   

About 50 or 60 surveys were filled out. Most respondents had no children. 41 of the respondents were new members; some had been members in the past but not recently.  There were 36 individuals who were members last year but chose not to renew.   Most responded that they appreciate living in the Glebe Annex because of proximity to downtown.  Half indicated that they visit the GACA website and most want to be contacted by email.  A main concern was traffic. In response to concern about development projects in our area, half were very concerned, and half were somewhat concerned (only 3 were not concerned).  The respondents were most concerned with the 289 Carling development.  When asked where they would like to see GACA more involved in the future, it was split almost evenly between public transportation, safety, greenspace, and development. Social events were selected by only a few.  

 

In discussion that we will sell memberships at our May AGM, the question was asked if we are required by our constitution to hold an AGM each year (there was no AGM in 2018).  The answer was yes – our constitution says that we will hold an AGM each fall. At the spring AGM we will need to have a vote to change our constitution to reflect this.

Since 2016, the City of Ottawa has been in the process of amending legislation to create more compatible infill in Residential 4 (referred to as R4) zoned areas in the inner urban core. This zoning, as applied to inner-urban neighbourhoods, allows a mix of residential buildings which could include detached houses to low rise apartment dwellings. (Of note, the majority of the Glebe Annex has R4 zoning.) This legislation targets what is commonly referred to as ‘bunkhouses’ – oversized dwelling units with an unreasonable number of bedrooms. Bunkhouses contribute to higher occupancies in the area, and skew anticipated densities, according to city zoning laws. The project consists of two phases:

 

Phase 1 comprised of an effort to update various definitions, among which it was proposed that R4 dwellings be restricted to a maximum of four bedrooms. Phase 1 also successfully passed that any further bunkhouse development is illegal city-wide. Phase 1 concluded in June 2018. 

 

Phase 2 is currently underway, where broader housing issues will be addressed. The city will draft changes through spring and summer of this year, leading to the public consultation set for fall 2019.

 

Final zoning proposals will be produced and circulated in early 2019, and an amendment brought to Planning Committee is slated for spring 2020.

Thursday, December 20th, 6:30 p.m. La Favorita,   

A number of changes are planned for OC Transpo routes once the LRT is complete. Many of these will affect our neighbourhood. For instance, the number 10 route will terminate at the LRT stop at Lyon. Passengers will then need to take the LRT to continue east. The 85 would stop at Pimisi (Lebreton), although the 14 will still continue to go downtown. Sue would like to reach out to GACA members to see how much it matters to them. If there is great concern from the community, this is something we can try to address.  We could work through Abbas to get community opinions or to sign a possible petition, similar to how we advertised the park opening.

8:42 p.m.