An advocacy group spoke to Belleville City Council on Monday regarding potential changes to the West Hill Greenspace on the former Queen Mary School property.
Mary Storms and Adam Rupnik, with Friends of West Hill Greenspace, delivered a presentation looking at the history of the green space and expressed concerns about the proposed development of 41 Octavia Street.
In the presentation, Rupnik showed a timeline and gave background into the greenspace saying that residents in the West Hill community had initially raised funds for the revitalization of the greenspace between 2005 and 2008.
“They raised $126,000 for a two-phase plan to revitalize the green space and provide playground equipment that was approved by city council (at the time),” Rupnik told council.
“Since then, only Phase One of the plan was partially completed with the erection of the playground equipment.”
Rupnik says now, the group has been trying to build support to preserve the greenspace.
“We’ve gone door to door once again to get petition signatures and support for the preservation of this green space, only to find the vast majority of people had no idea about these developments and most people were less than pleased with the current plans.”
The plans call for the site of the former Queen Mary School that now sits vacant to be turned into affordable housing.
Council approved a resolution in 2023 to move ahead with plans to redevelop the site with the city hoping to receive funding for the project through the Housing Accelerator Fund.
Its funding request was unsuccessful and staff has since been revising the work plan to reflect the available budget and staffing resources.
Mary Storms, a nurse at Belleville General Hospital, spoke about the benefits of having the greenspace being preserved through a health perspective.
She says having greenspace can help with physical activity, contribute to social interaction and cohesion, and increase access to healthy food while also helping with stress reduction and cognitive restoration.
“Our group is passionate about keeping this space for the enjoyment of community members for the reasons I’ve discussed and many others,” Storms told council.
“We are excited to work with you the city, to discuss the possibilities for this area.”
The group says that they had received 563 signatures from its petition regarding the greenspace.
“Let me be clear, we’re not against affordable housing and we commend the city’s efforts to support the community,” Rupnik told council.
“Our goal here today is to try and make a meaningful connection with all of you and to work together amicably to address both the need for affordable housing as well as greenspace. Those both are vital.”
Friends of West Hill Greenspace then laid out options for ways to make the greenspace better including adding spots for shade, improving playground equipment, access to portable washrooms, and additional trees and picnic tables, among others.
Following the presentation, Councillor Chris Malette, who is chair of the Green Task Force for Belleville, said he shared a lot of the same concerns with the group about maintaining greenspace.
“We can always build more housing, but we’re not very good at creating more green space, and it’s just a natural fact,” Mallette told the group. “Now, that said, I’m also cognizant of the fact that we have a crying need for affordable housing, as you mentioned, and I think you share the concern. The challenge for us is to find some common ground, and I’m all for working with your group and everybody here today in seeing that we can make some of that common ground.”
Council approved receiving the presentation but made no further decisions about the delegation.
