Hi, My name is Ian and this protest is to try to save parkland from turning into a parking lot. I am sure some of you are hearing the refrain, "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot," run through your head. That's what I did too. I have no idea how far this will go or where this will end up, I will give a brief overview of the situation. The City of Oshawa Ontario, is trying to sell approximately 1 1/2 acres of parkland to a developer that owns two buildings adjacent to the park so that he can turn part of it into a parking lot. This will allow him to add a story onto each building and add twelve units to each building for a total of twenty-four. The developer approached the city in 2004 for this land but was turned down. He then approached the city in March 2008 but was turned down after reports from city staff recommended against it. Now there is a conditional purchase of 1 ½ acres of park for $15,000 on the condition that it will be rezoned residential. It was appraised at $35,000. Oshawa city staff has filed more than one report advising against selling of the park. To protest this, I started a petition against the sale. I got 140 signatures and presented this to city hall. The petition was ignored. Since then, we got close to 500 signatures. This is still largely ignored. We have been told by a council member that the developer only needs a 30x30' square for his parking lot. This has since grown to 50x50'. If this is true, why did he ask for 1 ½ acres of park For that mater, why is City Council selling parkland There are no plans or diagrams submitted to date. *update April 17 2009 a plan has been submitted. the lot is 50meters by 22 meters for a total of 10770 square feet. it will punch through a hill leaving a large cavity* A few councilors have said things like it is not that much space, it is ugly looking, it shouldn't matter. I think it does matter. Once you start allowing developers to buy parkland once, they will continue to do it elsewhere. Parkland is not disposable and should not be sold, whether it is an area that is highly used or not. What message are they sending when they tear down parkland for parking Before you decide, I urge you to look outside at the park closest to you, is it the next one to be sold Please sign if you want to keep green space green. Parkland, not parking lots. If you don�t want to, that�s okay. If you wouldn�t mind passing it on to some whom might. If you have any questions or want to help feel free to write and I will get back to you as soon as possible. parklandnotparkinglot@gmail.com Feel free to write to council to let tham know what you think. It is in the links area. You can also check out the article in the Toronto Star. it is in the links area

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