Whether or not the town has the right to declare certain property on the 1100 block of Nelson Street as surplus, and possibly divide it into lots for sale, is the question to which a group of residents called “Citizens to Preserve Williams Avenue Park” are determined to get an answer.
“We definitely don’t agree with what was printed [Monday],” said Michelle George, referring to an article on the front page of Monday’s Daily Bulletin in which Rick Hallam, the town’s superintendent of Planning and Development, said a zoning bylaw passed in 1998 repealed a previous zoning bylaw which was amended in 1990 to state the land in question was designated as a park.
George is a Church Street resident who lives near the area and is now spearheading a growing group of local residents with concerns about the contested property.
“Two things strike me as very odd about this sudden discovery,” noted Marianne Rude in an e-mail sent to the Times on Tuesday afternoon. Rude had returned to Fort Frances late last week from Washington, D.C. to find out more about the Nelson Street property.
Her father, Aage, had contested the land was a park back in 1990.
“Why was that not found, along with our found bylaw, in all of the other supposed research that went in to declaring the property surplus? Why was it found only in response to our discovery?” she wondered.
“Why would so many residents remember so well the 1990 exercise when the park designation occurred and not remember a 1998 initiative that took it away?” she added.
“This would certainly seem to suggest that if such a repeal did occur that the proper process of public notification and consultation did not occur,” Rude argued.
“No doubt this same group of citizens would have rallied together as hard as they have this time around had they been notified.”
George said she was contacted by former municipal planner Ted Berry and former mayor Glenn Witherspoon. “They phoned me. They are definitely not in agreement with the statement published,” she remarked.
The pair were scheduled to meet with Fort Frances CAO Mark McCaig on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the matter further.
Rude said she and George “received numerous phone calls over the weekend from other town residents [not of the Nelson Street neighbourhood] commenting on how they remembered the 1990 exercise and that we needed to stick to our guns—precisely because they did not want the town to lose any more green space such as has been sacrificed in the west end (i.e., Lyndy Place).
“A groundswell of support for retaining this park is growing beyond the immediate neighbourhood,” she remarked. “It strikes me that it will be incumbent on the town to prove that the proper processes were followed in 1998.”
“We’ve been getting a lot of support,” echoed George, adding the fight to preserve the park is “not strictly for us.”
“It could be somebody else’s next,” she warned, suggesting that parks in other neighbourhoods could be redeveloped in the near future if the property on Nelson Street is not saved.
“Regardless of how this turns out, we’re prepared to go the distance,” vowed George. “If we have to go through the Ontario Municipal Board to make an appeal, that’s what we’ll do.”
George and Rude have prepared a letter that’s being distributed with a petition for the public to sign. Much of the content of the letter comes from a meeting held last Thursday night at the Zion Lutheran Church, which saw about 20 residents gather to discuss the Nelson Street property.
Also at that time, those on hand voiced their concerns about losing the property which currently is—and has been for years—used by neighbourhood children as a playground (in previous years, it even used to have wooden playground equipment on it, but this was since removed after it eventually became unsafe).
The residents also said they had concerns their children would have no safe outdoor area to play in if the park area was turned into residential property.
This letter and petition will be presented to town council in the near future.
George, Rude, and a group of about a dozen other local residents stressed these concerns when they confronted the town’s Planning and Development executive committee Friday morning with evidence that the town-owned vacant property (which was being recommended by the Planning Advisory Committee to be divided into five lots and sold for residential development) had, in fact, been designated as a “park” 14 years ago.
But Hallam reported later that day he found more recent documentation which showed this was not accurate.
Hallam said that in 1998, council passed a new zoning bylaw (By-Law #8-98), which thereby repealed By-Law #8/77 and #8/77J (and by extension By-Law #72/90)—which included the previous designation of Lots 28-36 on the 1100 block of Nelson Street as a “park.”
“The only thing left standing from the earlier zoning bylaw was that the area be designated as ‘open space,’” he noted.
The bylaw brought forward by the group of residents was By-Law #72/90 (Amendment No. 34 to the Official Plan of the Fort Frances Planning Area), which was passed by a previous council on Nov. 26, 1990.
This bylaw amended the existing zoning bylaw (#8/77) and designated the area (Lots 28-36) as “open space” (being rezoned from Residential 2) with a “site specific provision” to be used as a park and playground.
This amendment to the official plan was approved by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing on July 16, 1992.
Hallam noted the Planning and Development executive committee will have to take this updated information into account when considering what to do with the property.
He said the fact the property no longer is designated as a “park” means the current council did nothing wrong when it declared it surplus back in May.
But at the same time, Hallam noted no one can say what the town will end up doing with the property.
“It’s a long, long ways from being finished,” he remarked. “What ends up happening with the land, and what the final designation will be, is up to the mayor and council.”
Hallam said the process of determining an appropriate use for the property began when a private citizen inquired about purchasing various lots from the town to develop into residential property, including the land on Nelson Street.
Being obligated to look into any such requests, council turned the matter over to the Planning and Development executive committee for review, which recommended the Nelson Street property be earmarked surplus—mainly on the grounds that it was vacant.
Council went on to deem it surplus property at a May meeting, at which time it directed the Planning and Development executive committee (which, in turn, sought input from the Planning Advisory Committee) to recommend the most appropriate use for the land.
In a memorandum to the Planning and Development executive committee Friday morning, the Planning Advisory Committee recommended the land be rezoned to Residential 2 and be divided into five lots for single detached dwellings.
But given the sudden turn of events at their meeting that morning, as well as the outcry from the group of area residents, the Planning and Development executive committee agreed to table the issue for further discussion.
(Fort Frances Times)
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
