HVRA Board Minutes

Tuesday, August 21, 2007   7 p.m.

Kensington Gardens

Present:          Gus Sinclair, Sandra DeAthe, Katrina McHugh, Margaret Beare, Jane Perdue, Leslie Thompson, David Booz, Stuart Schoenfeld, Richard Longley, Tim Grant, Richard Gilbert

Regrets:         Jane Auster, John Pham

1. Chair's Welcome: The meeting commenced at 7:10 p.m.

2. Agenda: The Bloor Street Visioning Study will be addressed by Sue Dexter under 5c, Community Liaison; items added under Other Business - 1). 60 Borden Street, Leslie Thompson; 2). Adopt-a-Tree, Richard Longley; 3). Kensington Gardens joining HVRA, Richard Longley

3. Minutes: The minutes of the July 17, 2007 Board meeting were accepted as presented, moved by Tim Grant, seconded by Richard L. and carried.

4. Business Arising: None.

5. Committee Reports

a. Environment

i. Trees Tim Grant
There will be a party on Lippincott to thank the Tree Inventory helpers. This task turned out to be more complicated than we were led to believe, as it was a sophisticated analysis of trees, and therefore very time consuming for the volunteers, although all were good natured about it.
50% of the neighbourhood trees have been randomly inventoried throughout HV, and the remaining information will be extrapolated. Julie Keller has been hired to do this work, and will start the data correlation in a couple of weeks, and hopes to have it all ready for the AGM in October.
Some ideas expressed - Send the City a list of trees that need maintenance; hire an arborist for the neighbourhood to keep and eye on tree health, prune the City trees and help with private trees.
Sue Dexter reported that a U of T Forestry prof thinks there may be money available next year to hire two students for tree work.

ii. Solar David Booz
The project is not moving as quickly as expected. Goldwater, our hot water system vendor, has installed two systems, two are in progress, and there are 10 signed contracts. Things are expected to pick up in September. The photovoltaic vendor, Solera, does not seem to be as professional as we would have liked; they have apoor paper trail, and need better project management. An email will be sent to the project participants to find out what their experiences have been.

iii. Graffiti Michael Heydon
The project is not expanding into the neighbourhood as hoped. The project with Neil Wright and the Harbord BIA has not happened; the merchants actually have graffiti problems pretty well in hand. Michael and Scott Mills did have some maintenance on Croft St., and are trying to "take a street and hold it". There has been no response to the graffiti removal or mural offer made in the last Newsletter.
Sandra reported that a mural had been painted in the alley between Robert and Major, just north of Sussex, and will send out pictures to the Board.

b. Membership Gus, Richard G.
There are some glitches with the membership part of our web site - Gus met with Jason Moore and Richard G. and Katrina will work with him to straighten our the problems. The plan is to have a comprehensive report for the September Board meeting.

c. Community Liaison Sue Dexter
The attendance at the Bloor Street Visioning public meeting at the end of June was very good, and lots of ideas were discussed enthusiastically, including making more room for pedestrians and planting more trees. Subsequently, the Local Area Committee (LAC) for the Study is in disarray. There are differing points of view about what to do and how to proceed. Today, Sue met with Helen Coombs, the City planner for HV, and the Annex planner to discuss the shape and heights of buildings, "pedestrianizing" our streets, greening, trees, walkways. Sometime in September/October there will be a LAC meeting to talk about the content of buildings (e.g., services), how to preserve our way of life and add 5,000 people in the 6 block area near Bloor from Avenue Road to Bathurst Street, and how to ensure cradle to grave habitability for our neighbourhood.
Sue recommends opening up the process to deal with infrastructure and social services; social processes should be mandated (e.g., 10% of a building must be low income rental), and have a committee at the end of planning to implement these ideas in order to ensure things like greening and accommodating different ways of living actually happen. We need to solve how we plan so we get a decent outcome, and don't end up with monolithic buildings and no playgrounds.
The process now is not transparent. There are many layers, many stakeholders, and different groups talking and making decisions without others knowing what is happening.
Robert Street Field - will press for more public access to the field. The parkette next to Sussex is owned by the University and leased to the City year to year. The City doesn't want to improve it. The Field should be considered in the Bloor Street Visioning Study, but U of T wants it off the list.
Suggestion - Bloor Street from Walmer to Bathurst is "almost perfect" now, but clearly work needs to be done from Walmer to Spadina. Could the ideas of a step-down/back of buildings from the sidewalk be implemented as changes are made? There could be the opportunity for a second floor garden.

