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Anti-condo petition launched by Roseland neighbours · Kvetch & Release

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  Looking at a petition that's on change dot org right now. It's titled stop
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  Roseland Condo Development, says the residents of Roseland Neighborhood and surrounding area are opposed
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  to the City of Windsors current housing proposal on the Roseland Golf and Curling Club
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  property of adding proposed thirty eight luxury units. Three hundred and sixty five signatures
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  have been posted to this petition online, which is a large number, at
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  least in my opinion. Counselor Francis, how you doing today? Good?
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  Goodher you John, I'm doing really well. Thank you. You know,
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  when we were talking about this before the show, you were letting me know
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  about the physical petition and about one hundred and fifty, hundred and sixty signatures
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  there. You were actually surprised when I let you know that this online one
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  had as many as it does. Again, you know, about three hundred
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  and fifty supporters. I was because I hadn't checked it until like late last
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  week, so it's been a few days. So yeah, no, it's
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  glad to see that, you know, the support is picking up, but
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  even just having a you know, about one hundred and sixty or so on
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  a hard petition. It's quite a bit of you know, it's quite a
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  number for a petition going to council. Yeah, it really is. People
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  are seemingly, you know, not on board. Well, and you know,
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  I can't speak for everyone here, but you know, people are coming
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  out and putting their name on a petition three hundred and fifty plus. You
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  know, I got to think with one sixty there's gonna be some overlap between
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  the two. Yeah, but you know, were you expecting there to be
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  this much outcry about it? Well? I did, and I can tell
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  you. I mean, you know, I think I think the city I
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  think city Council just completely underestimated the feeling of the neighborhood and the residents in
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  the neighborhood. And you know I told them that, I told them that
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  this is going to be a controversial issue. We shouldn't be dealing with it
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  in camera. We should make it public, let people come out and have
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  a say. That way an informed decision can happen. And you know,
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  I had one counselor I remember telling me before in the city's open house saying,
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  well, only twenty five people are going to show up because no one
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  cares. No one cares about this, And I'm like, yeah, I
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  think you're wrong on that. And between the open house and then the residents
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  meeting that happened the other week, you know, you're talking about hundreds of
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  people, and there are hundreds of people that are in the Roseland neighborhood.
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  So it's people that are directly affected by what's being proposed. And I look
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  here at the petition and what it brings up. Some of the points and
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  the first three points that are listed here all have to do with sanitary sewer
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  capacity and what this would do to the neighborhood. Yeah, there's a lot
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  of concerns, and one of them is infrastructure. Obviously, having an area
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  flooded in that area of town, you know, people are always concerned about
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  that. People are concerned about the precedent it sets with respect to further development
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  around the golf course, and you know, people are from what I've heard
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  from residents, they're just unhappy with how this process was played out, unhappy
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  that they weren't consulted with. They're unhappy that there's only one option being presented
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  and they're not looking at other recreational options or other park space or public space
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  option. They're unhappy with it being done in camera and not having an ability
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  to come out and tell council how they felt about this. They're unhappy about,
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  you know, the potential change in their neighborhood and how that might affect
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  the golf course in years to come. Let me be let me be fair,
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  and let me be absolutely fair on this and the concern for me and
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  a lot of the residences. Once you open that door to rezoning for high
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  rise residential, you open that door and that increases the likelihood that you're going
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  to have more of that development around the golf course. And you know,
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  twenty years from now, thirty years from now, you don't know what's going
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  to happen, or you don't know who's going to be around the council table,
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  or if development of the golf course can ever be be an actuality or
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  not. But I can tell you that the concern is there. And the
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  concern is once you open that door, you open that door and you can
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  never go back. So I know a lot of the residents are super super
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  concerned about that. Yeah, And you see here in one of the points
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  that they address, they say that this does threaten the single family home by
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  setting that precedent there for high density housing. Let me put you though a
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  little bit on the hot seat here. What would you say to someone who
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  goes, well, look at this counselor friend, Francis is against increasing our
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  housing stock. Clearly he is a nimby and we're not going to be able
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  to solve our housing crisis. Sure, I think, listen, that's a
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  fair criticism, and I'm always open to criticism, as you well know,
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  John, A love that comes from you directly. Yeah, sorry about that.
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  Those are wrong calls. I welcome it. I welcome it. And
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  the one thing I'll say a few things to that, and one is listen,
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  I will acknowledge we have a housing crisis. I acknowledge that I don't
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  think we have a luxury condo housing crisis, right, So I would say
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  that I don't see this as a nimby issue because this really affects everyone in
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  the city and residences all across the city. Listen. I don't have a
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  problem with any of the other proposals being put forward. I've supported high density
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  development in the city and in other areas. I said, no, I
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  don't think it gets the neighborhood. So I think I've been relatively consistent on
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  that. The one thing I will say to that is, and what I
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  think is different to this, is this, we're dealing with recreational property,
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  recreational land that the city owns, right and are we going to start selling
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  off other recreational assets to build luxury condos or other housing? Now, if
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  we're going to do that, then we shouldn't have that meeting in camera,
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  because you know, I agree with what former councilor Fobio Valentina said when he
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  said, you know, Windsor has certain public sacred land and one of that
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  public sacred land is roseland worldsted Manor the riverfront. And know you could even
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  add Ojibwe in there if you wanted to, But there's certain public space in
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  the city that is sacred. And if you're able to make a decision to
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  sell off recreational land from the city right in camera, then what's next.
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  Are we going to sell a portion of will said manner to build a condo?
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  Are we going to start seeing housing developments along the riverfront? Are we
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  going to start seeing housing development somewhere else that is essentially deemed the public public
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  space. So that's what concerns are the residents have. That's why I don't
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  necessarily see this as a Ninby issue, and it affects really everyone in the
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  city. And then, like I said, the concern one day being that
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  there's no golf course there anymore. Right now, I know it's understand it's
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  protected by heritage, but obviously things could change with from provincial decrees in what
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  twenty thirty years look like. That's really really concern. And you know,
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  that's the essence of that neighborhood. So if we are opening the door to
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  that possibility, even though it might not be likely today, I don't know
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  if it's going to be more likely twenty years from now as a result of
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  this development, then you're changing the entire essence of that neighborhood. And if
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  you're able to do it at roseland like I said, what's next wilsted manor
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  the riverfront Ojibwei. So that's why I think it's somewhat different than just you
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  know, a Nindi issue or anything specifically dealing with housing. Well, I
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  want to thank you so much for giving us a bit of the background on
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  it and your thoughts about this as I said, I'm shocked to see three
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  hundred and sixty five signatures. And you know, while three sixty five isn't
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  a huge number in a city of our population as with what it is,
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  it still does represent three hundred and sixty five people who don't want to see
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  this, and you can imagine that they're going to continue having their voices heard
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  about it. Absolutely, and I'll do my best to amplify those voices and
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  represent them to the best of my ability. Well, thank you so much
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  for your time today, counselor. Always appreciate it. Thank you, John,
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  Take care, cheers. Fred Francis is the counselor for Ward one.
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  What are your thoughts about this petition stop roseland condo development.