4:26:38 PM: The St. John’s city council liveblog: council in easy-to-swallow 140 character increments.
4:28:59 PM: The agenda today is an inch thick! This could be a long one. Council is also littered with massive fake cigarette butts, gross.
4:34:55 PM: For whatever reason, there is a bunch of people here today, 22 people! The most I have seen yet.
4:39:21 PM: When people come it is usually either because they want to see how a proposal turns out.
4:47:18 PM: The crowd is growing here, and council is finally filing in.
4:48:11 PM: I am joined in the gallery by two other former candidates, Bernard Davis and Mark Wilson.
4:52:55 PM: Dennis O’Keefe has arrived, and the meeting has begun. 3 delegations!
4:54:18 PM: First off, a group from the “Go bare butt” campaign. They are encouraging people to properly dispose of butts.
4:55:54 PM: Right now they are downtown, but clean and beautiful would like to see it go city wide.
4:58:38 PM: Now we have a delegation from Run The Rock, a charity run put on by the HMCS St. John’s. They will run from Port-Aux-Basques to St. John’s!
5:00:22 PM: They are raising money for the childrens wish foundation. It is great to see the ship with our cities name contributing to local charities.
5:01:58 PM: Now a delegation from the Jessica Campaign. The 2010 safety week is hosted by them.
5:06:46 PM: Debbie Hanlon is moving to recind a motion to reject an application for an areonatics school on Thorburn Rd.
5:08:14 PM: O’Keefe is asking why they could not just reapply. There is some confusion here.
5:09:50 PM: It turns out that they could simply reapply, without recinding the motion. Apparently they were operating, but have stopped.
5:11:29 PM: The former Seventh Day Aventist church on Freshwater rd will be rezoned to allow a subdivision to go in. There will be a public meeting too.
5:12:45 PM: They are now again discussing a proposed lounge on Topsail rd, in the New Moon resturant.
5:14:01 PM: The area for the proposed lounge is small, and council was concerned it may only be to put in VLT’s.
5:15:25 PM: The applicant says that they do not intend to. Motion carried, they get their lounge, no matter the use.
5:16:59 PM: They are reccommending to approve a proposal to allow a house on Bonaventure st to be turned into 3 seperate units. Carried
5:18:56 PM: They are voting to rezone some property on Bay Bulls rd to allow a 3-story apartment building.
5:21:05 PM: O’Leary says that the company has gone “above and beyond” to address local residents concerns.
5:22:13 PM: There was a public meeting for a proposed 4-story apartment building on New Cove Rd. Duff says she cannot support it.
4:52:55 PM: Dennis O’Keefe has arrived, and the meeting has begun. 3 delegations!
4:54:18 PM: First off, a group from the “Go bare butt” campaign. They are encouraging people to properly dispose of butts.
4:55:54 PM: Right now they are downtown, but clean and beautiful would like to see it go city wide.
4:58:38 PM: Now we have a delegation from Run The Rock, a charity run put on by the HMCS St. John’s. They will run from Port-Aux-Basques to St. John’s!
5:00:22 PM: They are raising money for the childrens wish foundation. It is great to see the ship with our cities name contributing to local charities.
5:01:58 PM: Now a delegation from the Jessica Campaign. The 2010 safety week is hosted by them.
5:06:46 PM: Debbie Hanlon is moving to recind a motion to reject an application for an areonatics school on Thorburn Rd.
5:08:14 PM: O’Keefe is asking why they could not just reapply. There is some confusion here.
5:09:50 PM: It turns out that they could simply reapply, without recinding the motion. Apparently they were operating, but have stopped.
5:11:29 PM: The former Seventh Day Aventist church on Freshwater rd will be rezoned to allow a subdivision to go in. There will be a public meeting too.
5:12:45 PM: They are now again discussing a proposed lounge on Topsail rd, in the New Moon resturant.
5:14:01 PM: The area for the proposed lounge is small, and council was concerned it may only be to put in VLT’s.
5:15:25 PM: The applicant says that they do not intend to. Motion carried, they get their lounge, no matter the use.
