January 19, 2012
7 to 9 p.m.
St. George’s Church
Piccadilly Ave.

The Wellington Village Community Association is holding a public forum to explore the Wellington West Community Design Plan. We hope to better understand what the CDP calls for in terms of development heights and densities along Wellington Street, and how the City envisions implementing these policies.

Invited speakers include Councillor Katherine Hobbs, who will address how the community can be better involved in the planning approvals process, and Yasir Naqvi, who will explain his proposals for reforming the process of appealing development decisions to the Ontario Municipal Board. City Planning Dept. staff will also speak.

Once again, we will have the large rink at the south end of the park for hockey, the smaller surface near the swings for beginners and non-hockey skaters and the skating oval around the wading pool. As always, we will plan to have our winter carnival later in February.

While we have a number of volunteers who help with the floodings, if you wish to volunteer, please send us your name and email.

On behalf of the Community Group, we would very much like to thank all of those who helped us build the rink this season. The invaluable support of our volunteers who build the snow base and flood the rink has once again been instrumental in being able to provide our much beloved rink to the community.

Councillor Hobbs, in conjunction with the developer, will be holding a public meeting on January 11th at Hilson Public School from 6:30 to 8:30 to discuss the proposal.  Details of the meeting can be found on the Councillor’s website: http://ourkitchissippi.ca/?p=874

Details of the application can be found at: http://app01.ottawa.ca/postingplans/appDetails.jsf?lang=en&appId=__8U6YGF

The City is looking for comments on the development.  For those of you who had received notices from the City in December, you would have been advised that comments were due by January 13, 2012.   Hampton Iona and Westboro community associations requested to the developer that they hold a public meeting and that comments should not be due to the City until after the meeting has been held.  I am pleased to say that the developer advises that comments are now due after their public meeting on January 20, 2012.

For your information, the Secondary Plan (http://ottawa.ca/city_hall/ottawa2020/official_plan/vol_2a/richmond_westboro/index_en.html) provides the following direction for the site in question:

• Encourage the evolution of the East Village to a more traditional mainstreet character as an extension to Westboro Village and a link to the West Wellington traditional mainstreet east of Island Park Drive, recognizing the varying character of the existing buildings and lot and block sizes;
• Maintain maximum building heights at a maximum four storeys where lots are less than 45 metres in depth and back onto low-rise residential areas, and generally up to six storeys on lots of greater depth;
• In considering any redevelopment of the Canadian Banknote Company site, encourage the reuse of all or part of the landmark building and retention of the front yard open space where possible, including a public square as a community gathering place;
• Consider rezoning the Canadian Banknote Company site and adjacent 175 Richmond Road to TM-Traditional Mainstreet for mixed-use development should redevelopment be proposed. Given the lot sizes, higher building heights may be possible, provided that redevelopment is compatible with, and provides an appropriate transition to, the adjacent low-rise residential neighbourhood, and that as much of the existing green space along Richmond Road as possible is incorporated into the redevelopment;

The planner handling the file is Melanie Knight (613-580-2424 ext. 28439, email: melanie.knight@ottawa.ca).

This draft bylaw had several elements in it that cause great concern to most community groups, including Hampton Iona.  These elements were:

• The requirement for voluntary not-for-profit organizations to have to register as lobbyists, including those who speak on behalf of such groups.
• In the case that a voluntary not-for-profit group were to organize a grassroots campaign, it is possible that any member of the public who writes their councillor as a result would have to register as lobbyists unless the criteria was waived by the City’s Integrity Commissioner.
• Developer, in the course of normal discussions with the Planning Department with respect to getting approval for their projects would not have to register their communications under the lobbyist register.  Community members and community groups, however, might have to register as lobbyists unless there comments were voiced at a public meeting or part of the official request for comments from the public.  Developers, however, would have to register their contacts with elected officials.  This is troubling given that the OMB places far more weight on the views of Planning Staff than on the will of an elected council.  Hence when it comes to getting a development approved, it is more important for developers to get the Planning Staff on board than it is to get councillors on-side.

If the Governance Committee were to have approved the draft by-law, it would go on the Financial and Economic Development Committee next week.

