UPDATE (January 26): The name was corrected today.
‘This investment by Homburg has reignited the issue.’— Coun. Jeff Lantz
Having a brother who was formerly in politics, I get called ‘Jeff’ quite often. But this is the first news story to mix us up.
There is one other correction to this story. Paying cash in-lieu of physical parking spaces is not an exception to the bylaw as reported. It is an option built right into the Zoning & Development bylaw.
4.47 CASH-IN-LIEU OF PARKING SPACES
.1 Council May require or accept Cash-in-lieu of Parking Spaces in any situation where a
Development Permit has been applied for and adequate or required off-street Parking cannot be
provided or, in the opinion of Council, having considered a recommendation from the Planning
Board, is unfeasible.
Related thoughts here.
Councillor says city must act on vacant downtown properties
EDITORIAL STAFF
The Guardian
23/01/09
Coun. Rob Lantz says the City of Charlottetown needs to act on the number of vacant properties in the downtown core.
The city approved a height variance request from Homburg Invest Inc. on Thursday, which paves the way for a proposed $45-million, three-phase development to go ahead.
Homburg is moving ahead with plans to construct an eight-storey office building on Fitzroy Street, a 10-storey hotel on Grafton Street and major renovations to the interior and exterior of Confederation Court Mall.
Lantz said if Homburg is going to show that much faith in downtown Charlottetown the city corporation should help mitigate the risk by making sure the core is firing on all cylinders.
“That can’t happen when a significant number of important buildings are left empty and in such a state of disrepair that they can’t even be leased, even if the owner was prepared to lease them,’’ Lantz said.
“We need to engage the owner of these properties, along with the two other levels of government and the business community, and find a way to get these spaces back in the market, whatever that takes.’’
Homburg has launched a $5-million lawsuit against Nemir Tweel Corp. Ltd., Christopher Tweel and two companies identified only as 2950243 Canada Inc. and 100946 P.E.I. Inc., all which own a number of properties in the downtown, alleging the properties are rundown and affect the developer’s current business (Confederation Court Mall) and what they are currently planning to do.
“If the owners are unwilling to make the necessary investments, perhaps
they should sell instead of sitting on these properties. They’re too important to sit empty.’’
Rob Paterson has a thoughtful post about the reliance of municipalities on property taxes and the precarious position that creates for both the municipality and the taxpayer. This is going to be a very difficult budget year for the City of Charlottetown. It always was going to be difficult, but the Provinces unilateral decision to shift to a tax grant system has created even more uncertainty and handicapped the City even further.
There is no moratorium. I was asked to consider the idea, and I agreed to take it to my committee, but that is a routine courtesy that I extend to any councillor, not a commitment to impose a moratorium. I personally don’t think it’s necessary.
We will certainly be careful to scrutinize any future requests so we have some confidence that a drive-thru can accommodate the expected volume of traffic, but I would also remind the public not to line up in a public right-of-way. I will ask the Chief of Police to enforce this if necessary.
This isn’t a new problem, and to my knowledge there’s never been a serious incident as a result. However, I do recognize the concerns, and I want to deal with them. There is no question the line ups are creating a traffic impediment, but we can’t collectively punish every business that has, or wants, a drive-thru because of the popularity of a handful of Tim Horton’s.
I will be meeting with the Police & Bylaw Enforcement Committee later this month for the first time since becoming chair. We will decide on a course of action then. I still think a cooperative approach will result in the best overall solution.
I just received the following email from City Hall:
The 9th annual Capital New Year in the Park will take place on Wednesday, December 31 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. at Victoria Park. This has become an annual traditional event that gives residents the chance to come out and meet neighbors, friends and family and to wish them all the best for 2009. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. and ends at 7:30 p.m. with the annual Prayer for Peace taking place at 7:00 p.m. and then the official countdown. There will be hot apple cider, pop, hot dogs, cake, music and horse and wagon rides throughout the park.
This is a great family event and a nice alternative to traditional late night New Year’s parties.
See you at the City of Charlottetown Levée on New Year’s Day (10:30-noon).
Our monthly public meetings of Council are streamed live over the internet and archived for later viewing. This is, in theory, an excellent way to review a meeting when I need to recall the details of a particular discussion that took place because the video is often posted long before written transcripts are available.
In practice, the videos are almost useless. Every time I’ve tried to view one the video and sound are so garbled and constantly re-buffering I just give up. The technology is ancient in technology years. With all the video sharing services available these days there must be a better way to stream, record and archive these meetings. If there are any internet video connoisseurs out there that can recommend a better, simpler, cheaper solution I’d love to hear from you.
Here’s something to help you ponder this problem.
Today the Mayor announced changes to the Standing Committees at City Hall. I am no longer the Chair of the Human Resources & Pension Committee, but will instead spend the second half of my term serving as Chair of the Police & Bylaw Enforcement Committee.
