Official Plan Review - Public Information Sessions

As you know, during the process of Windsor's Official Plan Review, the city is holding five public information sessions. This is all for the "Moving Forward" portion of the exercise.

I sincerely appologise for the eleventh-hour notice for these. The College Avenue session is going on as I type this.

Official Plan Review - Moving Forward Phase Public Information Centres

College Avenue Community Centre - 3325 College - Tuesday January 29, 2008 4pm-8pm

Optomist Community Centre - 1075 Ypres - Wednesday January 30, 2008 4pm-8pm

Gino A. Marcus Community Complex - 1168 Drouillard - Thursday January 31, 2008 4pm-8pm

South Windsor Recreation Complex - 2555 Pulford - Tuesday Feburary 5, 2008 4pm-8pm

Forest Glade Community Centre - 3215 Forest Glade - Wednesday February 6, 2008 4pm-8pm

Here are the Moving Forward reports for you to prepare yourself with prior to attending the session closest to you

25-Year Population and Housing Projections (PDF, 504 KB)
20-Year Employment Projections and Employment Land Needs Analysis (PDF, 265 KB)

It is imperative that every citizen attends these information sessions. They are the time for you to have input into building the city you want to live in. Put on your thinking caps, get out your wish list, and be sure to tell those running the seesions everything you want. Remember, they work for you.

The Urban Village Saga Continues...

For those of you who don't read Chris Schnurr's blog (I know there's one or two of you out there) I wanted to point you in that direction today.

Chris is keeping tabs on Windsor's city council and their plans for the City Centre West lands. Luckily, there is one city councillor who is also keeping the pressure on the Mayor and our previous committments to develop an Urban Village on those valuable parcels of downtown real estate. Check out Chris' continuing committment to the medium of video podcasting to see how Councillor Halberstadt is continuing to keep the issue of our Urban Village plans in the public realm and reminding people that we have already dedicated significant resources to this redevelopment model.

We need to join together as a community and make our voices heard as to our feelings regarding furthering the development of the Urban Village and how important it is to revitalizing our downtown core. Be sure to make plans to attend Bleak or Blessed, a forum featuring keynote speaker Matt Fischer, CEO of the Windsor Essex County Economic Development Commission, to give your comments and suggestions as to what you think Windsor should do to survive and flourish in the economic crisis we are currently experiencing - and be sure to include your thoughts on the Urban Village. The organizers plan to record ideas generated from the forum and compile them in a report, which will be presented to all three levels of government -- the city, the province and the feds. The forum, which is free of charge, will take place Wednesday at All Saints', 330 City Hall Square, from 7 to 9 p.m. For more information, call 519-253-8001.

(this plug has nothing to do with the fact that Chris Schnurr helped me to access the audio of my interview with AM 800 yesterday or plugged Scaledown on his blog today :)

Get the Lead out

Way back on December 15, the Mayor of Monmouth told everyone to get their lead levels checked for FREE if your house was built before 1948. Hopefully, you listened.

It seems that Enwin is only going to do exactly what is provincially mandated for them to do, and therefore is not going to notify any neighbours of the participating households who tested high for lead content in their municipal water. According to todays Windsor Star...

"Sylvia de Vries, the spokeswoman for Enwin Utilities and the Windsor Utilities Commission, said only the homeowners who volunteered for the provincially mandated testing will receive the results."

I just got my water checked out yesterday (it took about a week after calling for an appointment) so I don't have any results to pass along to my fellow Walkerville residents, but I highly recommend that you take advantage of this opportunity. Obviously, if the province didn't overwhelmingly believe there was a problem, do you honestly think they would be doing this for free?

"Lead exposure has been linked to delays in physical and mental development. Excessive exposure can seriously injure the brain, nervous system, red blood cell development and kidneys. It can potentially cause mental retardation, seizures, comas and even death, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health."

Ms. de Vries is offering different dates that the Mayor of Monmouth stated in his blog, so to be safe, please take the earlier ones to be sure you are able to get your water tested.

"She said 110 Windsor homes will be tested in this current round, which runs from Jan. 7 to Feb. 9. Another 110 will be tested in July or August. The cycle will then be repeated at six-month intervals for two years."

So heed the advice of your M.O.M.: To make an appointment, please call the W.U.C. telephone Center. The trick is to call now because free testing is only going to take place between December 15, 2007 and April 15, 2008. To ensure participation you have to call this number now. (519) 255-2727. Please select option 3