At the start of the meeting, Mayor Watson introduced a motion requesting major changes  to the draft bylaw, including limiting the requirement for community groups to have register as lobbyists.  As a result, the draft by-law will not be going forward at this time.  Staff will be revising the proposed by-law and will return to the Governance Committee some time next year.

At today’s meeting, approximately 15 groups made presentations including Hampton Iona Community Group.  Please find attached a copy of our presentation.  If anyone has any questions, please do not hesitate to contact HICG.  The original draft by-law and background discussion are available on the City’s website.

Lobbyist Register Bylaw Presentation (December 1, 2011)

Draft Lobbyist Register By-law

More information, including an online-survey for those unable to attend, are available at cyclinginottawa.ca.

The sign industry has asked the City to consider permitting the use of digital technology for signs, including billboards. Digital signs use electronic screens to display programmed text, images, or potentially videos, such as advertisements or public notices. This new technology is proposed to replace some traditional signs and billboards that use internally illuminated plastic panels, externally illuminated paper poster images or three-faced rotating panels. Council wants to know what you think before deciding if it should change the existing municipal by-law to allow this new technology.

To have your comments included in the staff report that will be presented to committee and City Council, please take a few minutes to complete this brief questionnaire any time between November 1 and 30. For additional background information on the proposal please visit the Digital Billboards Study page.

Former Sisters of the Visitation Convent
Saturday November 12
12pm to 5pm
114 Richmond Road

Join the merchants of Westboro Village  on October 29, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for a day filled with chills and thrills, and spooktacular Halloween treats for the whole family.

The day will launch with a family zombie walk with a make-up and drama lesson from the Ottawa School of Speech and Drama.

Have a freakishly good time finding hidden clues through the stores in Westboro Village in our one-of-a-kind ghostly scavenger hunt.

Dovercourt will be pulling out all the stops at their haunted bouncy castle — jumping around never felt so tricky.

Receive one of our limited edition, re-usable trick or treat bags filled with Westboro Village goodies (while quantities last)

Butcher the cold weather blues away at the Westboro Village Superstore pumpkin carving station.

Get up close and personal with up-close magician Elliot Smith who will leave you wondering exactly how it was done.

Or watch jugglers, psychics, palm readers, oriental face readers and be amazed at their mystical skills…

Shuffle your way down Richmond Road for a sidewalk sale to remember, featuring all your favourite Westboro village merchants! Wouldn’t it be a scream to get a head start on that Holiday shopping?

We dare say, it’s fun for the whole undead family!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Local candidates address community issues in response to FCA election survey
Ottawa, Oct 4 – In preparation for Thursday’s provincial election, Community Associations throughout Greater Ottawa worked collaboratively with the Federation of Citizens’ Associations (FCA) to create a candidate survey on local, community based issues. The survey questions, which were sent to 32 candidates running for the four major parties in eight Ottawa area ridings, were chosen because of their relevance to the work community volunteers perform at the neighbourhood level.
"We received good responses to our survey from many candidates across the City, but unfortunately, many others did not bother to answer any questions on these important municipal issues," said Graeme Roderick, President of the Federation of Citizens’ Associations.
Ottawa Centre was the sole riding from which all four candidates provided responses. In all, seven Liberal, five Green, one NDP and one Progressive Conservative candidate responded—a total of 14 candidates completed the survey.
"If responding to the survey is an indication of the level of  interest candidates have in the issues raised, then it’s clear that many of them are not taking community issues seriously in this campaign," Roderick said.
"We would like to thank all the candidates who participated in our survey to inform voters about municipal issues, but we are disappointed more candidates did not take the time to respond to our survey. These are issues all parties claim to be concerned with. They should respond.”
All candidate responses to the FCA’s survey can be viewed on the FCA’s web-site at www.fca-fac.ca.
The Federation of Citizens’ Associations (FCA) is a city wide association and forum for community associations and citizens’ groups in Ottawa. The FCA  is comprised of urban, suburban and rural community associations from across the amalgamated City. Members share information about issues facing their communities and take joint action on city-wide issues.