As you are aware, we completed the “Interest in a Park” survey in June and July 2016. This survey strongly demonstrated that the residents of City View want a park. There were 437 forms and emails returned from our 1130 drop. The response was 432 for the park and 5 against.
We held the widely advertised, Public Town Hall meeting Thursday night, at 9 Rossland Avenue. Councilor Rick Chiarelli and Dan Chenier, General Manager, Parks, Recreation, were in attendance, as were approximately 70 residents.
Apparently, the city has not ever bought park land, certainly not in established neighbourhoods like ours. So this would be a precedence, if it were to happen.
A second precedence will apparently be that any developer, if successful in purchasing the property, will now be asked to plan a small park, when a new development is approved. This has not been done in older, established neighbourhoods.
Councilor Chiarelli said that if we get 50% of the homes in City View to agree to a 10 year only levy, he would champion a proposal to city council to buy 21 Withrow Avenue.
Achievement of our goal of 50% does not guarantee success, however. City Council would have to agree to purchase this property. The levy would be a maximum of $5/month for 10 years. Several residents at the meeting indicated they were willing to pay even more for a park in City View.
We need the attached Levy form below, signed for each property in City View. Our goal is to get more than 50% of residents to agree to a $5 month for the 10 year levy.
The June ‘Interest in a Park” survey form that has already been submitted or emailed does not count because the levy was not an option at that point. This was only to show if there actually was general community support for a new park.
City View Association Executive will still attempt to get other funding through provincial and federal government grants and various other fundraising.
Councilor Chiarelli was very clear that City Council would need to see how much our community wants this park. This commitment could only be shown by the agreement to a limited $5 a month, ten year levy. If the council does not approve the purchase, there will, of course, be no levy, and unless we find other means, no park.
If the park and therefore the levy are approved, when you sell your house, the new owner would also take on the levy.
Personally, We would pay $5/month for ten years, to have a beautiful park in our community.
WE NEED:
Levy forms to be signed and returned to 100 Rita Avenue.
OR
levy forms to be scanned and emailed to: cityviewassociation@gmail.com
OR
levy forms signed and call one of the phone numbers provided on the form to have it picked up.
YOU CAN HELP!
Click Here for the Required Levy Form
1. Print & Complete a levy form
2.Copy a levy form for your neighbours
3. Offer to hand out and collect levy forms on your block.
If you do this, you can pick up blank forms in my mailbox at 100 Rita. Help yourself. Completed forms can be returned through our mail slot.
We will keep you up to date on the progress.
We did have a talk with a member of the Roger family last night and it was indicated that the family might be interested in having the property turned into a park.
We are planning several meetings with interested parties in the near future to continue to move this project forward.
Thank you for your continued support.
Your City View Community Association Executive