Quote:
Originally Posted by OliverD
Basically the reason the meeting was called was because previously council had directed the mayor to call a meeting as soon as the ruling on the expropriation came in from the province. The ruling came late in the day on Friday and for city staff to not have informed council until after the election would not have been appropriate, nor would it have been appropriate for the mayor to against wishes of council and not call the meeting. The timing of it all is just really unfortunate and if anything we should be critical of the province.
I think it's perhaps a bit misguided to concentrate on commercial spaces, and is putting the cart before the horse. The number one thing we can do to make commercial spaces in the core more viable is to build more housing and to densify.
I know we like to dream big here but the city needs to be pragmatic about what's currently needed, and that is housing and a school. There aren't many opportunities for the city to guide residential development in the core and this plan ensures affordable housing gets built. Besides, this will be a mixed-use development so there will be commercial opportunities as well.
I think of the key things that often gets missed is that residential development here (and on the rail yards) relieves some of the pressure on the existing housing in the core. If the NBEX grounds absorbs a good portion of demand for housing in this area then there will be fewer demolitions of existing homes, fewer renovictions, etc.
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Thank you for explaining. It still seems sketchy to be honest. If we didn't have the election today, would the Mayor have called a Mothers Day session, or would she have just waited and brought it up on the next Council session?
Why did a special session have to be held, instead of bringing it up on the next session? Is there some political rules about previous councils imposing on future councils or something?
In any case, I do support repurposing the NBEx grounds; but I'm less sure the plans are really the right ones for the longer term future of the city. Short sighted planning is part of the reasons we're in the mess (not starting with the decision to split Grant-Harvy/WillieO'Ree, but certainly a factor back then).
Just pencilling some plans to acknowledge something like "The city has grown a lot, and in light of the success of Avenir, we recognize in the medium future, we could use a replacement for the Aitkien Center in City control." and set aside for some space for that now would be an idea.
It doesn't even need the entire NBEx space; just the paved portion would match Harbour station footprint of ~180m (It would be a 200m diagonal from the Saunders Street corner, so we would "lose" Suregain and maybe the Cultural centre, but the Tims might still be there. Likely building plans could fit it better by putting it along the trail, so we'd lose Williams and Tims but the MCC and Suregain could stay.).
The race track area could be split off now for the new School and facilities, while the NBEx buildings and parking lot could continue being used for the Ex/RibFest/other shows until the city is ready to do the bigger investment.
In any case, it does seem like the meeting yesterday doesn't seem to change much. It closes up some business from the current council, but doesn't ultimately bind a future council in any significant ways. The Optics of it certainly stink, and the Communication of what was going on and why were very lacking in general. Not a good note for the current council to be leaving on.
*Edit* Uncle Rob on Bounce just covered it all on the air. Basically repeating what was said above too.
Sounds like the meeting WAS basically requested by the current council to cover the case of the ruling coming in before the election happened, so the Mayor was caught between a rock and a hard place as far as this goes. Either call a special session before the election, or break the request from the council. And regardless, the session and the rulings mean absolutely nothing because the future council is not tied to do anything at this point, other than acknowledging the information (and rulings from the province) that they were given.
Thanks to Uncle Rob for reporting on the situation so neutrally too.
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