Latest News April 26, 2009 Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods The Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods (Ontario) ,or FUN, brings together community groups from across the province. It is holding its Annual General Meeting in Ottawa this coming Saturday. The guest speaker at the meeting will be Jim Watson, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, who will speak about the regulations governing municipal elections.   You are invited to sit in on the Annual General Meeting from 10:30 (reports will be presented and delegates will be chose a new executive for FUN). But potentially of greater interest, you can hear the Minister's remarks from 11:15. We expect he will respond to questions following his speech. The meeting is in the Champlain Room at City Hall.   A light lunch is being arranged for delegates after the speech. We hope that this will provide an opportunity to chat with the Minister and also for exchanges of views with delegates present from out-of-town. This should be a chance to see how concerns in Ottawa compare with issues in other cities in Ontario. (Some of the cities are sending delegates to the meeting, others will be following the meeting by telephone conference call.)   The FCA (Federation of Citizens' Associations of Ottawa-Carleton) is the Ottawa member of FUN and the host for this meeting. While FCA has voted a budget for the light lunch for the delegates, it is suggested that the rest of us (i.e. those attending who are not delegates) contribute to a collection to pay for the additional cost of lunch.   Further information about the program for the AGM is found at http://www.urbanneighbourhoods.ca/AGM2009.pdf. You may also wish to explore the FUN website (urbanneighbourhoods.ca) for additional information about FUN and its activities. Of special interest are FUN views on the Manotick decision by the OMB.   We hope you will consider attending on Saturday.   Robert Brocklebank rbrock0564@rogers.com April 25, 2009 FixMyStreet.ca FixMyStreet.ca , an online pilot project for government transparency, is a website that allows residents to report problems in their neighbourhood, such as potholes, graffiti, missing streetlights, or dangerous pathways. FixMyStreet.ca posts the problem on their website, and emails the report to Ottawa 311 on your behalf. You may also browse through reports that other people have submitted, and subscribe to the ones you would like  updates on. The promoter of FixMyStreet.ca is a non-profit organization called VisibleGovernment.ca , and is inspired by a similar group in the UK called MySociety. Their mission is to promote online tools for government transparency. VisibleGovernment.ca believes that making civic problem reports public and visible is a valuable communications tool for both the City of Ottawa and its citizens. Providing the ability to browse problems that have been reported avoids having many people report the same issue individually. Further, the site keeps public records of when reports were filed, and when they were fixed, giving citizens access to richer information about their community and municipal council. Source: Jennifer Bell http://visiblegovernment.ca RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/VisiblegovernmentcaBlog April 10, 2009 City Stream Watch 2009 Hello volunteers, It's great to be sending out this email. We've had some recent snow, but the sun is supposed to be shining over the next few days, and that means we are getting closer to the beginning of the City Stream Watch season! We have many activities planned for this year.  This year, we are focusing on Barrhaven Creek, Bilberry Creek (Orleans area), Mosquito Creek (Leitrim/Limebank) and Stillwater Creek (Kanata area).  Barrhaven is a shorter creek, and it is previously unsurveyed.  The other three creeks were surveyed in 2004.  Outside of the surveys, we will be holding one or two special events each month, including tree planting, garbage cleanups and fish sampling from May to September.  This year, we are excited to add a new event --invasive species removal, with a focus on dog-strangling vine.  For all of those events, I will be sending the details as they get closer. For now, some dates to keep in mind: Volunteer Training Sessions for Stream Surveys, May 9th and 23rd 9am to 12pm Meet at the small park at the mouth of Sawmill Creek about 100 m east of Billings Bridge Shopping Centre (Bank Street bridge at Riverside Drive -- map attached ) The sessions are the same, and you only need to attend one.  If you can't make the sessions, it's no problem.  We train all summer!  If you took part in surveys in 2008, you do not have to attend the training sessions. Tree Planting This year, our tree planting is occurring in the east end of Ottawa.  We have 500 shrubs and trees to plant at each site. May 3rd, 9am-12pm: Green's Creek at St. Joseph Blvd May 9th, 1pm-4pm: Bilberry Creek near St. Joseph Blvd Now some other exciting volunteer opportunities: Celebrate Mother's Day by cleaning up the Rideau River! May 10th: Organized by the Urban Rideau Conservationists each year, City Stream Watch volunteers are asked to come out and lend a hand. This event takes place in the morning. Celebrate Canadian Rivers Day! June 14th: Join City Stream Watch to help clean up Sawmill Creek. Later this summer More events will be held in June, July, August and September and will be announced later.  