Hall Monitor: Making Room on the Patio

Once again, our elected officials took to the halls of city hall for meeting 12-2012 of Kingston City Council. You can find the agenda and addeds from last night on the city’s website.

Ah, spring. The season of birds, the season of flowers, and the time of the year when people begin looking forward to summer days and the patios that come with them. And what a patio-filled night we had. And in stark contrast to last week’s agenda, last night’s dense agenda ran us nearly a full three hours, too. So what got done? Well, in a wonderful play to allow a delegation to speak a second time and field questions (and, apparently, debate), the city granted a noise by-law exemption to some construction work on Joyce St. for the summer. We saw them grant the folks at Windmills a patio for the summer and watched as Jack Astor’s moved one step closer to opening up downtown with it’s new rooftop patio. They also denied Lake Ontario Park a dog park, deferred a few affordable housing items until later in the month and disbanded the FOCUS Kingston Steering Committee who had finished their mandate. A few thick, heavy debates around how the federal and provincial budgets may hit Kingston (Short answer: We don’t know yet, but they will) and the Parkland Dedication Cash-in-Lieu rule and it made for a long night, even if we did get out at 10:30 on the nose.

My personal thanks last night to Melissa Duggan and Jaqueline Viera for the laughs with Melissa’s new #mayorjokes hashtag and a welcome to Danielle VandenBrink who joins our #ygkc community from The Whig. I had a few technical issues with my phone, so some of the tweets below are from my personal account instead of the Kingstonist one. Sorry, it was a rough night. Our full tweet stream is below. See you in two weeks.

