Manor Park Estates community benefits agreement fostering collaboration
From the desk of Manor Park Community Association (MPCA) President Natalie Belovic
I am privileged to be part of the community benefits agreement (CBA) committee that was struck to advance the cause of the neighbourhood vis-à-vi-vis the upcoming development of Manor Park Estates.
It’s a diverse group made up of members form all corners of the community. I want to reiterate here that Manor Park is a broad community geographically that stretches from the Aviation Pkwy. to the east, to Birch Ave. in the west, all the way north to Sandridge Rd. and winds its way around Brittany Dr. and all the condo towers of Le Parc and the Highlands toward Montreal Rd. Although Dunbarton Crt. And our neighbours at 460, 500 and 520 St Laurent Blvd. were officially moved to Ward 12-Rideau-Vanier when the city redrew some boundaries, they are, and will remain, part of our Manor Park community.
We have reached out more in the recent past to draw more members form all geographical parts of the neighbourhood to participate on committees and at the board level without much success but I am happy to report that the CBA seems to be starting more dialog and recognition amongst a group that my have felt left out or ignored and hopefully will lead to more collaboration.
Nous aimerions engager plus de résidents de la communauté à venir participer dans un des comités ou comme membre du conseil d’administration. Nous sommes reconnaissants que presque 30 pourcent de la population de Manor Park est francophone.
What’s going on?
When you read this, we will have all just welcomed in a new year and recently our new city council. The councillors already agreed to keep tax increases at only 2.5 percent this coming year. That means it will be impossible to deliver the same services we have now.
With inflation as high as it is, keeping the tax hike at 2.5 percent doesn’t add up.
The new mayor promised to have true and meaningful consultations with Ottawa’s citizens with regards to the budget so here’s hoping that we will be able to have input but you can already see this is not going to be a pleasant process. What will give?
To Mayor Sutcliffe’s credit, he has said he won’t use the “strong mayor” powers granted to him under Ontario Bill 39. I hope that this won’t negatively impact whatever kind of relationship he can/has built with Toronto.
We appreciate that he believes our elected officials actually have a role to play.
Traffic around Manor Park School
Just a reminder that parking and stopping are prohibited along Thornwood Rd. during school hours including drop-off times. We are hoping that the city will be enforcing this parking bylaw more strictly in the new year. Consider walking or having the kids take the bus to school and if you need to drive down Thornwood, please be mindful that there are very young children potentially darting out from between cars or running out of the park and/or toward the school.
A group of parents, staff, MPCA members and staff from the councillor’s office are trying to find solutions that do not include paving the park in order to create better parking and a “kiss and ride” on Braemar St. Let’s all work together on safety here.
Bill 23 More Homes Built Faster
While any property in Ontario can currently have a secondary unit, this new bill will allow up to three units on one lot. The spirit of this change was to allow for “tiny homes” and coach house in the rear yards of properties.
Some of the really contentious parts of this bill though are the increase in the urban boundaries meaning more sprawl, the removal of development charges levied by cities and the removal of most of the environmental checks that would protect our nature for years to come.
Densification is tough for many to swallow but there are ways to gently intensify neighbourhoods like ours to help mitigate the impacts of continuous sprawl to the suburbs and reduce our carbon footprints.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s argument is that cutting the red tape for home building applications will enable developers to be able to build more homes to get more people into “affordable” housing because the boundaries are also being expanded making the land cheaper, therefore the price of new homes cheaper.
However, the cost to build the infrastructure of these new developments will have to be covered by the city. Development charges don’t nearly cover current costs. The reduction or abolition of those charges will create an even bigger deficit.
The other part that no one is talking about is who is going to build all these new dwellings? There is a huge labour shortage in the construction industry so labour costs are at all time high and there are still material shortages.
The only way for truly affordable housing units to be built is for the governments to partner and build them through co-ops or with corporations like Ottawa Community Housing. More tract housing is not going to be affordable where we really need it.
We citizens must raise our voices and insist on smart growth and responsible densification.
The city has put together a paper explaining how this bill will impact our lives here in Ottawa. You can read more at https://engage.ottawa.ca/provincial-legislation-planning .
MPCA Annual General Meeting (AGM)
It’s been almost one year since I’ve been at the helm of the MPCA and I wanted to publicly thank all the committee chairs and their teams for the work and time that they put in to making Manor Park the best possible place to live in Ottawa.
Please attend our AGM where we will enjoy a talk on urban intensification and highlight all the good works done throughout the year.
Please keep sending in comments and suggestions. Please consider getting involved.
I wish all my neighbours a peaceful and healthy new year.
2022-23 MPCA Annual General Meeting
February 8, 2023 from 7 to 9 p.m. via Zoom
Save the date for the 2022-2023 MPCA AGM to be held via Zoom. Register here to receive the meeting information and a calendar placeholder. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Enregistrez la date pour l’AGA 2022-2023 de la MPCA qui se tiendra via Zoom. Inscrivez-vous ici pour recevoir les informations de la réunion et un marqueur de calendrier. Après avoir vous êtes inscrit, vous recevrez un email de confirmation contenant les informations pour rejoindre la réunion.