It was that kind of a night at city hall. Taxi’s, heritage and Taylor in tights on a stage. It followed a day during which great strides were made.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  March 27, 2012  One Council member thought it was a “manufactured issue”, the other will use it heavily in her re-election campaign.

A new committee was formed with Hamilton at the table on this one.  It’s going to be called the Greater Bay Area Liaison Committee.  This is going to be one of those shared responsibility things – which sometimes means that no one is leading and therefore you don’t get anywhere.  And, dealing with that democratic mess known as Hamilton will be an experience.  But the agenda is a noble one – let’s see how they do.

Councillor Taylor asked to be relieved of his seat at the Downtown Core Commitment Review and was replaced by Councillor Craven who remarked that following Councillor Taylor was like following Baryshnikov as a dancer.

Owners of properties backing onto creeks in the Alton community got a shock when they learned that a third of their property could not be used. They were stunned - the problem got resolved.

Residents in the Alton community got a problem they shouldn’t have had, taken care of.  We learned that an innovative taxi service is going to be set up as a pilot project for the downtown crowd that takes to the streets, when the bars close, and get out of hand at times when they can’t get a cab to get home.

Getting more homes off the Heritage Registry got deferred until the Burlington Heritage Advisory Committee can come in with the report the city is anxiously waiting to have dropped on their desks sometime in June.  Expect that report to come in later than originally planned.  The Heritage Advisory people have realized they need more data on just what people who are not stakeholders in the heritage game – they want to know what the average taxpayer thinks and are hoping to scrape up some funding for a quick public opinion survey.

Heritage, a contentious issue in this city is being handled with kid gloves these days.  The Committee is the go to place when someone wants to do something with a piece of property that has or would even appear to have heritage potential.  That committee is made of representation from the community, with people who get appointed to the Committee by the city and representation from different stakeholders.  The Burlington Historical Society has two seats at the table.

Currently the committee is working assiduously to complete a report for city council which they, the council, hope will point to a direction that will help them get out of the mess things heritage are in the city.  They have a very tight deadline with a board that has four new members who have to be brought up to speed and then integrated with a committee that is working full bore at getting their report into the hands of city council.

Those who are working hardest on the report appear to work very well together; there is some solid talent around that table – it will be interesting to hear what they come forward with.  While they tend to be a little on the secretive side,  and use the excuse that a document is a draft and therefore should not be released – which isn’t the definition of transparency the Shape Burlington report called for, nor is it the rule of thumb Shaping Burlington has been pressing for either, their hearts are in the right place.

All seven members of Council got a face to face with a team from the Heritage Advisory committee - a second session with each of them is in the works.

Members of the community did a Jehovah’s Witness number on every Council member ten days ago when three of them met with each council member to take them through the working draft they had  in hand looking for response, comment and input.

They do have plans to take their wisdom to the public but by the time the average man on the streets sees the documents it may well have become close to cast in stone.  One hopes not.

Council members have been much more open with their comments with one noting that he had all his comments ready for what he thought was going to be a short meeting – “it lasted more than an hour” and “they seem to be concerned about the short term matters as much as they are concerned about the long term question about what Burlington wants to do with heritage”.

Randy McLaughlin points out, quite correctly that, “we are here as advisers.  Our job is to canvas the issues, get as much as we can in the way of facts and the views of the community and then give council our best advice and support the advice with rationale that will hold up.”  McLaughlin points out that many committees get into advocacy and forget they are there to advise.

All well and good – but for those people who have asked to have their homes removed from the Registry the city maintains – the waiting is awkward.  Councillor Dennison, when asked if the people who were at the Committee meeting wanting to delegate could be heard, was told that they had already been told the issue of changes to heritage designations was being deferred until sometime in June – so they didn’t appear.

Councillor Lancaster wanted to be sure these people were not experiencing any financial hardship related to their request to be taken off the Registry.  Anthony Facenda, a recently appointed member of the Heritage Advisory Committee, delegated to Council with comments that he believed made it very clear that there is a financial price paid by property owners when their property is place on the list.  There are a number of experts who think otherwise – but that’s an issue that will get debated at city Council.

Burlington Taxi and the Burlington Restaurant Association brought an interesting and innovative idea to the committee.  More on that one in a separate story.

The Burlington Downtown Business Association asked that the timeline they are working to on the core Commitment Downtown Business Review be extended just a wee bit – Council committee said sure.  There is a research report the BDBA is spending major dollars on ($80,000) and they want that information in the report.  They want to collect data to ensure that their recommendations are fact based (that would help).  Makes sense.  This decision moves the final report into the second quarter of 2013.

It was that kind of a night at City Council Community Development Committee.

The real action took place at a Special Council meeting held in the morning, where there was a report and update on the Strategic Plan and where we heard phrases like “how much better can we make things” and the top dog on the administrative side of things told the committee that “the city has clients who pay for services with their taxes”  and Jeff Fielding wants to give those customers a report card on how things are going.  His report cards will be backed up with data and bench marks and, dare we say it: accountability.

This IS marvelous stuff – new to the city and if they can make it happen you will see significant savings and better value for your tax dollar.  Just how good was it?  Councillor Mead Ward said she wouldn’t shoot anyone – and that has to be good news.

It was that kind of a day at city hall.

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