Fall Fair
Each year there is another development as we put on the Fall Fair. We are not getting anything free from Parks and Rec anymore, and we can't afford to rent the picnic tables, so we'll rent plastic tables. We must hire an off-duty police officer at $60/hour from 3-7 p.m., and one private security guard for the beer garden. The Fall Fair will cost a lot more to run.

d. College Street Richard G.
By this past March 30th , as discussed in a meeting with Adam Vaughan and City reps, 14 restaurants had signed to do a clearway pilot project, and strict enforcement for non-participants was promised. Although everything was set to go ahead quickly, nothing has happened. We can probably have the pilot next year, but there will be no enforcement this year. No progress in 2007.
For the September meeting, Board members are asked to think about where we stand on this issue.
A concern was expressed that if we insist on enforcing the existing patio rules, we could be seen as liable for loss of business. We need to communicate to the business owners that the existing rules don't work and would take away a large potion of the patios, and hence their business. The new clearway and patio by-laws would decrease the vulnerability of the businesses and improve the street.

e. Zoning
No report.

f. Communications Gus
Articles for the Newsletter should be to Jane by September 1st, and the Richard G. by September 7th.
Jane is stepping down from the Board at the end of October, and Gus is looking for someone to take on the editorship of the Newsletter.

Request to Board member: If you are going to leave the Board this year, let Gus know by the next meeting and suggest a replacement.

g. U of T Liaison Sue Dexter
The ROM is not going to destroy trees on Queen's Park, and the Royal Conservatory of Music is fixing up the south flank of its building. Philosopher's Walk is being re-paved. A meeting with U of T is coming up.

h. Community Police Margaret Beare
No report. There were no meetings over the summer; they start again in September.

6. Other Business

60 Borden Street Leslie Thompson
The situation is better, but not calm. The Director of the Local Health Integrated Network (which funds 80% of Habitat services) would like to be present at any future meetings about 60 Borden Street.

Adopt-a-Tree Richard L.
Suggest we start an Adopt-a-Tree program for HV. Annuals at the base of a tree both looks nice and are an early indicator to lack of water. Tim will canvass stores on Harbord to see if they will adopt a tree. A suggestion for buy-in, signs for the window that say "This store part of Adopt-a-Tree Program". The Director of Urban Forestry suggests that new trees be given two buckets a week. Suggestion that the subject of trees be on the agenda for the AGM.

Kensington Gardens Richard L.
Suggest we invite Kensington Gardens to be a member of the HVRA. Gus clarified that "buildings" and "organizations" cannot be members of the association.
Richard will clarify what discussion have happened about the parkette at College. The parkette is poorly designed and encourages mis-use, this is the City's responsibility.

Adam Vaughan's Tax Letter David Booz
We as a board said to Adam that tax increases were OK for better services. In view of Adam's recent letter outlining his position in favour of increasing taxes, should the HVRA take a position?
The most recent proposed increases were controversial, but there could be other things to tax, for example a road tax for people driving into the City; our mill rate is also lower that that of the surrounding communities.
It would be useful to have a well-worded motion at the AGM, which should circulate before the AGM. Sandra will put the motion on the agenda for September's Board meeting. Any discussion of tax increases should focus on the preservation of public amenities, and whatever taxation is necessary to do this should be progressive, i.e., watch out for the vulnerable members of our society.

The meeting adjourned at 9:10 p.m.   Next meeting September 18th, same time same place.