After a long wait, we’re back in the Elgin Street Courthouse to continue the defence of our 40 % Agreement and along with it, the protection of our green and open spaces, our neighbourhoods and our community. The Kanata Greenspace Protection Coalition remains committed to pressing the point that ClubLink, Minto and Richcraft and other developers seem intent on missing – communities cannot develop at the expense of their green and open spaces.
September is here … the month typically associated with the beginning or end of one thing or another. Years ago, for your writer, it was always the rigour of school versus the freedom of summer. As a business owner, the chaos and business of ‘Back to School’. There still remains a busyness to fall fueled this year perhaps by that incredible desire to do something following the restrictions of Covid. For the Kanata Greenspace Protection Coalition (KGPC), another busy month to be sure.
After a long wait, we’re back in the Elgin Street Courthouse to continue the defence of our 40 % Agreement and along with it, the protection of our green and open spaces, our neighbourhoods and our community. The Kanata Greenspace Protection Coalition remains committed to pressing the point that ClubLink, Minto and Richcraft and other developers seem intent on missing – communities cannot develop at the expense of their green and open spaces.
We know the developers fully understand the importance of this issue to their buyers. Just look at their advertising. The first supporting the Minto Brookline development. Will the former Berry Farm ever look like this imagined drawing? And this advertisement from Urbandale for “The Pond” planned for a former, beloved and peaceful forest in our Kanata Lakes neighbourhood. There is an eerie constant here. Streets and houses are surrounded by imaginary nature while tree-crowded properties fill the skies. Unfortunately, when these developments are finished – the cutters, saws and dumpsters are gone leaving concrete and pavement stretched end to end. The green of a mature tree or nature is only a dream. Help the KGPC fight back!
Elections are here! Ensure your vote Protects our Greenspace
The City must do a better job of defining the essential features necessary to support sustainable living across the City. And that includes open spaces, woodlands and greenspaces in addition to many other essentials such as complete transportation networks and services. The stamp of a finished development should be more than the naming of a recreation centre. Municipal election season is in full swing – no better time than the present to make these points clear. Research the candidates for Mayor and Councillor well. Your vote matters. Make sure it counts!
This week, fight is back on – fund the work of the KGPC
We know this 3-year fight has been long and at times frustrating and our requests for funding can become, well, tiresome. To say we must stay with it is to state the obvious. The risks we only feared when this began in October 2019 became real in August with the flooding of the Beaver Pond, pushed beyond its capacity and beyond the 1:100 year flood plain. And this before the ClubLink shovels have broken ground! Today our stormwater management system is in a precarious situation under the combined pressures of climate change and ill-conceived developments. Your donation will help us to fund our fight to SAVE OUR KANATA GREENSPACE and protect our community and your investment. Tomorrow is too late. Your donation is needed today.
40% Agreement Hearing begins Tuesday, September 13
We anticipate $25,000 in costs as our legal team preps and heads off to the Elgin Street Courthouse this week. In addition, we look beyond it to our alternate legal action against ClubLink on the matter of the restrictive covenants. You’ve already seen the complexity of these processes and our opponents’ dogged intent. And so, for now, it is prudent to set a new fundraising goal of $50,000.
And yes, finally, the end of another long delay is here. Justice Labrosse confirmed that the Elgin Street Courthouse has returned to in-person hearings and Courtroom 31 should seat 50 who may wish to attend the two-day hearing in person. The KGPC asked the Court to provide a virtual format to ensure easier public access. And to ensure the arguments remain clear in front of you, we encourage you to review our early August e-news in advance. And, as always, during the hearing, you’ll find the specific documents and submissions of the parties on our website.
Location: Courtroom #31, Courthouse, 161 Elgin Street (room may change)
Time: 9:30am (Hearing to start at 10:00am)
Online Location: https://ca01web.zoom.us/j/61191424
Whether you watch from home or attend in person, please remember that the KGPC will be your voice at this hearing. Pay it forward. Support our fight today!
Mark your Calendars! Tapas and Tunes for Greenspace
Join us on Thursday, September 29. Summer’s last hurrah!
Enjoy a special night of toe-tapping live music by Ottawa’s award-winning Lucas Haneman Express along with an incredible feast of tasty tapas from the chefs at The Brookstreet. Don’t delay. Tables of eight. Organize your group.
The front of the tent always goes quickly!