5:16:59 PM: They are reccommending to approve a proposal to allow a house on Bonaventure st to be turned into 3 seperate units. Carried
5:18:56 PM: They are voting to rezone some property on Bay Bulls rd to allow a 3-story apartment building.
5:21:05 PM: O’Leary says that the company has gone “above and beyond” to address local residents concerns.
5:22:13 PM: There was a public meeting for a proposed 4-story apartment building on New Cove Rd. Duff says she cannot support it.
5:23:39 PM: Duff says that it would be a good development elsewhere, but not in the proposed place. Traffic is the main concern coming from the 24 units
5:25:26 PM: Duff: “I think this is an over-develoment of the site.”
5:26:38 PM: O’Keefe agrees that parking is already a major issue there. It sounds like it is a blind part of the road, and could be quite dangerous.
5:27:56 PM: The proposal is for near where New Cove Rd becomes Portugal Cove Rd. Apparenty this intersection will have lights soon.
5:29:53 PM: Hann says he is getting mixed messages from staff and citizens. He wants to see if the new lights will help any potential traffic issues.
5:33:51 PM: Colbert says that he will not support the application, and wants to see a traffic assessment of the area btw Torbay and Portugal Cove rd.
5:36:51 PM: Colbert wants this study because he says the area is “ripe for development”, and we want to make an informed decision in the future.
5:37:55 PM: Colbert wants to make it clear that they are voting against the rezoning of the land, not the particular proposal.
5:39:54 PM: Hann and Tilley voted for the rezoning, but it was rejected.
5:41:23 PM: Most of the crowd is leaving now, apparently they were here to see which way the proposal for New Cove rd would go.
5:45:35 PM: They are discussing a public meetig regarding a new long-term care facility which will replace Hoyles Escasoni.
5:49:04 PM: The Heritage Committee is disussing a proposed LED sign for the side of the CLB armoury.
5:50:53 PM: Duff suggests that they allow a smaller sign on the front, not the side.
5:52:38 PM: Hann says that he can’t see why they would reject it considering the neghibourhood, Timmies, Stoggers, and the big R.
5:54:33 PM: Hickman says it is akin to the type of sign they allowed for King George the fifth soccer pitch.
5:56:44 PM: Galgay says that the sign wouldn’t be out of place considering the advertising in the area.
6:00:50 PM: Duff says that the current signage guidelines for the heritage conservation area. Maybe it should not be in this area she says.
6:01:34 PM: Duff is mostly concerned abouthe consistent application of the laws she says.
6:02:50 PM: There is a proposal for the demolition of the Star of the Sea hall. They want to replace it with a 48 unit condo development.
6:04:26 PM: The Heritage Advisiory committee reccommends to reject the application, based on the historical significance of the site.
6:05:55 PM: The committee does not feel there has not been enough work done to find an adaptive use for the existing building.
6:09:39 PM: Galgay says that if there is no opportunity for adaptive reuse, then it would only be boarded up and eventually come down anyways.
6:11:44 PM: Hann says that the site does have historical significance, but the extremely high cost of renovating is prohibitive.
6:16:43 PM: O’Leary says that we really need artist production and rehersal space. She says that this would be an excellent space for such an art use.
6:20:54 PM: Colbert says that several years ago there was another motion to demolish and they then said they would give a few years to find another use.
6:23:05 PM: Tilley says that the proposed development for the site would bring the city $430k/year in tax.
6:24:26 PM: Hickman says that in 4 years on the arts advisiory committee this is the first time he has heard this building could potentially be used.
6:26:07 PM: Hanlon says that she knows this building well because she sold it to a developer 15 years ago! She says it is too expensive to upgrade.
6:31:26 PM: Duff: to Hann “I’m saying every time you are interrupted you have a hissy-fit”
6:32:52 PM: Motion to demolish approved, goodbye Star of the Sea Hall.
6:34:31 PM: There is a proposal for the Arcade site for an office/retail building.
6:36:28 PM: They are reccommending that this proposal have a land use assessment review, as it would require additional “bonus” height.
6:38:12 PM: This proposal would require ammendments to the municipal plan and development regulations.
6:42:11 PM: They are moving forward with removing the Arcade and Woolworths building area from the heritage area which would not allow extra height.
