Glenwood Community League - 2013 AGM

7/28/2019 Glenwood Community League - 2013 AGM

1/6

Its been another fulfilling year as the City Liaison Director for the Glenwood Community League.

Our efforts over the past year have split between issues local to our community and city-wide

policy, bylaws and planning & development matters.

Glenwood continues to be a leader among Edmontons Community Leagues in its public advocacy

and engagement - through an active interest in city policy, representation on the EFCLs Planning &

Development Committee, civic key stakeholder groups, appearances before City Council, and local

media.

The Year in Review

The Mustard Seed

As part of the Provincial and City 10-year plans to end homelessness, on-going funding has been

available to service providers to create an inventory of non-market housing within the city. To date,

the bulk of these units have been created within core neighbourhoods in the inner-city. The result

has been a concentration which has drawn concern from both community advocates and civic

decision makers within the urban core. The end result being the approval by Council, of a several

year, non-market housing freeze in a handful of downtown area neighbourhoods.

This past year, the Mustard Seed, an inner-city humanitarian agency, looked outward and moved

forward with a purchase offer on a multi-unit building here in Glenwood along 156st. The Mustard

Seed held two public meetings at the Glenwood hall, and accepted an invitation to speak at our

State of the Neighbourhood event.

The Mustard Seeds plan was to convert the building to non-market living units under the housing

first model. Staff would have been on-site full-time, and a good neighbour agreement was being

planned between the agency and the Glenwood CL.

We were recently informed, however, that the purchase offer on the building was unsuccessful, and

that the Mustard Seed will not be pursuing further housing options in the community at this time.

We have asked for advance notification should this change, and will pass along any pertinent

information to the community.

The Grant MacEwan Arts Campus

With Grant MacEwan Universitys strategic plan to relocate most of their operations to an expanded

downtown campus, the future of the Arts Campus at 156st and 100ave has come into question. The


2/6

site of a former school, the campus is a sizeable amenity, central to both the Jasper Place area and

the Stony Plain Road Business Association.

At the public urging of the Mayor, city administration began negotiating with the University to

purchase the facility. As well, late last year, representatives from Glenwood and several area

Community Leagues met with University officials to discuss those negotiations and potential uses for

the site.

City administration did ultimately reach a $36 Million, tentative purchase agreement which it

presented to Council, along with a business plan for repurposing the site as an arts incubator. The

Glenwood CL wrote to Council in support of the purchase, and requested that future uses include

space for neighbourhood retail amenities, and neighbourhood/community events.

The tentative agreement was approved by Council in early December.

Canada Post Mayfield CRO Closure

In 2010, the Jasper Place area welcomed a new amenity to our community, a Canada Post corporate

outlet in Mayfield Common. Central, easy to access, with both excellent parking and transit

connections, offered residents a full range of Canada Post services including PO boxes.

This addition to our area was however short-lived, as the Canada Post Corporation terminated the

outlet late last year.

No public meetings were held, an online consultation was fraught with errors, none of our elected

officials voiced any opposition to the closure when first notified, and absolutely no consultation was

conducted with our community and Community League. Even though the location sat adjacent to

our community boundaries.

Material provided by Canada Post, directed Jasper Place residents to the Oliver corporate location

for accessing PO boxes and to commercial locations in and around the west-end. One example

being the Corner Pharmacy at 156st and Stony Plain Road - which will ultimately be removed toaccomidate the West LRT line.

There is no formal appeals for a community to challenge a closure, or the quality of a public

consultation process.

In a desire to learn more, the Glenwood CL filed a Freedom of Information request for documents


3/6

relating to the justification for the closure, internal correspondence as well as external with elected

representatives, and financial information pertaining to the profitability of the Mayfield CRO.

After several months, we were provided with a portion of this information, although heavily

redacted, which we are reviewing now. While its highly unlikely well be able to challenge or

overturn this decision, we may at the very least, be able to create public dialog on the issue and

provide some benefit to communities who face this situation in the future.

Jasper Place Area Redevelopment Plan

Several years ago, when the Jasper Place Revitalization Strategy was first crafted and approved by

Council, one of its key objectives was the creation of an Area Redevelopment Plan. An ARP (Area

Redevelopment Plan) is a statutory land-use plan, approved by Council and implemented through

bylaw. It lays out accepted redevelopment land uses within a community and establishes a vision for

a neighbourhoods future. It gives all involved some certainty as to how a neighbourhood will grow,

and what sorts of new developments will be welcomed and allowed in specific locations within the

community.

While Council approved an aspirational revitalization document calling for an ARP, no funding was

provided. For the past several years, Glenwood, along with other stakeholders in the area have

lobbied for this funding. Funding which was finally approved by Council, albeit at a less than

requested amount.

The development of the Jasper Place ARP, for the four communities of Glenwood,

Britannia-Youngstown, Canora and West Jasper Place, began this year. While we have concerns

regarding the use of a single bylaw to govern land-use across four neighbourhoods, we are pleased

that this process has begun and encourage neighbourhood residents to get involved in the process.

