KBCA

Please remember to mark Wednesday, February 22 at 7:00 p.m. on your calendar.   Please come to the KBCA Centre (2 Beaverbrook Rd) for your community election and  KBCA annual general meeting.

You will meet your neighbours, enjoy free refreshments and vote for your choice of many new candidates candidates for the Board of Directors.

Bring $10 in cash or cheque payable to KBCA to update your membership and voting privileges.  Or, please click on the Membership PayPal button below. It’s safe, fast and easy.  Please try it now.

This has been an exciting year and there is more to come!

Dear neighbour and supporter,

It’s time to count our success and take a big, refreshing breath!

Hundreds of people in our community and beyond now know each other and appreciate their community better because of KBCA fall activities in Beaverbrook and across Kanata.

Several of community goals have been advanced including reaching out to each other, highlighting our heritage values and preparing for the future.

Partly because of our work, the City has also been reflecting on citizen concerns and on the need for rational, community-related development.

Spot rezoning must come to an end.  Rubber stamping development proposals in the name of “intensification” cannot continue.  Developments must reflect neighbourhood character and contribute to the well-functioning of the community.  We will continue to promote sound planning policies and pursue a just and principled planning process.

Opportunities for citizen support of good urban development with environmental protection will grow through 2012.

The recent public meeting arranged by Kanata North community associations with others showed public encouragement for strengthening a wide network of people all across Kanata and Ottawa.  Attendees applauded the concept of a citizen-led urban forum, committing to models of human sustainable development, and preparing for practical steps in the evolution of our City.

Focusing on good, just and legal urban development will be particularly important as the city starts to review and re-craft Ottawa’s Official Plan.  Over the coming weeks and months our strength, resources and collective knowledge will be tried.   The public will require even more cooperation among public voluntary groups.

Please come to the KBCA Centre (2 Beaverbrook Rd.) on February 22, 7:00pm  to support open community election at the KBCA annual general meeting.  An independent nominations committee is now recruiting community-wide candidates for a neutral vote of directors.   Please send nominations to “Kanata Beaverbrook Community Association” at kbca@bell.net   Your own candidacy is welcome.

For now, let us congratulate each other and reflect on our collective learnings and achievements from a heady and happy fall and winter campaign. Thank you!  Applaud each other.  You deserve it!

The Kanata Beaverbrook Community Association (KBCA) thanks you and hundreds of other Kanata people for your vigorous support.  Your generous donations and involvement are essential to defend our community values against damaging re-zoning such as the high rise building proposed at #2 The Parkway.

Now we are preparing the next steps, consulting other community associations on common interests, collecting support for Beaverbrook and for Kanata, and rallying support for good planning.

To meet neighbours and consult on next steps jointly with other Kanata and Ottawa groups, please come on Thursday, January 26 at 7 p.m. to All Saints High School, on Kanata Avenue, at Goubourn Forced Road, for our next public working meeting, co-sponsored by KBCA with the newly-formed Kanata North Council of Community Associations, Kanata Lakes and Briarbrook/Morgans Grant Community Associations, and other Kanata Community Associations.

The evening will feature an enjoyable meet and mingle, an update, as well as an interactive consultation with small group work sessions.

Gary Sealey, President, KBCA

Download the community update:  CommunityUpdateJan2012

Download the document prepared for the KBCA by Dr. Barry Wellar, MS, PhD, RPP (University of Ottawa).  Dr. Wellar’s cogent analysis confirms that the proposed rezoning of #2 The Parkway does not represent good planning and is not in the public interest.

Opinion-2TheParkway-DrWellar

Highlights of Bill Teron’s impassioned plea against the proposed rezoning of #2 The Parkway on Dec 12 have been edited into a highlight reel and posted on YouTube.

The official meeting, with a detailed presentation on the proposal by the owner will be held on Dec. 12 starting at 7:30 p.m. in Halls A & B of the Mlacak Centre. Comments from the public can continue to be sent in until after that meeting and that input will form part of the report recommending an appropriate zoning.

Councilor Wilkinson states in EMC her appreciation of the interest and participation by so many and will be working with planning staff to ensure that the final zoning will respect the design standards that were followed in developing the Beaverbrook Community.

Last week more than 150 residents packed the hall to discuss two proposals – to construct a 16 storey apartment with 125 units at 2 The Parkway and for Minto’s 156 stacked townhouses and 4 freehold townhouses on land between March Road and Sandhill. Many questions were raised about the impact of these proposals on the Beaverbrook Community (the proposal for 2 The Parkway) and on St. John’s heritage church and cemetery (the proposal for 760 March Road). For 2 The Parkway, this meeting was an introduction to the process. Staff has not yet received input from technical agencies on items such as servicing and traffic. Input from the public continues to be received by the planner who will then evaluate all material and make a recommendation to the planning committee and council next year.

