Pickleball wasn’t on the agenda for the May 21st meeting of Peterborough City Council, nor were citizens allowed to give a delegation on the topic following last week’s narrow 6-5 vote to rule Councillor Joy Lachica’s notice of motion to ask staff to come back to Council with site plans and the results of various studies for final approval out of order.

But none of this stopped citizens from voicing their concerns regarding the planned $4.4M re-development of Bonnerworth Park both before and after Tuesday's brief meeting.

Prior to the meeting, a slightly larger group had assembled out front of City Hall, many holding “Save Bonnerworth” lawn signs. Also out front of City Hall were at least three Peterborough Police cruisers, Arthur observed. 

When asked about the police presence prior to the meeting, Mayor Jeff Leal only said that Council does not direct the police services on operational matters and that he was sure the police were “keeping the peace.”

Pushed for comment on the nature of the protests and their reason for being there, Leal re-affirmed his prior statement to Arthur over the weekend that peaceful protest is a constitutional right that Council affirms prior to every meeting.

The quick meeting and lack of items of the agenda didn’t mean Councillors wouldn’t have to face questions from residents who remain concerned about the Bonnerworth redevelopment project. Following the Council meeting, which lasted less than 15 minutes, a group of protestors waited in the parking lot for a chance to speak directly to Councillors. 

For over an hour on Tuesday evening, Ahsburnham Ward Councillor, Gary Baldwin, who also serves as Co-Chair of Community services, which includes Recreation and Parks, Fire Services, and Arenas, fielded questions from members of the public.

Confronted on his decision to vote in favour of ruling Lachica’s motion out of order the week prior, Baldwin said that he found the notice of motion “problematic” and that the first time he had heard of or read the notice of motion “was when it was printed” the week before the May 13th general committee meeting.

Agendas for upcoming meetings of Council are made public on the Thursday before the usual Monday meeting, however, Councillors have copies the day before.

When asked why he felt the motion was “problematic” Baldwin told Arthur that it came down to the implication of revealing information which may affect developers’ willingness to bid on a project which has already been costed by City Staff.

“My read on that motion was that she asked for some specific items to be put out in public,” Baldwin said. “Can you imagine the tendering process when you're bidding on certain elements of the park and it's already in the public domain? Now, if I was a business person who was building these elements I think that's problematic from a cost perspective.”

Lachica, who was present for part of the scrum, and at one point interjected to state that Baldwin’s assessment of her motion as problematic was merely his opinion, would later say to Arthur that by discussing these matters with members of the public in an informal setting was unfortunate and in some senses a subversion of democracy. 

“That was for that evening, and that time came and went,” Lachica said in a phone interview on Tuesday evening, noting that Baldwin’s choice to field questions in the parking lot “was not an acceptable way of communicating.”

Some of those assembled in the City Hall parking lot agreed, with one member of the public expressing that they had intended to make a delegation to Council in order to speak on the Bonnerworth Redevelopment.

“We’ve been shut out here,” they said, noting that because of the ruling of Chair Andrew Beamer, and the support of six Councillors, citizens were unable to further express their frustrations to Council through official public channels like formal delegations.

Baldwin also reminded protesters that he had not been in his current Co-Chair position for the majority of the time when the redevelopment project was being planned. Indeed, it was not until February 26th, less than a month before the fit plan for the Bonnerworth redevelopment was made public, when Mayor Leal shuffled committee and co-chair appointments, that Baldwin took up his current position.

Baldwin was steadfast in his belief that compromise was possible, at one point saying he “couldn’t imagine Gillian [Barnes] coming back with a plan that won’t work.” He then went further, admitting that both Staff and Council “could have done a better job of consultation.”

Lachica, however, felt that statements such as this provide a false sense of security to concerned citizens who are “holding out for dear life in some hope that this won’t happen.” 

“He really has no idea, but he’s throwing out carrots,” she told Arthur, adding that she feels that some councillors who voted against her notice of motion are “operating on desperate measures, but that’s not how we make decisions.”

Baldwin’s fellow Co-Chair of Recreation and Parks, Fire Services, and Arenas, Lesley Parnell, wrote to Arthur in response to questions about the ongoing unrest in the community regarding the Bonnerworth redevelopment, suggesting it has been caused by “political pandering by someone who enthusiastically endorsed the plan every step of the way” and in doing so “generated unnecessary public backlash with misinformation.”

When asked to confirm who specifically she felt had been doing the pandering, Parnell did not elaborate or name names. She did, however, note that she has had conversations with individuals who had signed the Save Bonnerworth petition, which has now garnered over 3,900 signatures, who now feel they had been misled. 

“Once explained, they got the bigger picture,” Parnell wrote, noting the fact that this redevelopment is part of a wider, multi-year process to re-evaluate park space within the City through the City’s official plan and a related Parks and Outdoor Recreation Facilities Report.

Parnell was also adamant on the question of community consultation, stating that the “claim they did not know is not true.” 

“Consultation does not mean that we need approval,” she continued. “It is a city owned space identified as a sports / recreation hub within our master plan.”

Reached for comment on Tuesday night, Lachica’s fellow Town Ward Councillor, Alex Bierk expressed that he is hopeful “that the project will come back different than how it was first pitched in March.”

Unlike Baldwin and Parnell, however, Bierk expressed his frustration at the decision to not have debate on the motion to have a site plan and the results of tests come back to Council for final approval. 

“It’s a tough position to be in when a decision has been made and the processes where we decided what happened has been shut down,” he said. “I stand for the neighbourhood because I believe in what they believe in.”