A unified "Boo" that came from the crowd echoed loudly through the ears of city councillors Monday night as the unpopular decision to rezone and decommission Tweedsmuir Ball Park was finally made. Now, North Bay residents are fighting back.
A unified "Boo" that came from the crowd echoed loudly through the ears of city councillors Monday night as the unpopular decision to rezone and decommission Tweedsmuir Ball Park was finally made.
Now, North Bay residents are fighting back.
Lorna Bauman-Wyss, a concerned citizen, had set up a petition table directly outside the chambers for people interested in joining the fight to leave their names and numbers. She will then take the petition to the Ontario Municipal Board so that they can file an application to appeal the decision.
She had been advised by City Planning Department staff that there was a last step that could be taken should the decision be overturned.
Bauman-Wyss was hoping to celebrate a victory, but was also prepared for the worst case scenario, which undoubtedly happened.
Despite having another battle with council and the possibility that the hearing with the OMB will be unsuccessful, she insists that many resident's will refuse to give up hope on their beloved park.
"If we lose the hearing, then we don't have much of a recourse, but we can make it really difficult for any company that wants to build there," she said.
"You can fight it with any means that you have.”
Donna Sinclair, a spokesperson for Green Space North Bay, said that she was "extremely disappointed" by council's decision.
"We had been told that council would hear what the neighbourhood and particularly the whole city had to say about the park's value and green space. That message became loud and clear in four different meetings.”
Sinclair feels that some of the councillors chose to bypass much of the information that was given by the city's residents and didn't listen to what the presenters had to say before council.
"And really," Sinclair says. "It's not only a disappointment, but it's astonishing that some of the councillors could choose to ignore that many people."
Sinclair said that Tweedsmuir is a park that children could play in without fear of unnecessary dangers, such as heavy traffic issues.
It's also a park where "anything goes."
"It's a big enough space that you could have baseball, soccer, all the things that children need to have and they could do that on a casual or organized basis," she said.
Most of all, Tweedsmuir Park is a place of history.
"There's an entire culture of recreation built around it that has been going on for a couple of generations. How could you let a piece of green space like that go in an area of the city that desperately needs the green space,” she asks.
"It just makes no sense.”
Councillor Mike Anthony, who originally supported the motion to decommission the field, but later recanted that decision and has since filed a with drawl, says that he supports the efforts that are being made to overturn the decision.
"I'm not going to fill out their OMB application or anything like that, but I believe that the vast majority of people in this city do not support a reduction of green space, whether it's a ball field, a park, a trial, whatever."
Unlike many councillors who voted for rezoning, Anthony says that for him, the public message of "leave it alone" was received loud and clear.
"I respect every councillor who voted tonight. It was not an easy decision for any of us, but for myself...I heard information, I heard opinions, I heard feelings from the public that affected my opinion," Anthony said.
Anthony now believes that green space in the city should be preserved.
