Blair Village residents criticize council members: ‘they are avoiding public participation’

The residents of Blair Village continue to protest against plans to build a massive warehouse within their neighborhood — but these are plans Cambridge council members are not ready to reconsider.

Alan Van Norman, a longtime resident and acting spokesperson for the residents of Blair Village said residents are disappointed that council members are not interested in reconsidering the Minister's Zoning Order (MZO); but they're not surprised.

“Council's behaviour yesterday is completely consistent with its whole approach to this proposed development. They are actively trying to avoid public participation in the process.”

He added there is conflicting information about the use of an MZO, and the potential for Cambridge council to overturn it.

“If you're following the stories about the glass plant in Stratford or the Amazon warehouse in Pickering, both of those have recently been overturned, but the initiative to overturn the Minister's Zoning Order actually came from their councils.”

Van Norman said Blair residents have been repeatedly trying to get council members to consider their interests.

“Council has simply thrown out 25 years of planning history to secretively change the zoning on this property to prevent this development from going ahead. Council clearly has disregarded the concerns of the oldest neighborhood in the city.”

He noted their Ward 1 councillor, Donna Reid, has not directly reached out to the residents of Blair to hear about their concerns.

“I would like her to seriously consider our interests, our long-standing interests. Our interests that have been supported through planning in the city of Cambridge since 1999. I'd like her to read the heritage report from 1999 and I would like her to act accordingly.”

Earlier this month, Councillor Reid told 570 NEWS she wouldn't usually support changes that bypass public consultations. “I guess I could say that it's not something I particularly find that I would support, so I was kind of surprised that I did find this one agreeable,” she said after a council meeting on April 6.

570 NEWS reached out for comment from Cambridge Deputy Mayor Mike Mann, who sent the following statement:

“The developer who has requested this MZO still must conduct many other studies and reviews that will have to be submitted with the overall site plan to the City. Council will need to be consulted on traffic impact and heritage impact studies. The public and surrounding land owners will have the opportunity to speak to those studies at a future City Council meeting.”

Meanwhile, support continues to grow for an online petition asking to “help save the Village of Blair from a development on heritage conservation lands”. The petition has collected over four thousand signatures.