EDMONTON – Dozens of residents joined a rally Saturday afternoon to stop a proposed development on a beloved green space in Haddow Park.
Work on an affordable housing development has already started on a surplus school site in the neighbourhood.
“There’s still a chance we could halt this development -it’s not a done deal yet,” Jim Bradshaw, President of The Ridge Community League said.
The neighbourhood group has taken the City of Edmonton to court over the issue, but a judge postponed the case to allow the developer time to weigh in.
Residents are upset over a 2006 decision which allowed the City of Edmonton to rezone a number of surplus sites with an exemption from the Province.
The exemption would allow the city to avoid public hearings on the issue.
“Legally you’ve got two years to protest, or to voice your opinion on the zoning or the change, nobody found out about this ’till after two years,” said Bradshaw.
“So it was accomplished, it was kept secret under the radar,” Bradshaw said.
Bradshaw is warning residents in other neighbourhoods they could lose their green spaces as well.
“There’s a lot of people around the city that don’t know that this could affect them too -we need to let people know that we’re not alone.”
Bradshaw added there are over 150 surplus sites in Edmonton that could potentially be developed in the future.
There is no word on when the case will be back in court.
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