GCA Monthly Board meeting

DRAFT
GCA Board Meeting Agenda

Tuesday, January 23rd, 2024 – 7:00 p.m.

VIA Zoom
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82725480706?pwd=aHLB4r7AOahjdb94sV07lqHvlav0x9.1
                                                                   
Chair: June Creelman, GCA Vice President

Secretary and Timekeeper: Janet Sutherland

ANNEX A – REPORTS

Education

Environment – Starting in January 2024, a monthly ‘Coffee House on Sustainability’ will be open from 9:30 to 11:30 am at the Glebe Community Centre covering the following topics:

The final coffee house will be held at the Jim Durrell Recreation Centre at 1265 Walkley Road, Ottawa on:

The Coffee House on Sustainability – Homes & Energy on January 27th will include two short presentations on the Better Homes Ottawa Loan Program at 9:30 am (Aaron Thornell) and on Deep Energy & Carbon Renovations from a Homeowner Perspective at 10:30 am (Patric Langevin).  There will be knowledgeable neighbours sharing their experiences on solar panels, heat pumps (air and ground source), insulation, air tightness, energy efficient appliances, windows and doors.  These Ottawa residents want to share knowledge gained when making the numerous consumer choices that impact the carbon footprint of our lifestyles.  What worked, what didn’t work and what did they wish they’d known before making the change?

By providing a forum to learn how residents have lowered their individual carbon footprints whilst living in older homes, the Glebe Community Association (GCA) Environment Committee in collaboration with CAFES hopes to provide Ottawa residents, both homeowners, landlords and home renters, with the knowledge they need to choose environmentally sustainable options when they face similar consumer decisions. We also want to highlight options that will result in our homes and subsequently our communities becoming more resilient to our changing climate.

Please register for these free events at Eventbrite:

https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/coffee-houses-on-sustainability-2828129.

Coffee and cookies will be available on a first come, first served basis but attendees must bring their own mug!

Funded by Community Environment Project Grant Program (CEPGP) & CAFES and supported by the following sponsors: Bridgehead, McKeen Metro, Starbucks, Wild Oat, Happy Goat, Second Cup.  If you are interested in getting involved in one or more of these events, then please send an email to environment@glebeca.ca.

Federation of Citizens Associations

Great Glebe Garage Sale

Health, Housing and Social Services – Based on the motions approved at the last Board meeting, 3 letters from the GCA Board were written in support of additional funding and social supports to address homelessness, addiction and community safety. The letters are posted on the Advocacy page of the GCA website. A follow up meeting has been held with Councillor Shawn Menard’s office, GNAG and the Glebe BIA to discuss the focus of a community education workshop in the spring. A list of resources and who to call on various issues will be posted on the GCA website (draft enclosed).

Heritage

Lansdowne – verbal update on appeal process; Motion

Membership – see Motion to appoint new Area Reps / GCA Board members

Parks

Planning – A report will be presented on the DLRA’s lobbying effort, which has been funded in part by the GCA, to improve the plans for the large complex being built at 770-774 Bronson/557 Cambridge S. 

Transportation – Motion; special reports from DLRA Traffic Committee & Bronson Team

1) Status report from the Bronson Team, from Barbara Popel, TeamLeader

The Bronson Team1 have made steady progress since the team was firstformed in January 2023. We have:

Our next steps are:

1 Bronson Team’s current members are Cathy Simons, Barb Popel from theDLRA, Sue Stefko from the GACA, and Spencer Sloan and James Stuewe from the GCA.

2 On Jan.17, 302 additional email addresses from GCA’s in-person sale ofnew GCA 2023 memberships were added to the GCA’s bulletin.

