GACA Board Meeting – December 8, 2021

Minutes – Glebe Annex Community Association (GACA)

Board Meeting – Wednesday, December 8, 2021, 7:00 p.m.

Held Via Zoom

Present:

This is our traditional year end get-together, held virtually this year.  We will cover some business before having the casual part of our meeting.

The minutes were approved.

November 10th – No business arising.

Budget has been the main issue taking place. There have been some improvements through some of the committees.  These are on the environmental side, but there have also been attempts to get more money for affordable housing. The police budget only went up by 2% – they were asking for 2.86 %. This is below inflation, so technically it is a reduction in real dollars. It is still a high police budget.  Some of that budget should go towards social supports and areas that the police are not trained for – particularly mental illness supports.

The councillor’s office had a walk around the site and a meeting with Steve Gauthier, the city planner, as well as some representatives from the Dow’s Lake Residents’ Association. They had communications with Kristi Ross, a lawyer who specializes in planning issues. She has been retained by the Dow’s Lake Residents’ Association. They are still waiting for Katasa to come back and respond to some questions, and hope that the city pushes for some changes. They are trying to get a reduction in height, better transition, and integration with street levels, especially on Cambridge. There are also transportation issues, and park space needed. Although there is Commissioner’s Park, there is not a lot of city park space in that neighbourhood. It is preferred to get some green space there, but at minimum, some compensation. There will be a meeting with Katasa in the new year, they do not have a date yet.

They are finalizing the TTC plans for next year.  They want to make sure they are doing them things both efficiently and effectively.  They want to make some substantive improvements, especially with the extra funding they are receiving.

Went to planning committee and it passed with very little discussion and no real community or outside representatives. They are not going to full council until January. Once it passes at council, there can be consultations on the park. It has been a long time coming.

GCA has reached out to GACA to see if we will sign their letter asking for an environmental assessment on the Ottawa Hospital site. Sue will reach out by email to the board on the details.

Robert gave a comprehensive presentation on Healthy Streets.  He analyzed the material to help us determine if we should support the Healthy Streets approach put forward by the Healthy Transportation Coalition, and if we want to send a letter to Mayor Watson and the City of Ottawa to adopt the Healthy Street approach. We would be asking them to do a better job of taking public health into consideration when making decisions about streets. The Healthy Streets approach was developed in the UK by urban planner Lucy Saunders. There are 10 indicators of what a healthy street looks like and additional 19 on more specific things like the speed of vehicles, what kind of vehicles, what is the space available for walking, etc. There are two  questions that we need to address.  First, is the UK Healthy Street a good approach and relevant to Ottawa, particularly the Glebe Annex?  There are differences to structures, climate, etc. The second question is whether we should send a letter to Mayor Watson with the six recommendations outlined in the letter. A weakness with the letter is that it does not use indicators or tools.  Is it realistic that Ottawa Public Health has the resources to co-lead the Ottawa Transportation, Cycling and Pedestrian plans?  Following a group discussion, it was felt that GACA supported the concept of Healthy Streets. GACA will submit their own letter based on, but slightly adapting the concepts presented in the coalition letter. Robert will revise the letter for our next meeting. Sue will let the coalition know that we support them in principle, but we will be sending our own letter and copy them.

The application to have the Dalhousie South Park renamed to the Abbas Family Park may have more strength if submitted by GACA. This was supported by the board. Joanne will work on the application.

The official portion of the meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m.