Hello Community,
As you may know, the City of Kitchener has been working on a new strategy to plan for development in our City. On November 3, they released their report called Growing Together. At our meeting on November 16, the Victoria Park Neighbourhood Association (VPNA) Board agreed that it’s important to ensure residents are aware of the planning and land use changes being proposed for our neighbourhood and have a chance to comment.
To that end, the VPNA is hosting an on-line meeting next Sunday, November 26, 3:30-5:00 pm. We will do a general orientation to the Growing Together Report and do our best to answer questions.
To make the best use of our time together, we recommend that participants review the materials shared on the City’s Growing Together website (https://www.engagewr.ca/growingtogether) before the meeting. We particularly direct you to the Growing Together Community Guide and the Draft Zoning Map.
You will notice that the deadline for commenting is November 30th, and that organized opportunities to meet with City staff will have passed; however, we have been assured by staff that all comments will be included as part of the public record, and Council will not be voting on the final plan until sometime in early Spring 2024.
To attend and receive the Zoom link to the meeting please register on EventBrite, https://tinyurl.com/Growing-Together-Meeting
See you there!
Present: Muriel, Ashely, Wendy, Candace, Mario, Patrick S, Patrick G, Peggy, Jacqueline
Regrets: Roy, Debbie C
Absent: Steve
Guest: Dannon Vasey (facilitator from DCC Downtown Community Centre)
- Review of Agenda: Approved with no changes
- Review of Minutes from June 20/23: Approved with no changes
- Business Arising
3.1 Chalkboard:
- at the site, waiting for Patrick S.to work with Candace re time for painting it
3.2 Waterloo Active Transportation:
- Jacqueline continue to follow up with Janice, Chair of Waterloo Active Transportation Committee, who is looking for support from our VPNA for a proposal to close Jubilee Drive to car traffic on summer weekends
3.3 Door Knocking
- purpose is to let our neighbourhood know about VPNA and what our priorities are; also to collect responses to short survey on what neighbours have done or can do to help reduce and mitigate impacts of climate change
- How’s it going?
- 75 addresses from Muriel (about 50% contact rate). 25 email addresses
- 20 email addresses from Wendy
- Will need first and last name for mail chimp as well as the email. (Maybe not snail mail addresses as they might be more confidential}
- Leave a pamphlet if unable to connect with someone
- Patrick and Peggy: completed Dill, Schneider, and Courtland; people were receptive; one neighbor (Carol) has installed a heat pump and plans to organize a neighbourhood “Wine and Heat Pumps” evening;
- Surprised how many houses are duplexes- need to change the perception that we are all “rich single home owners”
- Combine pamphlet drop with promoting AGM; to be discussed later
- Continue with door-knocking to complete commitments made at June meeting
- Put on next agenda re door knocking connecting with people we don’t usually reach (apartments, social housing complexes); asked for Dannon’s help with accessing residents in social housing buildings
- Updates
- Counsellor:
- Re: Roos Island, Debbie reports the Region continues to work with the one remaining resident to find accessible housing; acknowledges the situation is challenging; City has no plans to evict the resident as they have no place to go;
- Peggy will report to Debbie concerns expressed by VPNA members about one person preventing access to Roos Island and also holding up work on bridge
- Peggy will also enquire about bridge reconstructions plans at next week’s VPWG meeting
- Boathouse:
- under construction; will have cantilevered patio over the lake; hope to open in early 2024
- Butterfly Way:
- Muriel announced contestant winner has come up with the name “Wing Way of Victoria Park South”; there are 15 pollinator gardens in Brock/Homewood part of VPN
4.4 City:
- Dannon reported on three items:
- neighbourhood funds grant- allows NA”s to apply to receive funds towards an initiative- e.g. our Pizza and Movie Night, up to $3,000-$5,000.00 per event- could be for buying supplies, meant to be flexible; end of 2023- quick turn-around – if apply ; think what we could use this money for in future, once we’ve spent current grant
- Downtown Community Centre Gym: NAs can book the gym for free via active net
- Program Registration starts on Dec. 5 for January programmes; If we want to run a programme, we could work with Dannon on that
- Next meeting: discuss Downtown Neighbourhood Associations (DNA) working together –
- Festival of Neighbourhoods: if wanting to be involved, someone needs to take initiative;
- Takes place in November. (Submit an event you’ve done and you could win $10k)
- Theme again this year is “Propinquity” – group of people getting together to do something – John MacDonald’s initiative; event is at City Hall, Sunday November 19 in the afternoon; details to follow
4.5 Finance
- We skipped finance report – on agenda for next meeting
4.6 Events
- Pumpkinpalooza:
- Yes- let’s do it again! Mario, Steve(?), Muriel, Wendy, Jacqueline, –Ashley will promote with her neighbours and show up; get fliers out sooner for Jacqueline’s community event; post in neighbourhood and Victoria Park, hand out in treat bagsPeggy – workplanJacqueline – flyers (1/4 page and letter sized)Patrick S – lights and tableMario – table and set up; connect with Steve
- Dannon – contact Parks to pick up pumpkins at 8:00 pm Nov. 1
- Pizza/Movie night:
- Pavilion booked for Sat Nov. 18 4:30 -8:30 including set up and take down; Pizza at 5:00, movie at 5:30, take down at 7:30
- Planning Committee – Roy, Peggy, Patrick, Mario
- Peggy – workplan
- Wendy – preview movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- Jacqueline – flyer
- Patrick/Mario – dry run to check out equipment
- Patrick – pizza and drinks
- AGM:
- Nov. 25 is typical time but too close to Pizza/Movie event
- voted to move it to Friday January 26, 2024; Feb. 2 as back up date.
- Peggy to book Pavilion
- Fall Newsletter
- publish on Oct. 9; submit articles to Roy; Deadline Oct. 2 for articles
- Wendy – development update
- Peggy – Victoria Park Working Group update and door-knocking article
- Muriel – Butterfly Way article
- Roy – events update
- Candace – Community garden and food forest update (also ask in newsletter if someone will volunteer to look after it)
- publish on Oct. 9; submit articles to Roy; Deadline Oct. 2 for articles
- Victoria Park Working Group:
- Peggy will send June minutes out after they’re approved at September meeting
- Development Committee
- Bramm Yards
- City just released their plan that Bramm Yards become an Urban Business Park; largest city-owned property that could accommodate more downtown core employment lands with a focus on health innovationhttps://www.engagewr.ca/brammyards
- Pretty clear there’s little chance of advocating for it to be used as much-needed park space or for affordable housing; need to accept this and focus energy on what’s possible
- Seeking on-line input via Engage website and in-person input at public consultation, Victoria Park Pavilion Tuesday October 9 from 4:00-7:00 pm
- Development Committee is working on finding the best strategy to get at least some of what we hope for (park/green space and lots of trees; housing that’s affordable for at least those living on middle incomes; some family units; green building standards; hope to inspire city to build with sustainability as core principle
- Peggy will send out Engage link to the Board so everyone can comment
- Development Committee will submit comments
- Parks Strategy
- Continuing to work for more parks in DTK
- Next Meeting
- Debbie Chapman can never attend meetings on Wednesdays
- Agreed to switch regular meeting night to 3rd Wednesday of the month – works for everyone present
- Next meeting is Thursday October 19, 7:00 pm; Peggy and Patrick will host
Minutes respectfully submitted, by Wendy Weinberg
Our friends at the Working Centre are organizing a walking tour around Victoria Park on Sun, Oct 22nd. The event will delve into some of the historical uses of energy and explore opportunities to transition away from fossil fuels to cleaner forms of energy in the future.