Please register with me for all events by phone or email. Once the training sessions are finished, I will be sending out an email at the end of May to start scheduling stream surveys. If you have any questions about the events or the training, please don't hesitate to contact me. I hope everyone had a great winter, and I am looking forward to seeing you all out in our creeks! Best regards, Julia Sutton City Stream Watch Coordinator Rideau Valley Conservation Authority 3889 Rideau Valley Drive Box 599 Phone 613-692-3571 Ext 1180 Fax 613-692-0831 citystreamwatch@rvca.ca julia.sutton@rvca.ca http://www.rvca.ca/programs/streamwatch/index.html April 10, 2009 Cumberland Village Community Association Public Meeting We're raising the Red Flag! Public Meeting with Councillor Rob Jellett Tuesday, April 14 2009, 7pm Maple Hall, 2552 Old Montreal Road Re: Official Plan amendment to expand development into Cumberland The City of Ottawa is considering changes to the urban boundary to add 800 hectares of land for future urban development. In Cumberland seven areas, totaling 337 gross hectares, are being considered for development . This represents 28% of all the land being explored by the Ottawa Official Plan Amendment process. This is the area located between Cardinal Creek, on both sides of Old Montreal Road near Ted Kelly and Frank Kenny Road, as far as Wilhaven Road. The Cumberland Village Community Association has concerns in the following key areas: Preservation of the historic and rural character of Cumberland Protecting our quality of life Environmental impact and conservation of streams, wildlife habitat, natural resources and woodlands Transportation and infrastructure system already at capacity The need to increase density within the Greenbelt before developing rural areas. Tamarack has proposed a development that would result in 12,500 new residents and 4,220 housing units in this area of Cumberland, to be known as "Cardinal Village". Tamarack has no plans to extend water and sewer services further into the Village. So why have we not been consulted on this proposal and why should we support it? The Cardinal Creek Community Association is in the process of having the creek and cave network near Trim Road designated as a provincially significant area of natural scientific interest and opposes any development near this area. In November 2008, many of you participated in stage one of the community design plan for Cumberland, which would guide future development on issues such as this. A follow-up meeting in June will continue with stage two. Our goal is to ensure that any future development is sustainable, respects sound urban planning principles and respects the unique character of Cumberland.  For some reason, city planning staff did not include the Cardinal Village proposal in our community design process. Why not? We strongly encourage you to attend a public meeting with Councillor Jellett on Tuesday, April 14 at 7 pm at the Maple Hall.  We are preparing a submission opposing the expansion of the urban boundary into Cumberland.  Submissions on the proposed urban boundary amendment will be accepted until April 27. We encourage you to write to Council expressing your concerns attn: rob.tremblay@ottawa.ca A final decision on the proposed urban boundary amendment, including any land to be added for development, will be made on May 11. Add your voice to this debate! The Cumberland Village Community Association April 9, 2009 Name-the-park contest Your Cardinal Creek Community Association and City Councillor Bob Monette are looking for your suggestions on an appropriate name for the park located at 2148 Valin Street (at Glandriel Crescent, East of Trim Road), in the East Village / Oakridge Gate subdivision. Contest details and online entry form are available at http://cardinalcreek.org/name_the_park_contest.php or www.bobmonette.ca .  Submissions must be received no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, April 24, 2009. We look forward to your suggestions and announcing the winning entry at our Family Fun Day community BBQ on Saturday , June 13th. ****************************** Votre Association communautaire Cardinal Creek et le conseiller municipal Bob Monette sont présentement à la recherche d'un nom pour le parc situé au 2148, rue Valin (à l'intersection du croissant Glandriel, à l'est du chemin Trim) dans le secteur East Village / Oakridge Gate. Les détails du concours et le formulaire de soumission sont disponibles sur Internet au http://cardinalcreek.org/name_the_park_contest.php ou www.bobmonette.ca .  Vos soumissions doivent être reçues au plus tard à 17 h le vendredi 24 avril 2009. Au plaisir de recevoir vos suggestions et d'annoncer le/la gagnant(e) du concours lors de notre Journée de plaisir en famille et barbecue communautaire le samedi 13 juin. Jean-François Claude President / président Association communautaire CARDINAL CREEK Community Association Archives February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 December 2009 January 2010 February 2010 April 2010 June 2010