Meech Lake reckless development

What can I say about this man, we're lucky to have this dedicated conservationist around. I have always looked up to Ian's activism and doing the right thing at the right time, not for personal glory and certainly not for money, but because someone has to do it. Hats off to you my friend. By Ian Huggett We bring nothing into this world. It is also certain we carry away nothing with us. Nevertheless, we have no shortage of enthusiasm to recklessly transform, modify and disfigure the earth before our departure. No more evident is this than along Meech Lake Road in Gatineau Park. The latest monolith under construction at 777 Ch. Meech Lake could dwarf the O’Brien House once completed. Massive concrete pilings have been cemented into vertical rock up a slope only a ski-hill gondola could scale. Old homes come down. New homes go up. While the National Capital Commission (NCC) has abandoned its role as a landlord for rental properties, left boarded up to culture mushrooms, the Municipality of Chelsea is issuing permits for home construction inside the park. Meech Lake in Gatineau Park almost rivals Lake Louise at Banff in reckless development. Last month, I advised Mayor Caryl Green that a specific bylaw be drafted to modify Chelsea’s existing zoning for private residential construction inside Gatineau Park. The objective would be to place constraints on building standards to better integrate new homes by reducing their visual and physical impacts on the park. Ideally, these lots should be purchased by the NCC. But the willingness of private property-owners to sell to the NCC is not always forthcoming. I suggested a meeting with the municipality’s urban planning director and the mayor to devise construction standards appropriate within a park setting. Standards would involve reducing the width of laneways, increasing setbacks, retaining visual buffers and prohibiting access up unstable slopes over a certain grade. Architectural standards would reduce size, height and specify exterior siding such as wood or log. The normal process is for a proponent to draft these revisions with the insight of urban planners. The bylaw amendment is reviewed by the urban planning committee and presented to council for consideration. At the final stage, the revision is vetted by the public for comment. But Mayor Green chose to deflect this idea. No doubt, she anticipated a slippery slope of potential lawsuits by ruffled property-owners. Having comparative constraints imposed on their rights with neighbours outside the park could spark a debate over equality. She suggested the idea be left for the public to raise during the Master Plan Review next year. As wealth continues to be funneled from the many to the few, conspicuous real-estate built in exclusive venues will continue. Meech Lake, sadly, has evolved as a target for the financially elite. Unless some authority intervenes on behalf of Gatineau Park to filter inappropriate development within the park’s private enclaves such as Meech Lake and Kingsmere, future private homes will threaten to overshadow existing historical landmarks. I believe it’s part of our culture’s bid at immortality. Better to recall the old adage: “We enter this world with clenched fists – anxious to grasp everything within our reach. We leave this world with open hands – everything we once owned has slipped away.” Leaving massive buildings in a park as a legacy against our own mortality represents the extreme in human egotism.

Mr. "Free parking"

OK, my fellow shit-disturber friend and lovely neighbor has boldly made her rant public and invited me to share it with those like-minded shit disturbers!!!! Folks, I have rarely waxed political on this newsfeed, but excuse me. I am not terribly reassured by Mr developer JP Poulin's reassurances that a new condo development in the heart of the village will, don't worry little village people, be tastefully done. Are we supposed to believe that he who brought us Giant Tigre (the first tree to fall--which now seems slated to fill in surrounding wetland and be expanded into a full on stripmallplex for our so called convenience) and bought us off with globe style parking lot lighting and cheap socks can suddenly morph into friendly protector of quickly disappearing quaint, quirky, and humble villagy-ness? I doubt it. Giant Tigre was protested as a symbol of what we didn't want to come. Many saw that as a gateway battle, and they turned out to be right. They slipped Styro Rail in the side door just in time for the giant highway expansion made of oh! coincidence! giant blocks of Styrofoam. Mayor Bussiere and Mr Poulin I'm sure are shooting darts in the man lounge together, clinking glasses and chuckling as the steamroll their development agenda through the rows of protest lines, huge rises of Canadian shield, ignored environmental concerns and really sincere engagement and input by a very thoughtful, sincere, and educated contituency. Meanwhile someone's vision (not the PPU's!) of a village turned suburban town with a sterile, 'cutesy' Merrickville-like core accessible only to the solidly middle class or richer, flanked by a Gatineau type strip and industrial sector and fed by a giant vein of pavement so we can all barrell back and forth to the city a few minutes faster, chained to the race race and high on cheap drivethru cups of coffee with a gut rotting Subway sandwich to feed our delusions that life is better this way, quickly manifests. I am not one to hug trees or oversimplify complex civic matters, but still I am sincerely heartbroken as tree after tree falls, citizen engagement and protest become a moot point, and this very unique and precious place becomes just another battle lost to big money and shortsighted development agendas. Meanwhile gentrification takes its toll on the funkier and poorer part of our population as well as long-time locals, seniors, etc etc etc. What could be a seriously cutting edge example of a different kind of bike path into the future is quickly becoming just another painted and paved paradise. But don't worry little village people, this won't hurt a bit. Papa developer has your concerns in mind, and will make this next part so much 'nicer'!! Never mind that nobody who already lives here and needs housing will be able to afford to live in those buildings. So pop that antidepressant, bend over, and drop your drawers, this won't hurt a bit. The next municipal election is coming up soon, thank god. I hope that the troops rally and someone steps forward to attempt to re-democratize this process. Its probably too late but nevertheless. I would like to believe that yes, we can. But can we? Finally I am deeply grateful to all those fine people who have given their time and energy to try to ward off the bullydozing, have indeed brought so much creativity, heart, open-mindedness, patience and intelligence to the table of public engagement, and persisted in knocking politely on the door of the back room where these development deals are being made. Maybe its time to start kicking it down. GT sells some cheap plastic army boots that could probably do the job. I'm just sayin'. Heather Horak