A group of College Heights residents have launched a preemptive strike against any plans to disrupt a green space in the area in the form of a petition that drew more than 900 signatures.
The campaign was launched in response to a housing development, proposed by Marnie Holdings at an open house in November 2016. To proceed it would require a portion of North College Park, next to Eton Avenue, to be declared surplus to the city parklands, rezoned and sold to the developer, according to the petition.
As well, according to a press release subsequently issued by petitioners, there was unauthorized tree clearing and digging in the park in May 2015.
"Children have been playing in the forest for decades; the areas destroyed two years ago provided natural play spaces for kids in the summer, and annual wintering grounds for moose", area resident Belinda Larisch said in the release.
College Heights residents use the area for walking and recreating, while fox, woodpeckers, deer, moles, waxwings and bears frequently make use of the area, according to the petitioners who added the site is zoned as park and was preserved when the surrounding neighbourhoods were built in the 1970s, .
"It's strange that we're in the position of trying to protect a place that's already supposed to be safe from development," Paul Swennumson, a 40-year resident of the area said in the release.
When they considered the petition during their meeting Monday night, council members and staff stressed no plans for the site are currently before the city.
The city owns the land and there is currently not sale agreement in place, council was told. If an application for development at the site does come up in the future, the petition will be added to the agenda for the item, staff added.
The petitioners will be following up with a delegation to council on March 6. Mayor Lyn Hall welcomed the move.
"I think there is an understanding that we don't have anything in the hopper, there's no development plan," Hall said. "I spoke to probably half a dozen residents in the area about the process, as many of us have, but I think it's good they're coming...that's what this is all about, they have an opportunity to air concerns and ask some questions so I think this is good."
- A previous version of this story did not mention the proposal from Marnie Holdings. It was mentioned in the petition preamble but not in a press release that was subsequently sent out.