3 A follow-up reminder via Twitter is planned.

2) TOH Traffic Monitoring Strategy, from Barbara Popel, Chair ofthe DLRA Traffic Committee:

On August 8, Sharon Lefroy, the DLRA’s representative on The Ottawa Hospital’s (TOH’s) Community Advisory Council (sometimes referred to as TOH’s New Civic DevelopmentCommunity Advisory Council., and Errol Mendes, a member of the DLRA Traffic Committee, met with Austin Shih from Parsons, the consulting firm working for TOH. Shih agreed to all of their requests concerning both TOH’s Traffic Monitoring Strategy(TMS) and the execution of the TMS that Leroy and Mendes madeon behalf of the DLRA. The DLRA’s requests included:

Sharon Lefroy has applied to be the DLRA’s representative on theTraffic Monitoring Committee which TOH will be establishing once it is time to do the baseline measurements.

On August 8, Shih sent TOH NCD – TMS-Aug2023-Final.pdf toStream Shen, the city planner responsible for the new Civic campus.You can read TOH NCD – TMS-Aug2023-Final document at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u2coTTZ6h3viw4Z8Vp4Gj9hrEBcCO_Zf/view?usp=sharing

Thanks are due to Councillor Menard. On August 8 he reiteratedthe points to Shen that Lefroy and Mendes raised with Shih.

In summary, our work on the Traffic Monitoring Strategy has been a big success for the DLRA. Prior to the August 8 meeting, there wasno commitment to include the Dow’s Lake (DL) neighbourhood in the TMS. Now the entire DL neighbourhood will be included in the baseline measurements and the monitoring which begins after the hospital is opened. The City’s oversight and control of the monitoring data should ensure that the DLRA is on the City’s radar and that we can have access to objective data which we can then use to request traffic calming and parking amelioration measures.

We strongly encourage the GCA’s Transportation Committee to become familiar with the TMS, as we believe the traffic impacts ofthe new Civic campus on the Glebe will not be limited to the Dow’s Lake neighbourhood area (Area 1) of the Glebe.

175 Third Avenue, Ottawa ON K1S 2K2

ANNEX B – MOTIONS

Whereas the GCA board has two vacant positions; and

Whereas the GCA’s bylaws permit vacancies to be filled between Annual General Meetings;

Be it resolved that the following be appointed to the GCA board of directors:

Whereas at its November 28 meeting, the GCA board approved spending up to $5000 to obtain legal and planning  advice on whether the GCA had reasonable grounds for an appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal of Lansdowne’s rezoning and official plan amendment;

Whereas the Board also approved delegating the final decision on whether to file an appeal  to the Executive given the filing  deadline of December 14, 2023;

Whereas both the Old Ottawa East and Old Ottawa South Community Associations supported an appeal and Old Ottawa East made a financial contribution to the effort;

Whereas after learning that there were reasonable grounds for an appeal, the Executive consented to the GCA going forward with an appeal;

Whereas the GCA filed an appeal of both the rezoning and Official Plan Amendment for Lansdowne to the Ontario Land Tribunal; and

Whereas it is estimated that the costs of an appeal could be in the range of $35,000 to $50,0000 to retain the services of legal and planning experts;

Be it resolved that the GCA:

Whereas the GCA Transportation Committee has a mandate to promote active transportation safety within the Glebe;

And whereas the Committee obtained an Infrastructure Canada grant to permit the GCA to engage a professional consulting firm, Momentum Transport Consultancy, to complete a study on opportunities to improve active transportation within the Glebe;

And whereas Momentum Transport Consultancy conducted the study, incorporating input obtained through a public survey, a public open house, a stakeholders consultation and neighbourhood walkabouts that engaged a wide range of different constituencies within the Glebe;

And whereas Momentum produced a report dated October 31, 2023 entitled “Glebe Active Transportation Study Action Plan”, which is based on the various inputs obtained through its consultation process and identifies a series of potential active transportation projects that may be pursued by the GCA;

And whereas the GCA Transportation Committee plans to use the Action Plan to inform future GCA positions on any specified projects, that the Committee proposes for approval by the GCA Board, following further development work including consulting with affected parties;

Be it resolved that the GCA adopts the Glebe Active Transportation Study Action Plan prepared by Momentum.

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