Action Sandy Hill notebook
From bylaws and beautification to winter fun and zoning R4
Jan Finlay
These were the items discussed at the ASH November board meeting; a summary to keep you up-to-date and involved with your community.
Winter Carnival will be held January 19, 2020 at the Sandy Hill Community Centre. Christine Aubry is organizing the event.
Contract for maintaining the community rink. ASH currently has a group of young people who are willing to take on its contract with the City to maintain and supervise the community rink at Sandy Hill Community Centre this winter. They invite others in the neighbourhood who might be interested in managing the contract to make their pitch to ASH at info@ash-acs.ca. The work is remunerated. Please send a paragraph by mid-December describing why you and/or your group would be best placed to take on the initial building of the rink, regular maintenance (up to 4 floodings a week, snow clearing) and rink supervision (every evening, and on weekends).
Winter trail grooming. The Eastern Rideau River Winter Trail runs along the east side of the Rideau River from Montreal Rd. to the 417. Councillor Fleury is looking for volunteers to help with grooming; contact mathieu.fleury@#ottawa.ca. It was groomed twice last year. Organizers hope to groom it 10 times this winter. ASH is looking for someone with a snowmobile that could be used for trail grooming. Contact info@ash-acs.ca.
Nominations for ASH board members. For personal reasons Joel Mader and Jeremy Silburt have resigned from the ASH board. This leaves the board with only 10 members. A call for nominations has gone out to the community. Please send your nomination to ASH by email at info@ash-acs.ca or by letter to Action Sandy Hill, 250 Somerset E. (K1N 6V6) by mid-December. The board will make the appointment(s) at its regular meeting on January 27, 2020. Please ensure that each nomination includes:
• Name of nominee (and nominator if different)
• Telephone number of nominee
• Address of nominee
• A clear statement that the nomination is for the position of Director on the board of ASH.
The term would be until the AGM in May 2020, when the successful nominees could run for election for a two-year term.
The Sandy Hill and Lowertown Youth Mentorship Project. This is a project to match youth (grade 10 to university) with professionals from their own neighbourhoods in Sandy Hill and Lowertown. A 12-person committee is working on the project. Seetal Sunga is the ASH Board representative and Sabrina Mathews is the contact person. A free Connections for Success Mentorship Event is being planned for February 9 at the Sandy Hill Community Centre. Students can sign up online at tiny.cc/n85rez. Interested mentors can submit their names to Sabrina Mathews at smathews@magma.ca. Deadline for all submissions is January 9, 2020.
Problem addresses and bylaw infractions. The City of Ottawa has struck a task force to look at problem addresses. The task force members represent City bylaw, community police, fire, and public health. To date one Sandy Hill address has been placed on the list.
Tyler Patterson provided the following statistics for bylaw infractions in November: noise 42; property standards 30—down from 74 for the same period in 2018; and zoning 2. There were no graffiti infractions reported in November.
Gazebo a go. The gazebo project for Strathcona Park has been approved. Barry Padolsky will be providing architectural drawings pro bono. ASH will be setting up a steering committee for this project. If you are interested in helping, please contact the board at info@ash-acs.ca.
Transportation plan. The City of Ottawa is updating its transportation plan over the next two years. ASH will give feedback as the process goes forward. ASH will also be giving feedback to the City’s road safety initiative announced on November 25. Segregated bike lanes and more traffic lights are major parts of the initiative.
Climate Solutions and the Ottawa Plan. Diane Beckett and Seetal Sunga represented ASH at a workshop entitled “Climate Solutions and Ottawa’s Official Plan” on November 15 and 16. The purpose was to build consensus among community-based organizations and neighbourhoods in Ottawa on actions the City might build into the Official Plan concerning the climate emergency. The recommendations went to City Council on December 12, 2019.
At the workshop, Diane and Seetal helped develop recommendations around ensuring that climate change be a core concern for all planning.
The organizers have produced a short executive summary of the workshop products. Find a report on the ASH web site ash-acs.ca/ with a link to the summary.
ASH will continue to work on climate change issues and priorities in our community.
Have your say… City consultations available for residents. At the City of Ottawa’s engage.ottawa.ca site you can find two consultation opportunities. One is a request for input to the City’s review of Programming for the Downtown Core Plan. Christine Aubry and Suneeta Millington will be answering the six questions as ASH’s representatives. The other opportunity is directed at the City’s review of its 10-year Homelessness Plan. ASH encourages Sandy Hillers to take this opportunity to have your voice heard on these important subjects.
R 4 zoning issues. Sandy Hill has some unique issues to which the current R4 zoning does not respond well. ASH will have an opportunity to respond to the R4 paper, expected mid-December, with a focus on these Sandy Hill issues.
Renewal at Laurier Station and Rideau Street. The City and uOttawa are currently working on a plan for the renewal of the former OC Transpo Laurier Station at the corner of Laurier and Waller. The project should start in the spring 2020.
The Rideau Street Renewal Plan is progressing. The area from Dalhousie to Sussex will have 10-metre sidewalks. The area for westbound buses will accommodate four buses and be located on Rideau in front of Urban Outfitters. The eastbound bus area, located in front of Farm Boy, will be the same size. The City will be updating Rideau Street’s street furniture all the way to the Cummings Bridge.
Committee for Somerset East beautification. Bob Forbes is looking for volunteers to form a committee to look at Somerset Street East beautification. The committee would do some preliminary street visioning, looking at what’s been approved, what’s outstanding, what’s been done to date such as the street greening, all of which could lead to asking Councillor Fleury to lead a design charrette. Volunteers can indicate their interest at info@ash-acs.ca.