I am a resident of the Northend and have been somewhat vocal the past few days about by-law changes in my Neighbourhood.
I went to the open house last night to discuss the by-law amendments for the Northend. Here are my final points/views on the matter.

1. I am pro-progress, pro-business, pro-community 
2. I am for the idea of a restaurant/cafe in the Convent.
3. I agree that businesses should be able to count on-street parking as parking in the by-laws.

What is not mentioned in most of the discussions is this:
- This is only a by-law in the Northend residential area and was put in place to protect Sydney's oldest neighbourhood from urban sprawl.
- The allotment to the convent already counts all the spots around it in the 120 they already have. These spots are already mostly full the entire day.
- People currently get ticketed because they are parked in front of their own houses.
- The project has already changed and disobeyed by-laws to this date.
- We are building a city plan which encourages traffic and parking into residential areas first with spill over into a step-down and downtown as the alternative (there is zoning for a reason).
- The plans, visions, goals, and by-laws of the Northend took nearly 3 years of public consultation, planning, discussion, and council votes to put in place. They are working in revitalizing the area and bringing it from the drug/crime hood it was to what it is today. It was the result of these plans and vision that make New Dawn want to be part of it.

Current Facts that lead to my vocalization in the mater and things that MUST be looked at and addressed if these by-laws get changed:

1. Fire services cannot fit down the Charlotte and many of the side streets in the Northend with the current parking on both sides, which is most of every day and evening)
2. Make sure regular services (garbage and snow removal) are not interrupted because of parking.
3. Nepean should be capped from through traffic (or made a pedestrian street) Nepean is a narrow street with heavy foot traffic because of its location to historic buildings and walking tours yet because of its closeness to Ferry street, a major by-pass/throughway, if gets cut-through traffic coming off and headed for the Esplanade... this will only get worse with Marconi on the Esplanade.
4. Parking metres should be removed from the block surrounding the Convent. (These meters create a park residential first and in the step-down zone second. Some would say that meters control longterm parking and move traffic along but these are filled with the same cars all day and a tenant building does not need to open spots up like a downtown does for shops).
5. Northend should have a residential parking zone with resident permits so they do not get ticketed for parking in front of their own houses.
6. Think about how people move, interact, react to guide them into the decisions you want them to make (ie. better lit areas where you want people to park and travel).
7. Lastly, don't change by-laws in a bubble. Every by-law change should be looked at before, directly after, and several years later to see if anything around it needs to be adjusted to make the change integrate better and work along with the community it is affecting.

Future changes already on the books that will put further strain on the Northend and the reason we are hesitant when people discredit our concerns about parking/traffic in and through the Northend:

1. A second cruise ship berth creates more foot traffic in the Northend... this is great but dangerous with the non-residential traffic we see.
2. NSCC is being placed on the Esplanade. This makes the Spar/Ferry St the main throughway from Glacebay, New Waterford, and the Pier. A throughway that currently sends more cars up Nepean and across to the Esplanade than turn to use the lights at Dorchester.
3. The Chernin development will eliminate a parking area that currently houses approximately 200 cars forcing them into nearby areas including the Northend. Also leading to office traffic using Spar/Ferry/Nepean to get to this office.
4. The Federal Offices have been discussing and playing with the idea of acquiring another building and moving all staff from night to day (as far as I know, we are one of the only federal offices that has a night staff). This puts 300 more staff parking/travelling in the vicinity every day, all day.

The pluses:

1. We get another restaurant choice, close to home and the government workers.
2. We get to prevent the paving over of the Convent green-space for parking.

Conclusion:
People say if you don't like it "move out" or "you ARE downtown" but the reality is, the Convent fits into the vision of the Northend but the traffic, congestion and through-traffic do not. And the basic services and concern of safety and fire services should not be questioned for any taxpayer.

"Go ahead, let the changes through (which I know will happen) but fix the issues that were already here that created the concerns that the residents have, the issues that will get worse with the changes and all the other changes that are to come."

When I made this comment at the open house the reply was "But those changes would leave the Convent with less parking". Sorry if our basic services and fire safety is an inconvenience.  

ps. Change is good! GOOD CHANGE IS BETTER!