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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCompass Kitchener - 2004-05-12May 12, 2004 COMPASS KITCHENER COMMITTEE MINUTES CITY OF KITCHENER The Compass Kitchener Committee met this date, commencing at 4:00 p.m. Present: Don Bourgeois, Pat Doherty, Trudi Bunting, Trudy Beaulne John Hall, Glen Woolner, Dan Williams, Paul Royston Staff: Carla Ladd, Shelley Adams, Barb Wagner Regrets: None 1. Approval of Minutes On motion by D. Bourgeois: It was resolved: That the minutes of April 7, 2004, as received by the members, be accepted. 2. Draft Shared Aqenda C. Ladd distributed copies of the draft shared agenda brainstorming session with Council held on April 19th. The broad issue areas identified by the community and discussed at the April 7th Compass Kitchener meeting were relayed to Council at this session. G. Woolner entered the meeting. The Shared Agenda is divided into 4 time frames including: Planning Stage - First Six Months Moving Forward - November 2004 to October 2005 Maintaining Momentum - November 2005 to December 2006 Sustaining Progress - setting the agenda for the next Council. First Six Months - Planning Stage The first six months is the planning stage and addresses broad issue areas. Items identified by Council for the planning stage on the shared agenda, based on the four issue areas identified by Compass Kitchener in April include: Environmental Strategic Plan - the existing strategic plan needs to be updated. It currently has an inward focus only, identifying actions the City can take to improve the environment. Council would like to develop an outward focus as well. This is a strong focus for Council in the upcoming term. Council has identified some specific areas to be included, watercourse strategy, natural heritage system, pond maintenance, urban forests, the community trail network and the Kyoto protocol. Traffic Flow Management - the road hierarchy within the region will need to be reviewed to determine if the strategy should: a) continue to develop a regional system of moving traffic smoothly, or; b) develop a community system of traffic calming and moving traffic slowly to encourage people to use transit. May 12, 2004 COMPASS KITCHENER COMMITTEE MINUTES - 5 - CITY OF KITCHENER Downtown strategic implementation plan completed and approved. Copies of Volume I, the high level vision and Volume II, the strategy outlining education clusters and provision of employment lands will be distributed to Compass Kitchener members. Volume III, the implementation plan which will outline specific actions is currently in progress and will be distributed as soon as it becomes available. S. Adams entered the meeting. Growth Management includes both City actions to realize the Region's Smart Growth Strategy and an assessment of community design issues in high growth areas. Council has given direction to develop a plan to assess and address issues such as smaller lots, narrow streets, availability of street parking, congestion on street and linkage of open spaces. T. Beaulne entered the meeting. Regional - LRT project is covered under the Growth Management strategy for implementation of a regional central transit corridor. No decision has been made as of yet on funding for an LRT or rapid bus service. Council has placed this on the agenda for proactive planning purposes including reserving an area adjacent to the planned corridor and to ensure the City is cognizant of this as part of any planning process. T. Bunting entered the meeting. Housing, both inner-city incentives and strategy developed for student and lodging houses was included in the shared agenda. Council has requested proactive housing strategies to address proposed demand with the university campuses and to ensure that lodging housings meet standards and compliance. With the exception of safety in the downtown, all items identified by Compass Kitchener were included by Council in the first 6 months. It was noted that safety in the downtown would likely be included under the broad category of the downtown. Moving Forward - Next 12 Months Moving Forward for the period November 2004 - October 2005 is the implementation stage and setting the policy framework for implementation. Growth Management - the implementation of the policy framework for smart growth, new design standards and regulations for the development of new communities will commence during this stage. The completion and development of an action plan for the Environmental Strategic Plan is an aggressive timeframe. Council raised the healthy communities model in relation to this project. Compass Kitchener's participation and role with healthy communities would be logical. Maintaining Momentum Last 14 months of Council Environmental Strategic Plan - implementation underway. May 12, 2004 COMPASS KITCHENER COMMITTEE MINUTES - 6 - CITY OF KITCHENER Sustaining Progress Start process in last term to validate the vision and progress on community issues. Kitchener has a strong role in this program. Compass There was a discussion regarding economic development in the City, particularly the downtown. C. Ladd noted that Paul Guild from the University of Waterloo attended Passport to Success to present research on the major clusters in the Region of Waterloo. The City has created the opportunity for an education cluster in the downtown, although it was noted that the largest cluster in the downtown is the vitality cluster. The vitality cluster includes arts and culture. Kitchener has a tradition in arts and culture venues, tourism and events. It was noted that there are different issues for the City to address with industrial, health, arts and culture and educational clusters. The Committee requested more information regarding this study. Healthy Community Plan D. Bourgeois noted that the issues Compass Kitchener had requested Council include in the next six months are quite substantial and require critical decisions for the current and next Council. Compass Kitchener needs to decide how the Committee wants to