Now that Akinsdale residents have spent two nights creating their own vision for 70 Arlington Dr., the hard work begins for facilitator Beth Sanders and her crew.
"There's some neat stuff here," she said after the second charette ended on Thursday night. "It'll be hard work. I hope to do justice to it all."
Approximately 100 people showed up over the course of two nights at the Kinsmen Banquet Centre, where tables with a map of the property and building blocks were set up for residents to sit down together and come up with potential solutions for an affordable housing development on the land.
The talks came about after three public hearings were held regarding a proposed Habitat for Humanity project for the land. The project called for 58 townhouse units, which many of the residents felt was too much for the area. As a result, Mayor Nolan Crouse decided to hold sessions that would allow residents to put their input into the design process.
Crouse said he was impressed with the ideas people came up with during the discussions, adding it was important to have the community's input. Although he said he would wait until the report's release on May 14 before he expressed any more thoughts on the project, he made it clear that he was keeping an open mind.
"I am so open minded you can't understand," he said. "I'm not working with a sense of urgency on this."
Coun. Gareth Jones, who was not present during the Monday meeting, said that many of the designs he saw on Thursday night tried to find the right number of homes to build on the land. While he said there was more to the process than just density, he was happy to see where the discussions progressing.
"Everyone's come a long way since this all started," said Jones. "It's interesting to see all the ideas put together."
City interference
Although many of the residents said they had a positive experience with the process, one resident said she felt intimidated when an unnamed city official came to her table and tried to tell her group how many houses they should have on their map.
"When someone from the city says it must be more than 24 units, to me that's disrespectful," said resident Sue Languedoc. "When we are invited to a process, it was to have our opinion."
However, Languedoc added that the process was an overall positive experience aside from the incident, saying she was glad she and others were allowed to get involved.
"The residents of Akinsdale have been heard, that it's not about affordable housing but about having the same opportunities as us."
For Coun. Roger Lemieux, the chance to get input from those in Akinsdale allowed him to see democracy in action, adding that by allowing the residents to work together they were playing a role in the future of Akinsdale.
"It's people working with people," he said. "There were tables where all four people were disagreeing and that's healthy."
Sanders said she would not comment on the group's work until the report was released, but added she had respect for all of the residents and their input.
