URGENT ACTION: Fill out the City’s Infill Survey
SURVEY LINK:
http://surveymonkey.com/r/
The Survey of Winnipeg is engaging in its latest and likely LAST round of Infill Strategy consultations. As part of the strategy engagement, they’re asking people to fill out this survey. THE SURVEY IS ONLY OPEN UNTIL OCT. 10TH – FILL IT OUT BEFORE THEN!
There are many problems with the survey. The time frame is one problem. Released near the provincial election date, much of it will occur throughout the Federal election campaign. Between the just completed provincial election and the ongoing federal election, there’s a LOT of stuff competing with the survey for general public attention.
There’s a number of problems in the survey design, as well.
- A lot of questions presume you would want some type of new restriction. The question then just ends up being what form it takes.
- Some questions give the option of setting “fixed” limits “regardless of the context of the buildings on the street”. There’s a lot of nuance that needs to be added here. Are we talking about fixed neighbourhood level limits or fixed mature communities wide limits? There’s also no option of suggesting we set limits higher than an existing buildings in the area to allow for incremental increases in density.
- Question sixteen essentially asks survey participants to RATE one of three boilerplate complaints about infill as the most important one.
Nevertheless, there are a number of important questions to answer to tell the City that increasing housing & density is important to you. We NEED to fill this survey out to let the City know the value we place on increasing housing options for people of all incomes and life circumstances.
Want to say more about the survey? Contact folks at the City!
If you have any problems with the survey or want to add more context, one great way to do that would be contacting City decision-makers. Here’s some of the following:
- City Staff working on the Infill Strategy: You can reach them through email at infill@winnipeg.ca.
- Your City Councillor: Contacting elected officials is VERY important given their role in setting the policy agenda. FIND YOUR COUNCILLOR WITH THIS LOOKUP TOOL.
- Contact the Mayor: Mayor Brian Bowman plays a big role in setting the City’s policy agenda. He needs to know that Winnipeggers value infill for the housing affordability and environmental sustainability it encourages. You can reach his office by phone at 204-986-5665 or by sending an email to mayor@winnipeg.ca.
Other Infill Strategy Engagement: Public Open Houses
Format: Open house are come and go
Refreshments will be provided.
Those who require ASL interpretation or alternate formats are asked to please advise by Monday, September 16, 2019 by email at infill@winnipeg.ca or by phone at 204-986-2636.
Date: September 24th, 2019
Time:5 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Location: Linwood School (266 Linwood Street)
Date: September 25th, 2019
Time:5 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Location: Bronx Park Community Centre (720 Henderson Hwy)
Date: September 26th, 2019
Time: 5 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Location: Edmund Partridge School (1874 Main Street)
Date: October 1st, 2019
Time:5 p.m. – 8p.m.
Location: Notre Dame Recreation Centre (271 Ave. de la Cathédrale)
Date: October 3rd, 2019
Time: 5 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Location: Crescentwood Community Centre (1170 Corydon Avenue)
Backgrounder: Residential Infill Strategy
Project Site: winnipeg.ca/InfillStrategy
What are infill design guidelines?
Guidelines are rules that will be used to judge how the design and location of a building will look on a property while attempting to make buildings “fit” with the “character” of their surroundings.
What is intensification criteria?
Intensification criteria is something that will be used to determine where higher density development happens.
Where will the Infill Strategy apply?
The Residential Infill Strategy will come up with policies for “Mature Communities”. These communities are outlined in dark grey here.
Where won’t the Infill Strategy apply?
The Strategy won’t deal with other policy areas within the Complete Communities Direction Strategy (e.g. New Communities, Recent Communities, Mixed Use Corridors and Centres, the Downtown) and within areas governed by a Secondary (neighbourhood) Plan By-law.
What type of development will it apply to?
This project will apply to small scale infill development such as single family homes, duplexes/side-by-sides, triplexes, fourplexes, and small scale apartments (typically less than 4 stories).