My time on the HR Committee has been very interesting and rewarding, and I have been happy to maintain the confidential nature of much the committee’s business. Chairing the Police Committee will be a much more public challenge. I can expect a regular barrage of difficult questions from my fellow councillors at Council meetings, as well as demands to meet ever increasing expectations from the public.
The Charlottetown Police Services are currently under a full independent review. The review is being conducted by an incredibly impressive duo “from away” with deep experience in policing, police auditing, and organizational change management. I look forward to receiving their report and implementing its recommendations with Chief Smith and Deputy Chief Collins.
I am also pleased that I will continue to work with the City’s Director of HR, Andrew Thompson, who is also the Director responsible for Police Services. Andrew is a real professional and a helluva nice guy. He has shepherded me through my first two years of committee work and I am very happy that we will continue to work together.
Police, eh? Who’d a thunk it? I’ve got some learnin’ to do in the New Year.
I’ve just recently discovered that the City purchased — at least a year ago — a dozen GPS units and a license to Grey Island Systems’ InterFleet application for the purpose of tracking the City’s snow plow fleet. Public Works staff have been tinkering with the system but it has not been fully deployed. The intention is to eventually have a public-facing map on the City’s website that shows the location of all the plows in real-time.
Staff have access to a wider array of functionality such as vehicle history that would theoretically allow staff to respond when told, “Your plow knocked off my car’s side-view mirror last night on Ambrose Street”, by saying “Actually, there were no snow plows on Ambrose Street last night”, which may or may not be the basis for another complaint. I haven’t actually seen the product in action yet, and by all accounts this project has fallen off the radar somewhat, so I plan to stick my geeky nose into this business and find out what exactly we’ve purchased and how (or if) it can be put to good use.
The City of Charlottetown Youth Advisory Board is inviting all teens (ages 12-18) to an open swim!
Where: CARI Complex
When: Friday, November 21, 2008, 8:00p.m. – 9:00p.m.
Pizza and Refreshments will be served. Teens are required to sign-in at the door.
For more information, please contact Megan at 629-4176 or mgauthier@city.charlottetown.pe.ca
I am pleased to announce the City’s bargaining committee met yesterday with representatives from CUPE Local 501 (Waste Water Treatment Plant) and reached an agreement that will end the strike. Both the union and City Council ratified the agreement last night and a joint press release will be issued today. The Plant workers will be back on the job tomorrow.
If you were judging solely on the apparent demand for new high-end condominiums in the Charlottetown area, you would hardly know the world is in the grips of a financial crisis, a severe downturn in real estate markets, with economic recession on the horizon. Last week a developer announced plans for several 8-story glass and concrete luxury condo towers in Stratford, while almost simultaneously Charlottetown’s Planning Board was hearing from another developer who wants to build similarly highfalutin condos directly north across the harbour, behind Founders Hall. In fact, although they are different developers, both projects were designed by the same architect.
This area of the Charlottetown waterfront is a Comprehensive Development Area, or a special planning area, and because this new proposal is significantly different from the spa/hotel/condo plan that was originally approved for that site more than two years ago, the approval process must start again from the beginning.
Tomorrow night at council’s monthly public meeting we will vote to “…proceed to the public consultation phase to consider an amendment to the Waterfront Development Concept Plan…”.
Assuming this resolution passes, a public meeting on the new condo proposal will be scheduled sometime before Christmas, I would think. The developer has indicated he would like to get started on some of the early prep work this winter.
UPDATE: The public meeting is scheduled for November 26th, 7:00pm, at the Rodd Charlottetown Hotel (Georgian Room).
I’m hopeful an agreement can be reached soon with CUPE Local 501 (Wastewater Treatment Plant). In the meantime, as they continue to strike, the union has obviously employed some type of email robot to facilitate the sending of a form letter to the Mayor and Council. I’ve been receiving them at a brisk and steady pace since yesterday, and they appear to be coming from CUPE members and supporters from as far away as Ontario, and even Ireland, strangely.
Many of the correspondents have not bothered to alter the final sentence which reads:
As mentioned, Pick Your Councillor will also be notified of my concern.
Still, the point is well taken. The union is making a demonstration of their support, and it certainly is being noticed by me as my email inbox alarm continues to ring away. As a tactic, I’m not sure how effective this is but I do hope the union and the City’s bargaining committee come to an agreement sooner rather than later. About a week into this strike, I received a visit at my home by two members of the striking local. They were very cordial and presented me with some helpful information. More than three weeks into the strike now, it would be best for everyone concerned if we could find a resolution. But I’ve heard it said that a good compromise is an agreement where everyone involved is equally unsatisfied, something both sides will have to keep in mind.
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