Harbord Village Residents' Association

Minutes of HVRA Board Meeting

March 13, 2007

Kensington Gardens

Present: Gus Sinclair, Sandra DeAthe, John Hong, Tim Grant, Jane Auster, Jane Perdue, Sue Dexter, David Booz, Richard Gilbert, Stuart Schoenfeld, Richard Longley, Michael Heydon, Margaret Beare

Regrets:  Katrina McHugh, Leslie Thompson

1. Chair's Welcome: The meeting commenced at 7:09 p.m.

2. Agenda: The agenda was approved with the following additions; Sue Dexter will report on City Planning under 4.e., Zoning; Gus will speak about the web site under 4.f., Communications; Gus will speak about a renovation at 38 Brunswick under Other Business.

3. Approval of Minutes: The minutes of February 20, 2007 were approved with one correction, moved by Tim Grant, seconded by Stuart Schoenfeld.

4. Committee Reports

a. Environment

i. Trees Tim
We were turned down by the Trillium Foundation. In order to raise money we could 1) ask for donations on the flyer that will ask for volunteers for the tree inventory, 2) ask for co-sponsorship with a charitable organization, so we can then give donors tax receipts. One expense will be $800 for the training with U of T (total cost for the two people needed= $1600) on identifying trees and conducting the inventory. We also need $6000 to pay the grad student who will coordinate the inventory.
The Toronto Tree Foundation , a private foundation established by developers, gives awards for tree projects in the City. Jane P. will find out what they could do and get back to Tim. We need a response in 1 month.

ii. Solar David
The final piece of the puzzle was confirmed today on the insurance portion, so the homeowners' RFP is just about pulled together and should be out Monday, March 19th to potential bidders. Bids should come in early April and in early May we will decide on the contractors; then there will be four public meeting in various places by the end of May, early June. One challenge will be evaluating the bids, as there are no Canadian tests/standards in place.
The MURB meeting will be one week tomorrow, the homeowners' meeting will be on March 28th. The MURB proposal will go to the Toronto Atmospheric Fund (TAF) as the Solar Committee wants a pilot project in a condo north of Loretto Abbey. We will ask The TAF for a partnership, not just funding, as we need project planning and management.

iii. Graffiti Michael
The committee will meet with Neil Wright in the next 2 weeks; Harbord Street is the target for a project this year. (Constable Scott Mills is on the committee.) The City is looking at targeting Harbord Street, too. The new tags on Croft Street will be cleaned up.

b. Membership Katrina
No report

c. Community Liaison Gus
No report

d. College Street Richard G.
The committee hasn't met for one month. The issue is still patios and how to enforce the by-law. We still need to see if Adam Vaughan's office is on side and how much. There are a lot of changes happening on College Street.

e. Zoning Sue and Gus
Sue and Gus went to a Planning Process meeting convened by Adam Vaughan (AV). The wish is to make the planning process so effective that we never have to go to the OMB. There were presentations by two architects who say the process is very ad hoc, and they don't know the rules. Gary Wright spoke about the new City Plan, which he reports is in favour of neighbourhood stability
AV needs to figure out a way for neighbourhoods to define what they will accept as development in their neighbourhoods, then developers and the City will know the rules before they get involved. The neighbourhoods will define their own quality of life, e.g., low density, more pedestrian friendly, low-rise buildings.
Vaughan wants another meeting in June to fast track this, but the meeting told him it's hard for the residents' associations to do this - they need public meetings to speak to the residents.
AV wants descriptive maps of the areas of the ward; residents, laneways, main streets, commercial areas. HV already has an inventory.
A comment was made that this discussion and process is all in the Councillor's office. In Vancouver, for example, the Councillors set the rules, then they stay out of it and let the Planning Dept. do the implementation.
Sue commented that AV want Part II plans for the neighbourhoods, and wants the residents' associations to tell him what is wanted, but there should be public consultation. AV can't solve Toronto problems with the OMB, but he can look after his ward and forestall adversarial positions by developers by avoiding the OMB.
With Adam Vaughan, HV wants 1), the Brock McElroy report,; 2) our Part II Plan. The Part II Plan takes precedence over the Official Plan and sends a message from our neighbourhood. The Part II Plan would be the framework within which the zoning would occur. (We need both sides of College to be included, from Spadina to Bathurst.) The whole process will backfire without public consultation and consensus, and may take a while to develop, perhaps one year.
AV wants a response by June about how to proceed with the PII Plan. We can give a description and history of HV and our experiences with residents that indicate we wish to preserve the architectural history and the feel of the neighbourhood as that history defines it - low-rise, low density.
Stuart made the point that we have problem areas that we should flag so nothing big happens without consultation with us before the PII Plan is created.
Sue will create a report by June about how to continue with the process to create our Part II Plan.

f. Communication Jane A
Newsletter
Send newsletter reports and jpegs to Jane by the drop-dead date of March 30th. The newsletter will be ready for printing by mid-April, and should be distributed May 6th, latest.
A suggestion was made to insert a flyer with the newsletter to advertize the Spring Meeting. Gus and Tim will do the flyer by the April meeting (17th April).

Web Site
Would the Board please wander around the web site and send a note of what needs doing to Gus by April 15th. We need more photos, if you have any of interest (Richard L. has historical photos.) please send them to Gus. The web site will be readied for the public from 15th to the end of April.

g. U of T Liaison Sue
There is a big solar project at one of the colleges; this is on the next committee meeting agenda.

h. Community Police Margaret
No particular issues. One of the police issues is that 14 Division is moving and some residents are concerned.

Other Business

38 Brunswick               Gus
            The woman who owns 38 Brunswick knocked on her neighbours' doors to ask for support for her renovation at Committee of Adjustment, saying the work was not yet done.  However, it turned out the work actually had been done, and without a permit.  The extension is 4-5 feet beyond anyone else's' house.  The woman says she was is Europe when the work was done.
            A group of neighbours is being put together to talk strategy, especially to determine what the people directly involved want to do.  A suggestion was to keep the structure, but have 38 Brunswick brought up to heritage standards.
            This action is a terrible precedent for the neighbourhood.

Richard Gilbert made the following motion:

            The HVRA Board believes in due process and therefore wishes to express its concern about the precedent of overbuilding the neighbourhood, especially overbuilding without a permit and Committee of Adjustment approval or re-zoning.

Seconded by Margaret Beare and passed unanimously.

Spring Meeting

            Topics for the Spring Meeting (May 15th) include: the tree and solar projects; the web site; and a question to the attendees "What project should we take on next?"

Spring Clean-Up                      Gus
            We will have our Spring Clean-Up on Saturday, April 21st from 10 am - noon.  We therefore need to flyer on April 6th.  Jane A. moved that we use Paul's Service to deliver, seconded by Sue Dexter and carried.

The meeting adjourned at 8:50 p.m.  Next meeting April 17, 2007, same time, same place.