Does City Hall really want to hear from us?

Planning meeting puts roadblocks in resident participation

My mom lives just down the road in a residential and retail area of London, Ont., known as Cherryhill. Built in the 1960s, it has all the outside appeal of a dozen or so grey apartment buildings surrounding a grey mall.

Inside, however, it is a community with all the amenities one needs within walking, walkering (walking with a walker) or wheeling distance.

We’re talking about a seniors’ centre, an indoor and outdoor pool, gardening plots and even a tennis court. I’d love to retire there.

The mall next door used to have everything my mom needed until the LCBO moved way up the road. Now it takes a delivery service to get supplies.

Thankfully, they still have a drugstore and a library, clothing and greeting card outlets, and the best Portuguese restaurant in town. Every Friday, my mom meets a group of friends over at “the Pig,” as she calls it.

On the way home they stop at the grocery store, the anchor tenant of the mall. It’s had a few different names over the decades but currently a Metro sits next to my mom’s apartment building.

She walks there a few times a week and is on a first-name basis with the staff — “they wear name tags for a reason, Deirdre!”

While she is quick to compliment the workers, I rarely have a conversation with her that doesn’t include a complaint about some other facet of her shopping experience.

At 84, she is still pushing herself to get on the community bus and make her way to Farm Boy, Remark or Superstore if she prefers.

Last week I noticed her tone changed a bit when she pondered what would happen if the community bus stopped running or she stopped running for the bus. When that day comes, she concluded, Metro or any other grocery chain occupying the space next door will be met more with gratitude than complaints.

The residents around University Plaza in Dundas know what she’s talking about.

Soon those folks will be doing their grocery shopping in a Canadian Tire store instead of the Metro, which is reportedly stocking less and less on the shelves as its days come to an end.

When the intentions of Canadian Tire to take over the Metro space were announced, adding 10 car bays to the lot, the University Plaza Area Residents’ Association (UPARA) formed to take on the retail giant.

They tried to appeal to a sense of corporate responsibility — pointing out to the retailers and the City of Hamilton that they were creating a food desert in favour of a car culture. It didn’t work.

A meeting with their Ward 13 city councillor, Arlene VanderBeek, went nowhere with the councillor seeing the automotive route as a more important asset.

This week the UPARA, led by a few very dedicated women, will be addressing the city’s planning committee, asking why the members are not adhering to their own official plan.

These new community activists argue the University Plaza is zoned C6 while automotive repair centres belong in C7 zones. They have also researched the Hamilton Commercial Strategy Study, which discusses the importance of having full-service grocery stores in Neighbourhood Scale Shopping Centres.

They have solid arguments if they are given the right to speak. The process to engage includes an invitation to show up this Tuesday. The planning committee will then vote on allowing to delegate.

If they are allowed, they must be prepared to hang around for the day until the matter is given time on the agenda.

I laud the UPARA members. May the powers that be take the time to listen and make choices that value accessible communities with grocery stores — not food deserts with garages.

Deirdre Pike is a freelance columnist with The Hamilton Spectator. She encourages you to attend the planning committee meeting in Hamilton council chambers this Tuesday, Feb. 19, at 9:30 a.m., to support the UPARA and its request to speak about neighbourhood planning and grocery stores. You can reach Deirdre at dpikeatthespec@gmail.com.