The development of the ARP is scheduled to continue throughout the year, with a final product

being presented for Council approval following the 2013 civic election.

The work to-date, has focused on the creation of learning scenarios. Mock development scenariosby which potential demographic and housing changes can be projected. The initial report has been

finished, and is available at GlenwoodCommunityLeague.com. For information is also available at

Edmonton.ca/JasperPlaceARP

Potential Rezoning of 9701-163 St


4/6

The Glenwood CL responded to one neighbourhood rezoning application this year at 9701-163 St. At

a January public hearing, City Council heard a request by the property owner to rezone the lot from

RF1 (Single-Detached) to RF3 (Low-Density Development Zone), with the stated intent to build four

living units on the site.

At the hearing, we presented our own request for Council to refer the application back to

Administration, to be reconsidered as an RF4 (Semi-Detached) instead.

163 St is an established arterial road, and as per the Citys Residential Infill Guidelines, it is a desirable

location to increase density in a community. The Infill Guidelines however are not just a series of

location criteria for various densities and housing types, but contain design guidelines and best

practices as well. One of these being a recommended lot width of 20m for flanking row-housing, as

to provide each living unit with some rear amenity space. 9701-163 St however, does not exceed a

width of 15m. To accommodate four-units, it would be necessary to orient them to the width of the

lot. We also brought forward concerns around privacy and sun/shade impacts to the new

semi-detached development next door, as a four-unit housing development would run along the

length of their property, overlooking their rear-yards.

We delivered the Council Report on the rezoning to adjacent property owners along with a request

for comment. Two responses were received in opposition to the proposal.

At the January public hearing, Council approved our request, and the Bylaw was referred back to

Administration for reconsideration. We subsequently met with the proponent and the assigned cityplanner to discuss the proposal. The proponent presented design options and prior developments in

the Jasper Place area, however still desires to move forward with the original four-unit plan and

zoning request.

The Bylaw will return to a public hearing in June.

State of the Neighbourhood

There is no shortage of policy, efforts and initiatives which affect the community of Glenwood - The

Stony Plain Road Streetscape, the Stony Plain Road Business Revitalization, the development of an

Area Redevelopment Plan, zoning bylaw amendments, etc.

To provide residents with an opportunity to learn about these and ask questions in a single-evening,

the Glenwood Community League held its first ever State of the Neighbourhood event this past


5/6

winter.

While the weather did not cooperate with us, presenters from various city departments, the Stony

Plain Road BRZ, and the Mustard Seed, ran through several short presentations and were on hand

throughout the evening to distribute material and answer questions.

We consider the event to have been a success and look forward to hosting another later this year. If

there are any presenters which you would like to request, please let us know.

WinterCity Strategy

Its April 13th today, and its snowing. So this is certainly an appropriate topic.

Over the past year, under the guidance of Coun. Ben Henderson, the City of Edmonton developed

the WinterCity Strategy. A document aimed at developing infrastructure, events, and a civic attitude

that embraces and makes the most of our winter months.

The document and much more information is available at Edmonton.ca/WinterCityStrategy.

Last year, the Glenwood CL hosted Coun. Henderson for a presentation on WinterCity practices

from his travels to a number of European cities. As Glenwoods civics director and representative on

the EFCLs Planning & Development committee, I was also able to provide a contribution to the

development of the strategy.

Zoning Bylaw Amendments - Mature Neighbourhood Overlay and Low-Density Zones.

The largest expenditure of time and energy on the part of Community Leagues in Edmontons

mature neighbourhoods over the last year, resulted from a number of proposed amendments to

Edmontons zoning bylaw and mature neighbourhood overlay.

Included in these are:- the ability to development semi-detached housing in certain locations without the requirement to

rezone

- allowing for the subdivision of 50-foot lots in several low-density zones

- restricting the availability of front-garages where a rear-lane is present

- allowing the front setback of new housing to vary by a greater amount compared to adjacent

homes


6/6

- removing the front-garage width and protrusion regulations, leaving them to the discretion of the

development officer

The Glenwood CL was a signatory to a multi-community letter asking for further time to review and

consult with city administration on the proposed changes.

On behalf of the League, I presented Glenwoods position statement at the public hearing, where we

asked for the following:

- the grandfathering of existing front-garages

- a limit of a 1.5m variance to the front setback of new homes compared to those adjacent

- maintaining the existing regulations regarding the width and protrusion of front-garages

- specifying a 20m lot width for flanking row-housing in the zoning bylaw (which would implement

what already exists in the Residential Infill Guidelines).

Council ultimately choose however, to approve the amendments essentially as they were

presented by Administration. Please contact us if you would like more information.

Glenwood Community League - 2013 AGM

Documents

Transcript of Glenwood Community League - 2013 AGM