6:43:25 PM: This is a big step towards allowig the 2 developments for this area which both require the extra height.
6:48:08 PM: Galgay is reading a petition from residents of Old Topsail Rd who would lose parking due to the cycling plan.
6:49:32 PM: Collins says it is time to move forward with phase 2 of the cycling plan.
6:50:51 PM: Hanlon says that people may get used to parking, but the city owns the street, and must be used for all.
6:52:10 PM: Hanlon: “To vote against this [the cycling plan] would be a very selfish thing”
6:53:12 PM: This meeting has been so long my phone may die, excuse me if it does, but I will power through until it does.
6:54:11 PM: Tilley says that he has recieved 2 petitions against the plan with 340 signatures.
6:55:03 PM: There is a petition in support of the plan with at least 1000 I believe.
6:57:16 PM: As Hanlon said, it seems very selfish to me to value parking over a cycling system. Cars always win, let’s give bikes one for a change.
6:59:16 PM: Tilley says he will say no to the cycling plan on behalf of his constituients.
7:12:30 PM: O’Leary says that it is embarrasing that we do not have a functional cycling system. We must move forward with this.
7:15:28 PM: Hickman: “We need the plan to make it safe”
7:18:43 PM: Breen says he has some concerns about the Virginia river trail.
7:19:57 PM: He says citizens are concerned about bikes and walkers using the same trail.
7:22:23 PM: Colbert says that the education component is vital to ensure the system is safe.
7:24:03 PM: Apparently they will first widen the farther out section of the Virginia River trail, and use it as a test case.
7:25:15 PM: Tye cycling plan implementation of phase 1 and 2 is approved, only Tilley voted nay.
7:26:37 PM: Yeah! Actual movement forward on reducing the collective shame of our city for not having a bike system.
7:39:32 PM: Recycling will go ahead in Oct! They had two companies, and chose Scotia Recycling. Today is a big day folks, bike lanes and recycling.
7:42:37 PM: Duff says this is the longest meeting she has seen in her time on council. It has been very productive though, and worth it.
7:45:03 PM: Breen wants the city to meet with NL housing officials to discuss issues related to garbage on their properties.
7:54:59 PM: Thank goodness, the meeting is finally over. Andrew Harvey out, tweet you all in 2 weeks.
July 27th, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Hey folks,
So everyone knows, this was an absolutely colossal meeting, as city council goes. The meeting itself was over three hours long,. At one point Shannie Duff said that it was going to be twice as long as any other meeting she had seen. I think this is probably an exaggeration, but that says something coming from someone who has been around council since 1977.
The meeting was luckily colossal on both content, as well as length. There were many great discussions on important issues, and more importantly than discussion, resolution to these issues.
The implementation of phase one and two of the Municipal Cycling plan were finally voted through, despite some opposition from those losing on-street parking (a privilege extended to some areas of the city which is often thought to be a right). There was one amendment to the vote, which was to give the residents of Old Topsail Rd until the end of August to try and find an alternative to losing their on-street parking.
We also saw the accepting of a bid on the tender for the operation of the recycling facility. This means that in October we should see city-wide curbside recycling. Finally.
The Cycling Network and Recycling are two issues which have plagued, and shamed St. John’s for some time now, and it is relieving to finally see them be addressed. They are also issues which city staff, council, and the public should be very proud of. They are issues which are important to us all as a city, and have been achieved through much hard work, collective will, and persistence on all sides.
Another big step taken at the meeting was to send the proposed changes to the Municipal Plan to the provincial department of Municipal Affairs, which is the next step in taking out the section of Water Street West holding the old Woolworths Building and the former Arcade site from certian heritage areas. Last night we also received a proposal for the Arcade site which would also take advantage of “bonus height” which would be available if the municipal plan changes go ahead. Before the changes to the municipal plan occur, there will be an opportunity for public input, so make sure to contact a member of council to let them know how you feel.
Anyways, more went on at the meeting last night then I could possibly tweet fast enough about, but I tried to hit the highlights as best as I could.
If you have any questions about anything on the municipal level, please ask, and I will do my best to answer, or find out the answer if I don’t know.
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