Crowd told KNL must meet all conditions before clearing land
Posted Jul 22, 2010 By Tiffany Williams-Lepack
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EMC News - The community of Kanata North came together in an overwhelming show of solidarity against the development of the lands north of Beaver Pond. 
Tiffany Williams-Lepack, Kanata EMC
Graham and Ian Bygrave, eight and five years old respectively, hold up their signs they made in support of saving the lands north of the Beaver Pond at a public meeting on Thursday, July 15. They were there along with more than 300 other residents.
The meeting was held to inform the public that the City of Ottawa was set to ensure all conditions were met before KNL Development Limited (Urbandale and Richcraft) could proceed. The standing-room-only crowd of more than 300 people heard that city council had passed a motion on July 14 stating that staff send a letter to KNL informing them all conditions had not been met nor approved by the city and therefore no clear cutting could proceed until they were met. Staff was also given the directive to take legal action if KNL did not comply. It has been reported that KNL believes they have satisfied all conditions.
A loud cheer erupted for the council's motion but staff repeatedly told those in attendance that KNL has the right to bring down the trees because the land has been zoned for development and has been approved by the Ontario Municipal Board. Still, they noted, the proper process has to be followed. The clear cutting was set to begin on Monday of this week (July 19) and council was waiting on the response from KNL.
A representative for KNL was supposed to attend the meeting, however no one showed up. Councillor for Kanata North Marianne Wilkinson feels it would have resulted negatively had they been there.
"I think they felt they would just get booed," she said. "In fact, when I said they weren't coming, there were boos. I think they just felt they would be in an untenable position."
Wilkinson thought the motion helped ensure everything was properly executed before anything was done to the forest.
"What it has done is made it very clear that we have to get a lot more information from people before tthey are going to be developing any sensitive area. They have to take account of the terrain and work with it and not try to change it," said Wilkinson. "I know that costs them more money to do but that is the cost of development. This area is one if they are going to develop there, they have to do it right. I would prefer if we could save the land but at the moment we don't have a way of doing that."
POLITICALLY CHARGED
Current councillor and mayoral candidate Alex Cullen informed the crowd that they may be able to purchase the land through a special services levy and it was not too late to save it.
"The information (on a special service levy) is available at the city and it just takes some leadership in the community to proceed," said Cullen. "Quite frankly I think this community should be asking the city to expropriate the lands, signing a petition to contribute to that expropriation through a local special area levy and that's doable."
Matt Muirhead, president of the Briarbrook and Morgan's Grant Community Association and candidate for Kanata North, was vehemently opposed to the idea of another levy on residents similar to the one set to bury the hydro lines in Kanata North.
"Despite the fact our current councillor enjoys putting special tax levies on our bill, that one would be an absolutely outrageous figure of money from the taxpayers. This is the math: councillor Wilkinson says that land is worth $400 million. You divide that by the 11,150 homes that are here, that's $35,000 per home over the 10 years, that's $3,500 per year as a special services levy, the average property tax bill is somewhere in the neighbourhood of $3,600 per home, on an average home of $282,000 approximately," explained Muirhead. "That is not acceptable. That is not a rational argument. We don't want any special services levies here. We wanted action and that action should have happened in 2007 or 2008 or 2009. Coming at it in 2010 when the trees were going to be cut down four days from now is completely unacceptable."
Councillor Clive Doucet, also a candidate for mayor, was at the meeting and thought the city needed a new political consensus to protect unique lands like the South March Highlands.
"It's in its own way like Lansdowne Park, it dates back to 1868, there is a connection between the two. We want to preserve what makes Ottawa a great city. One of the things that makes Ottawa a great city is its natural areas. You can think of Gatineau park, South March Highlands - we chew those into subdivisions, what do we gain as a city? I don't think we gain, we lose. The developers are following the rules and what we have to do is change the rules," said Doucet.
VALUABLE IDEAS
Wilkinson says she felt all the ideas brought forward at the meeting were valuable. She explained that they tried to buy the land before but could not get people to donate the funds. She agrees with Doucet that it is a similar issue to Lansdowne Park.
"This is a regional park. If you are going to buy it, it should be a city-wide one, and this is a city-wide issue. It's part of a very important forest. The only reason it wasn't included in the lands the city was going to buy when they did a study a couple of years ago was because it already had Ontario Municipal Board approval and they didn't consider it. If it had been, it would have been number one in there," said Wilkinson. "If you are going to do city-wide, you are just going to do it as a tax and you debenture it and you borrow it. I'm looking at this and if we can debenture and spend $100 million on a stadium and that costs us about one per cent on the taxes every year, is this something we should do that for?"
Jennifer Bygrave, spoke passionately about her love of the forest. She knows that the land is currently zoned for urban development but she wants to change those facts. She wants those involved to come up with ideas by thinking 'outside the box' such as the land being donated, donations, a land swap or something else. She does not think it is too late and is not giving up as she feels this is just the beginning.
"Urbandale is going to have a lot of people to answer to if they are not able to follow the 89 conditions that have been set. They are also going to have a lot of people to answer to if they don't look at this land and view it the way we do," she said. "Urbandale is holding onto a piece of land that in its natural state is actually of more value than when it is leveled with asphalt and suburban houses."
If KNL is not satisfied with the motion or the steps that council has taken, then it can appeal it to the OMB. The lands that were identified for development since the 1960s have, for now, been put on hold. Only time will tell if the trees will come down.
For more information on the development, go to councillor Wilkinson's website: www.mariannewilkinson.com or visit the Facebook group 'I want to save the land North of Beaver Pond Park in Kanata Ontario.'
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