City council turned down an invitation to meet with Akinsdale residents who are concerned about an affordable housing project in development at 70 Arlington Dr.
Coun. Cam MacKay brought forward a request from a group of residents seeking a face-to-face meeting with council members over the 30-unit Habitat for Humanity Edmonton duplex project that the previous council approved on Sept. 30.
Even though Habitat has a development permit and is working on engineering designs with the intent of starting construction in the spring, MacKay felt a development that was more acceptable to area residents could still be achieved.
“I think we should do our absolute best to sit down and listen to them and find out if we can do something better,” he said.
He explained to council that the formal nature of the public consultation process that led to the passing of the development didn’t allow for a true understanding of the project’s affordability and residents’ concerns.
Council voted 4-3 against holding the meeting, with Coun. Cathy Heron and Coun. Malcolm Parker voting in favour.
Sheena Hughes was one of several residents who implored council to go ahead with the meeting. The decision left her “very disappointed” because residents just want to ensure that council truly understands the development and their concerns, she said.
“It wasn’t even going to be a talk that said we’re going to change anything or make Habitat stop anything,” she said. “I don’t understand how that was so threatening to them.”
Residents feel they haven’t been heard because all communication on the issue has been done via email or the public consultation process, she said.
It wasn’t lost on her that none of the three incumbents from the last council agreed to the meeting.
“The people who were on the previous council, who claimed during the election campaign that they were now going to be all about communication with the residents, seem to have forgotten every word they said in October,” she said.
Mayor Nolan Crouse said afterward that the development decision has been made and that having a closed-door meeting with residents would send the wrong message.
“We’ve been transparent from the very beginning on this,” he said. “Everything we’ve done on this has been held in public, and to have a meeting, it suggests that we’re prepared to change something.”
Council approached Habitat in late 2008 to see if the charity would be interested in bidding on the land, which was a surplus school site owned by St. Albert Protestant Schools. This contact led to Habitat making a closed-door presentation about its operational model to members of council and administration.
The Arlington Drive project has been at the centre of a neighbourhood uprising since Habitat first presented its concept in the fall of 2009. The original proposal called for 63 units, which was reduced to 58, 34 then 30 units in response to residents’ concerns. City council also bowed to public pressure by providing a design charrette last year. Ideas generated there formed a large part of the concept that’s now being developed.
After the development was passed last fall a group of residents filed a lawsuit against the city.