• 7:28 PM: Council showing up. Getting noisy. Should start up soon. #ygkc ^TV
• 7:37 PM: Away we go! #ygkc ^TV
• 7:38 PM: Disclosure from Cnclr Hutchison. #ygkc ^TV
• 7:40 PM: Mayor mentioned only the one delegation… But there’s one on the addeds… We’ll see how that goes. #ygkc ^TV
• 7:46 PM: Q from Cnclr Schell about if there are any 7 day periods. Confirmed. Also, confirmed pre Labour Day completion. #ygkc ^TV
• 7:47 PM: Images of the restaurant are available on the city website. Report 47. Item 2. #ygkc ^TV
• 7:52 PM: Bricks have changed. Elevator and staircase have been relocated. #ygkc ^TV
• 7:55 PM: Time is up. Mayor jokes about the drawing not having potholes. Cnclr Schell asking about elevator position. #ygkc ^TV
• 7:59 PM: We skip past petitions and move onto emotional items. We have a deferred motion to get to, too. #ygkc ^TV
• 8:05 PM: Police board says that the item is about municipalities and confusing about which municipalities would be included. #ygkc ^TV
• 8:07 PM: Cnclr Hector wants motion withdrawn. It does not apply to the city and our police board isn’t interested. #ygkc ^TV
• 8:09 PM: Cnclr Downes says that the issue is whether or not the city wants photo radar. Should send this to EITP. #ygkc ^TV
• 8:10 PM: Cnclr Neill: These kind of policy issues are city governance. #ygkc ^TV
• 8:13 PM: The Mayor clarifying who this might cover. City staff seems unsure. #ygkc ^TV
• 8:15 PM: Cnclr Glover: The other municipality clearly feels photo radar would be useful. #ygkc ^TV
• 8:16 PM: Cnclr Glover: The point is the utility of photo radar. And says it is useful. Clause allows it at municipal discretion. Supports. #ygkc ^TV
• 8:18 PM: Mayor; Second issue: is it useful? Personally doesn’t like it but feels it’s good for the community. #ygkc ^TV
• 8:20 PM: Cnclr Scott says that with 250km of rural roads, his residents are scared on their streets. This would allow speed management. #ygkc ^TV
• 8:21 PM: Radar item carries. We’re onto report 46. #ygkc ^TV
• 8:24 PM: Cnclr Schell asks for amendment to 7 Sundays and Holidays from 15. #ygkc ^TV
• 8:26 PM: Delegation says that it would be a challenge with less days to meet schedule. #ygkc ^TV
• 8:27 PM: Staff says there was one community objection. #ygkc ^TV
• 8:29 PM: Cnclr Berg asking now on item 3 about existing partnerships with community gardens. #ygkc ^TV
• 8:30 PM: Too many tweets? Be sure to check out the recap by @tommyvallier tomorrow! #ygkc
• 8:34 PM: Cnclr Glover asking about water losses. Staff says we’re a little on the higher side. #ygkc ^TV
• 8:37 PM: Cnclr Glover asking if there will still be 5′ of sidewalk with the patio. Staff confirms there will be. #ygkc ^TV
• 8:42 PM: Cnclr Berg has just been appointed to sit with Sustainable Kingston. #ygkc ^TV
• 8:49 PM: Cnclr Neill moves a rewording that allows staff to approve a later request with a lower elevator shaft if possible. #ygkc ^TV
• 8:53 PM: Worries from the Cnclr Osanic about precedents with the cash-in-lieu item. Staff says broader issues wi llcome in a bylaw later. #ygkc ^TV
• 8:57 PM: Cnclr Downes wondering what the public benefit of this exemption would be. Staff says it’s for heritage purposes. #ygkc ^TV
• 9:03 PM: Mayor: empty, the building pays reduced taxes. This exemption fills the building and brings tax amount up. Supports it. #ygkc ^TV
• 9:08 PM: Staff says that the upper ceiling on number of units would be in a harmonized parkland bylaw. #ygkc ^TV
• 9:09 PM: Cnclr Glover: The item says that this strategy itself says it’s not sustainable to waive things. #ygkc ^TV
• 9:14 PM: Cnclr Glover to CAO: When will that bylaw be coming. CAO won’t commit to a date. But work is already underway. #ygkc ^TV
• 9:16 PM: Glover supporting. His own internal numbers are 51% in favor. #ygkc ^TV
• 9:20 PM: Cnclr Hutchison asking if this sets a precedent. Staff: this shows the community we look at heritage considerations, yes. #ygkc ^TV
• 9:25 PM: Report 48 items 1 and 4 pass. No dog park at Lake Ontario park and approval for homelessness funding. #ygkc ^TV
• 9:28 PM: Some light debate about what Cnclr Hector is asking. #ygkc ^TV
• 9:31 PM: Cnclr Hector: How can the clauses be separated. #ygkc ^TV
• 9:32 PM: Mayor is concerned and consulted with the clerk about if this is redoing something council already approved. #ygkc ^TV
• 9:34 PM: Cnclr Neill on point of order. Says commissioner said that this allows partnerships. #ygkc ^TV
• 9:40 PM: Cnclr Neill: alplauds allocated funding in bdgt. But concerned about the need for 1200 units on waiting list. #ygkc ^TV
• 9:42 PM: 3 minute recess. #ygkc ^TV
• 9:49 PM: Item 2 and 3 now deferred. #ygkc ^TV
• 9:52 PM: Into information reports. Cnclr Osanic wants to know when the free recycling bins would go out. Staff doesn’t have an answer yet. #ygkc ^TV
• 9:53 PM: Staff also confirms first giveaway day this month. Ads to begin next week. #ygkc ^TV
• 9:55 PM: Talk about immigration budgets thanks to immigration items at federal and provincial budgets. #ygkc ^TV
• 10:04 PM: Questions ongoing about concerns from staff about the budgets. CAO: Budget will impact us to some degree in grants. #ygkc ^TV
• 10:06 PM: CAO: We may have to revisit some measures. #ygkc ^TV
• 10:14 PM: We move on. Blaze through a committee appointment and a Ukrainian festival. #ygkc ^TV
• 10:19 PM: Support is carried unanimously. #ygkc ^TV
• 10:22 PM: Cnclr Osanic explaining the MTO motion. #ygkc ^TV
• 10:25 PM: MTO item passes after the joke. #ygkc ^TV
• 10:27 PM: Cnclr Hutchison asking about the liquor licencing with a glass wall for Jack Astor’s. #ygkc ^TV

A quick note: Wondering where meeting 11 went? Meeting 11 was a “special” meeting of council, held outside of normal days and hours and for a specific purpose. This one was Monday night and was a discussion about the Town and Gown relations. I wasn’t there to cover it, but from the reports I’ve seen, it looks like the evening went pretty well.

Thanks to reneilet for today’s original photo.