approach and manage time. Possibilities include approaching the shared agenda from a Healthy Communities perspective or direct involvement in one or more of the items on the shared agenda, such as the downtown or environment. Committee involvement in shared agenda items would be quite limited in the first six months when most of the action is planned on some projects. The exception is the Environmental Strategic Plan where the process is being developed in the first six months and implementation in subsequent years. Committee involvement from a healthy communities perspective allows the Committee to keep abreast of broad issues and monitor Council decisions to see where policy fits into the four macro areas. Options include Committee involvement in reshaping the healthy communities plan to fit with the community vision and local needs. It was recommended that the Committee could tap into other studies, such as the 4 Churches $100,000 feasibility study to review and define healthy communities. Glen Richardson is the City contact on this project. S. Adams advised that Woolwich Township's Healthy Communities Project identifies 9 Guiding Principles by which every Council decision is measured. Compass Kitchener could consider establishing principles which are important to Kitchener's residents, develop a template and use this as a litmus test on each of Council's decisions. A report card could then be produced to demonstrate if the community direction is considered. Copies of the Woolwich study will be distributed prior to the next meeting. It was noted that participatory action is the direction the City and Compass Kitchener should take. Participatory action moves beyond decision-making and community building to encouraging citizens to take leadership and ownership of issues.Neighbourhood associations could be involved to help achieve participation in the community. May 12, 2004 COMPASS KITCHENER COMMITTEE MINUTES - 7 - CITY OF KITCHENER It was decided that the role of Compass Kitchener should be within the context of the healthy communities model, to monitor if we are achieving a balance and maintaining the 3 elements: environmental, social and economic. To facilitate this direction, C. Ladd and S. Adams will develop a schematic depicting the healthy communities plan, linkages and alignment prior to the June meeting. 3. Community Survey Proqram The Compass Kitchener Committee developed a mandate last March to operate the committee on a 3-year term to build into the shared agenda and to help Council with successful implementation. The Committee is responsible for monitoring and reporting to Council and the community. A consistent community survey program needs to be developed to monitor the pulse of the community. The Committee needs to decide if the program should be developed to monitor issues or the progress of the City towards a healthy communities model. Several companies have approached the City including Cameron Research and Probe. Cameron Research has completed comparative research on large metropolitan areas, however all the cities involved in the project are one-tier, which limits the value of data comparison for Kitchener. Environics has worked with cities such as Markham in relation to community vision and has completed work for a number of municipalities in Southwestern Ontario. P. Royston suggested performing community surveying through an interactive web page dedicated to Compass Kitchener where the community could provide input in terms of ongoing issues. A monthly report could be produced and a month by month ranking of issues of relevant importance could be produced. T. Bunting suggested the site should allow for participation to include how residents would solve problems, rather than just asking what the issues are. The site could also offer explanations and put forward new ideas. Links such as "Understanding Traffic Problems" could help explain current projects and alleviate negative feedback. An option to undertake a 10 year surveying program with 1000-2000 families would provide extensive feedback, however the long term cost is extremely high and it is difficult to retain the participants over a long period. T. Bunting noted that although previous surveying has been well done, she is apprehensive regarding the prevalence of call monitoring for telephone surveys. Call monitoring could help to explain the demographics of the participants of the 2003 studies. It was recommended that the Committee work with the consultants to get some direction and ideas, and obtain packages of information on the services offered. D. Bourgeois and C. Ladd will dialogue prior to the next meet to fine-tune the community survey program and structure for the June agenda. 4. Updates C. Ladd advised that Council has decided not to pursue the issue of Council size in response to lack of concern in the community. May 12, 2004 COMPASS KITCHENER COMMITTEE MINUTES - 8 - CITY OF KITCHENER Information sharing and learning opportunities with the Ontario Coalition of Healthy Communities, the Region of Waterloo, CURA and other forums can be initiated once the Committee establishes direction. Presentations will be scheduled in reference to the Environmental Strategic Plan, Leisure Facilities Master Plan and Downtown Strategic Plan. Regular monitoring of research studies from various sources will be undertaken to assist in decision-making. In response to a suggestion to establish avenues for discussion outside of the monthly meetings, such as a website bulletin board, it was determined that the current focus is to develop a strategy which is manageable and meets goals of the Committee. It was recommended that interested parties could access the Waterloo Region Healthy Communities Coalition website where a local online dialogue is being set up to exchange ideas and views on the Region's Smart Growth. D. Bourgeois recommended the July or August meetings could be arranged as a barbecue to provide a longer session to brainstorm and share ideas and information. 5. Adjournment Meeting adjourned 5:30 p.m.