The widely refuted 15-minute city conspiracy theory fuelled another disruptive demonstration by local members of the Freedom Convoy movement this week.
A group of approximately 40 protesters targeted an open house at Tom Davies Square the city hosted on Wednesday afternoon.
This followed a series of Freedom Convoy disruptions during town hall-style meetings Mayor Paul Lefebvre hosted last year, and a Feb. 27 city council meeting during which several people were expelled for persistent interruptions in protest against the city taking climate action.
Wednesday’s open house was intended to centre on the City of Greater Sudbury’s Nodes and Corridors Strategy, which Freedom Convoy members say is linked to the 15-minute city conspiracy theory.
The international conspiracy theory alleges that governments are aiming to control residents’ movements to the extent they are unable to leave their home communities and will become isolated from friends and family who live outside their 15-minute bubble.
While the unruly crowd yelled expletives at city staff, likened them to Nazis and alleged various points of wrongdoing, Sudbury.com pulled city senior planner Ed Landry aside to ask him about what the Nodes and Corridors Strategy is actually about.
“In a nutshell, we’re looking to increase densities along the city’s main corridors,” he said.
In places such as The Kingsway and Paris Street, the city has both hard and soft infrastructure in place to accommodate more people without having to extend services to other areas.
Hard infrastructure includes such things as pipes and roads, while soft infrastructure would include libraries, fire services and GOVA Transit.
The Nodes and Corridors Strategy is set up to see the city update its Official Plan to increase density figures in these locations, which will be followed by zoning bylaw changes.
These Official Plan and zoning bylaw changes will work alongside various financial incentive programs to encourage developers to build in core areas of the municipality.
An early example of the Nodes and Corridors Strategy were zoning bylaw changes city to the Lasalle Boulevard corridor, which city council approved in 2021 and they are looking at doing in core areas throughout the municipality as part of the strategy’s second phase.
In the case of Lasalle Boulevard, some key changes include encouraging high-density residential buildings and situating parking lots behind businesses rather than in front. Existing structures are grandfathered in, but future builds must adhere to the new zoning.
Extending the Nodes and Corridors Strategy to other areas of Greater Sudbury isn’t intended to be restrictive, Landry told Sudbury.com, describing it as an “enabling policy, so allowing people to build higher and denser along our corridors.”
Prioritizing high-density builds has social, environmental and economic benefits, he said, adding that it doesn’t take away from whatever is taking place in the balance of the municipality.
By the end of June, city staff are expected to return to city council with a summary and analysis of the comments they have received, as well as table a final Official Plan amendment at a public hearing.
On March 21, the city is hosting another open house meeting, this one virtual. It’s slated to begin at 6 p.m., and can be attended via the Zoom streaming platform by clicking here.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