Location: The Tent at The Brookstreet. Free parking.
Date: Thursday, September 29, 2022
Time: 6:00 pm Cash Bar opens with Lucas Haneman Express playing all night long
6:45 pm Tapas is tabled…
8:00 pm Intermission and Update from the KGPC
9:30 pm Wrap-up
Tickets: Get your tickets on Eventbrite today.
See you there! Reach out to us at info@ourkanatagreenspace.ca with any questions.
We do spend a great deal of time on correspondence too…
This email to our MPP Merrilee Fullerton on the heels of the Beaver Pond flooding…
Our letter to David Piccini, the Ontario Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks requesting his involvement in the ClubLink and broad Kanata North stormwater management issue to which we have yet to receive a response.
We do get some responses. This one from MPP Merrilee Fullerton.
And we often hear from you our supporters including this email from Kanata Lakes resident Rick Young with a pointed challenge to publish it. Here you go Rick, albeit an edited version.
Attention: Merrilee Fullerton, Minister of Children, Community and Social Services
Hello Merrilee,
I’ll support you in the next provincial election IF you can identify and support specific ways and means to honor the agreement between the City of Ottawa and Club Link which protects Kanata’s green space and it’s golf course from further development.
By way of background, I was invited to your home before the 2018 election, along with a few of your supporters, when you first announced your entry into provincial politics, and I subsequently campaigned and voted for you.
I recall you won the election later that year by about 7,500 votes; that’s roughly the number of voters in the immediate area of the Kanata Golf Course and green space who enjoy it, and whose home values rest …something for you to bear in mind.
I, and many of my neighbours and friends in Kanata, will again support you in then next election IF you can provide specific answers to two questions:
a) ‘When’, not ‘whether’ or ‘if’, is the appropriate time for the Provincial Government, be it the Premier and/or the Minister of Municipal Affairs, to show its support for Kanata’s green space and the decades-long agreement between the city and Club Link to protect it, by putting a ‘stop order’ or similar political stake in the ground to terminate Club Link’s never-ending legal manoeuvres to further develop the Kanata Golf Course for profit, a case which may not be reviewed by the Supreme Court of Canada for years?
b) In the interim, what plans* or ideas* do you have to help convince the legal system of the legitimacy of that “agreement” and the need to maintain it as is for the benefit of so many local residents?
(* For example, as a start, you might inform your Cabinet colleague, the Minister of Municipal Affairs, to be mindful that no citizen or corporate entity in this Province will ever donate land for green space to a community in the future if that donor sees what is considered to be an iron-clad agreement like this one, subsequently torn up for outright greed).
This never-ending legal battle is now….to be sent back to a lower court for yet further study, has gone on long enough. It’s like watching the play, “Waiting for Godot”, only much more insufferable.
Local homeowners bought on the understanding there was a rock-solid agreement made between, and to this point abided by, the City and Club Link to protect that green space for the enjoyment of all. They did not purchase their homes to listen to any developer dynamite rocks from the ground over the next 10 years after having blown up an agreement supposedly made in good faith by the City but once again, obviously not be the developer.
The provincial government must put an end to this incessant legal war benefitting only lawyers and developers, by declaring that the course, the green space and the agreement must and will be protected by the Province. We ultimately seek a political resolution of the matter based on moral and ethical arguments and community interests*, independent of legalities.
Lastly, please note that the Ontario Government did not hesitate to intervene in spite of legal proceedings ongoing in Oakville to rescue Glen Abbey, and did so when there wasn’t even an agreement in place, as there is to protect the Kanata Golf Club. The precedent exists and with an agreement, there’s even more reason for the Province to act.
In so doing, you would give this cause, not just “lip service”, but you would also perform a “public service”.
Don’t be ‘missing in action’; take action, along the lines of sub-sections a) and b) above.
I and my neighbours and friends look forward to your response.
Thank you in advance for what I hope is favourable Provincial deliberation and decisions.
Sincerely, Rick Young, Halldorson Crescent, Kanata, ON
We’ll be back to you soon with a wrap-up and update from the September 40PA hearing. Remember, we cannot continue to do it without your financial support. Please send your donation today and keep our fight alive!
Success can be ours. We must work together!
Barbara
Barbara Ramsay
Chair, Kanata Greenspace Protection Coalition
T – 613-725-6595
E – chair@ourkanatagreenspace.ca