Kanata researcher Faith Blacquiere is on the track of the purpose and plans for Kanata.  What is the zoning for Kanata and Beaverbrook and why?  Where is intensive development, including Hi-rises, supposed to go?  And what are some of the costs of not following the official plan?   Would you like to see Faith’s reports?

What we looked like, in 1975

Paul Renaud one of two speakers at the Watergate organized by KBCA (Gordon Henderson) writes:

“After 9 months of asking and around 90 days after Natalia Crowe formally filed an access to information request, we finally received a copy of both the draft and final SWM report for the existing conditions in Shirley’s Brook and Kizell that was done by the City for the EA on the water diversion proposed by KNL.

You can download these reports from http://www.renaud.ca/public/Water_Related/2011_EA_ShirleysWatts_Creek_Water_Diversion/

Note that they are 34 and 38 MB in size so you may want to download only one of them at a time.

I haven’t had a chance to read them in detail yet, but Appendix A (Page 46 in the final report) confirms that the City reviewed the report with KNL’s consultant IBI on August 15 while simultaneously refusing public access to this document that was paid for with our tax dollars.  This is a clear violation of the EA Act that requires that the proponent must treat ALL stakeholders equally.   You will recall that at the same time last August I was pleading with Marianne Wilkinson to arrange for access to this document because of the city’s lack of response to our requests.  Meanwhile the city was secretly meeting with KNL’s agents to discuss “technical issues”.

So why does the developer get special status over the community?    KNL has no special status in this EA because the city is the proponent for the EA and KNL is just another stakeholder.  Arguably IBI has no status at all as they are an agent of KNL and have no direct interest in the outcome of the EA.  It will be interesting to compare the draft and final reports with the details of these minutes to see just how much KNL’s consultant was able to influence the outcome of a public engineering study.

Having a closed door meeting to entertain comments from the developer on the draft report, while simultaneously blocking public access, is odious and smacks of impropriety.   This behaviour is unconscionable and Don Herweyer, Eric Tousignant, & John Moser who presided over that meeting on behalf of the City should be held accountable for a serious breach of both ethics and law.

And why did the City accept documents labeled by AECOM as “confidential” and including a limitation of liability when they are a “work for hire” that is owned by the public who commissioned it?  There should be no public engineering study which has any basis for secrecy.  Nor is there a need for a limitation of liability when a professional engineer is engaged for such work – unless the professional engineer who prepared the work is aware that it was not done to a professional standard.  Is that the case here?

What kind of Machiavellian world is Jim Watson allowing to be run at City Hall?  The lack of transparency in such matters is a breeding ground for corruption.  All city contracts should clearly confirm that a consultant’s work is owned by the public that paid for it so that there is no expectation of privacy or confidentiality.  This is common practice in the private sector.  And why are we paying professional engineers to consult on contracts if they are unwilling to stand as professionals behind the findings?

Perhaps it’s finally time to take a broom to City Hall!
With Fortitude”

Paul Renaud

Thanks to Bill Teron for his inspiring speech introduced by John Mlacak and Marianne Wilkinson and Eileen; and for Bill’s gift of a real treasure to all of us, his report on the principles of Beaverbrook.  Many thanks to Marianne Wilkinson for arrangements including scheduling by the two Lindas, Angela,  and Jessica; thanks to Nick Roberts, and executive services by Brian Clifton, Lindsey, Kevin, Darren and other superintending staff of Mlacak Centre for their amazing grace under pressure and dedication to getting things done right and on time. Thanks to Janet including her training us to use the dishwasher and get us operating; and thanks John of the Seniors Council.  Thanks to the Royale – Gracious Lifestyles, formerly the Royalton, for help with the recent traveling dinner Rothwell and Moffat, hurray and good luck with your December 10 show at the NAC http://www.rothwellandmoffatt.com/fr_aboutus.cfm  Thanks to Chris, Jordan, Jacob, for set up and to Ruth McKluskey for supervision; HannahPaul for decorations; Mary, Jeff, and Bob who also helped in set up and crafted decorations; Dot, Beth, and the heroes of Reaney Court. Thanks to Hugh for cooking, cleaning, decorating and room set up.   The meal courses were so well done: Cheers to the Cooks! Three more to Eileen and Andrew!