Category: Medway Valley

Neighborhood Update – March 2013

MEDWAY MATTERS
On Thursday, March 7 at Orchard Park Public School at 7 pm, the city and its consultant will be presenting its work to date on the city’s Climate Change Adaptation Strategy for the Medway Creek. This review includes the entire portion of the Medway that is in the City of London.

This year, the City is conducting an update to the Conservation Master Plan for the Medway Valley Heritage Forest Environmentally Significant Area from south of Fanshawe to where it meets the Thames River. This will include a review of trails in the Valley. The proposed timeline is as follows.

A summary of the project and its objectives which was provided by the City is available here. This project will involve all communities that border the Medway, not just ours. Dates and locations of meetings will be on the city’s web site and the community web site and on Facebook. More information will be provided when available.

  • Project start – March 2013
  • Site Inventories – end March to end September 2013
  • Preliminary draft report – late October 2013
  • Public Information Meeting – one at the start of the process (March-April 2013) and one to present results of the study (November 2013)
  • Finalize Phase I report – December 1 2013

TREES
City Council retained money in the budget to replace trees cut due to the Emerald Ash Borer. The replanting of trees cut down this past fall should take place this year.

In addition to the replanting, anyone may request the City to have a tree planted on the City owned portion of your front lawn. The City will assess the site and if appropriate, will add you to their ongoing planting plan (even if you didn’t lose a tree to the ash borer). To make a request:

– visit www.milliontrees.ca
– click on “I Want A Tree” and then click on “Suggest Locations for New Trees”
– Complete the tree request form. Click to submit and then you are done.

You can also call the city at 519-661-5783

INVITATION
The Ratepayers are members of The Urban League of London, an umbrella group for neighbourhood organizations in the city. One of its roles is public education. On Wednesday, March 20, 2013 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM, you are invited to:

An Evening with Greg Levine, an Integrity Commissioner
London Public Library
Central Branch- Stevenson & Hunt Room
251 Dundas Street

Please go to http://urbanleagueoflondon-eorg.eventbrite.com/# for more information and to reserve a spot.

Medway Subwatershed Study

The city is updating its study of the Medway Creek as part of its climate change adaptation strategy.

There will be a public meeting held in the Orchard Park P.S. on March 7th from 7 pm to 9 pm. This meeting will provide an overview and discuss draft results to date.

If you cannot attend, you can contact the consulting firm doing the study for the city and request to be on its mailing list and for copies of display boards. The lead is Brian Huston at Dillon Consulting, bhuston@dillon.ca

Plan for Medway Valley

The city is near to concluding a plan for additional access in the Medway Valley north of Fanshawe Park Road. This matter will go before a committee of city council on April 9th at a public participation meeting. Anyone can speak at the meeting or write a letter to be included on the agenda. You can find the draft report of city staff at:

Click to access MedwayTrailProcess-Summary.pdf

Anyone is welcomed to review the report and submit comments to city staff. City staff have asked for comments to be received by February 21st. You can send them to Bonnie Bergsma, at bbergsma@london.ca

The trail planning process used for this section of the Medway will be used for our section of the Medway when the update to the Conservation Master Plan starts this year.

Medway North Trailing Planning

The City of London is currently reviewing pathway and trail opportunities though the Medway Valley Heritage Forest as part of a City-wide project to document best practices for the planning and design of trails in Environmentally Significant Areas.

The time line for this project is as follows

  • November 7, 2012 – Public meeting to present trail options evaluation process and selection of the most preferred options.
  • December 7, 2012 – The Public is invited to provide comment until this date. See below for contact information.
  • December –January 2013 – preparation of the draft Trail Master Plan by city staff
  • January 17 2013 – City to post the draft Trail Master Plan on the city’s website
  • March/April 2013 – Final Trail Master Plan presented at a public participation meeting at the Planning and Environment Committee

Continue reading “Medway North Trailing Planning” →

Medway ESA North Trail Plan Meeting

An upcoming Medway Valley ESA North Trail Planning meeting is being held to provide information and gain community input for the evaluation of trail options and selection of the preferred option. The meeting is scheduled for:

Wednesday, November 7, 2012
6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Sunningdale Golf and Country Club
465 Sunningdale Road West

An invitation to the meeting is available here. Additional background information is at http://www.london.ca/d.aspx?s=/Planning_and_Development/Land_Use_Planning/Parks_Planning/Medway_trail.htm

The evaluation criteria and method used for this area of the Medway will be used in our part of the Medway during the update to the Conservation Master Plan which is scheduled to start next year. There will be lots of notice of meetings and the work plan. Stay tuned.

The city has also prepared an ESA Observation Form for use in all of the Environmentally Significant Areas of the city. The form will help the city in identifying invasive species, trail management issues, and inappropriate activities such as campfires, dogs off leash, bike ramps and the like. The form is still in test mode and will eventually be posted to the city’s web site as an on line form.