TOWN HALL: Save the date and the Zoom Link Our next Zoom Town Hall is fast approaching. It is on Wednesday, March 23 @ 6:30PM. Click on the direct Zoom link below to join the meeting. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81537017463?pwd=dGw1SCtWOG9QS2NFMWJVc3pYb2pmZz09 A couple of things to note before the extensive Town Hall Agenda… COVID RULES revised? On March 21 the Province of Ontario is relaxing some of the Covid rules. Masks will no longer be mandatory. It is up to each non-government organisation as to what they do. What are we going to do at KAL? There will be a few allowances made in the gym and pool, but at this stage we think it prudent to continue to be cautious. Masks are still mandatory in all common areas inside and out. Social distancing continues. Revised Covid Rules for the Gym and the Pool The change rooms and saunas will now open. Two (2) people can now be in the Gym at the same time. Up to six (6) people can be in the pool. The Board will continue to monitor the situation and open to making further changes in the future. The CARING COMMITTEE has a couple of important announcements… A reminder there are two defibrillators on site. One is in the lobby. It is on the wall by the desk, mailroom side. The other is at the indoor pool. IN CASE OF EMERGENCY FORMS Please could all residents get a form from the front desk, fill it out and place it in a location where it can easily be found, e.g. side of the fridge. It is enormously useful in the event EMS ever needs to be called.
Now to the Town Hall agenda… The Town Hall is an opportunity to hear from Shareholders and discuss current Board initiatives. There are several initiatives underway from committees and working groups. We are including information on these in advance of the Town Hall to give shareholders time to review what is going on and submit questions they may have before or at the Town Hall. You may submit questions before the Town Hall to The Board email: board@21dale.org Or to James c/o Front Desk Or to the Board mailbox in the mail room 1.MAP (MOBILITY ACCESSIBILITY PROJECT) Leslie Green Lynne Primrose Denise Réaume MAP was formed last year. The mandate to research how to make KAL more accessible. First step was to ask accessCAN to do an Accessibility Assessment. At the same time a Residents’ Survey was conducted. One third of the survey respondents indicated some form of mobility impairment. So clearly something needs to be done to make the building more accessible and include accessibility in all projects moving forward. This will take time. Everything cannot be addressed at once. Moving forward working groups will be created on a project-by-project basis. First out of the gate is the Courtyard Accessibility Project (CAP) in conjunction with the replacement of the curtain walls. The MAP group have submitted a full report which is available from The Board and the Executive Summary of that report can be found at the end of this newsletter. 2. CURTAIN WALL Working Group Bill Angus Mick Cotton Winnie Larsen Alberta Nokes What is a curtain wall? A term that gets bandied about but for those not on working groups, or the Board or in the know, the curtain walls are the floor to ceiling window panels that stretch from the 5th to the 9th floor and face the upper courtyard on the East and West side of the building. The curtain walls are old and need replacing. A contractor has been chosen. WSP (the engineering firm on contract with KAL) will provide oversight. Bird friendly UV coating has been chosen for the windows. Construction is scheduled to begin late Fall 2022 and completed Spring 2023. 3. SINKHOLE/GROUND DEPRESSION UPDATE… There has been significant development at the site of the sinkhole/ground depression. The various permits have been completed and approved. Fencing and signage was installed late February. The fencing is to ensure that all soil disruption is confined to a limited area. Excavation is scheduled to begin March 28th. The purpose, to confirm the source of the problem. It’s suspected that it is a broken drain. A depth of 11’ has already been excavated, it should only take another two feet to reach the pipe. Once the problem is determined, and if indeed it is a broken pipe, the engineer will then decide how much of it should be replaced. The sinkhole/ground depression is still somewhat of a mystery. Our hope is barring any further surprises work should be completed by May 27th. 4. ELECTRICAL VEHICLE CHARGING (EVC) working group. Bill Angus Satish Srivastava A small working group was created to explore the options for Electrical Vehicle Charging at KAL. They carried out extensive research into the issue in a remarkably short period of time. The full report is at the end of this newsletter. Further research is required. So far, the group have explored two approaches:
Make EVC available to all shareholders whether they choose to use the service or not.
Make EVC available only to those shareholders interested.
The pros and cons, pricing and technical requirements of each approach are fully explained in the report, as are the next steps. Prime among them, we are now at the stage where we need to expand the EVC working group and invite those with appropriate experience and interest to apply. 5. SMOKING Shareholders will be asked to vote on whether KAL should be a non-smoking building or not at the next AGM on May 28th. 6. SHAREHOLDER Q&A Please submit any queries, thoughts, questions, feedback you may have on all the Town Hall information to the Board beforehand or at the Town Hall itself. Looking to forward to hearing your thoughts. Mobility Access Project Working Group Final Report - February 18, 2022 Executive Summary General Principles
As far as feasible, all common areas and services should be accessible to all.
In addition to ensuring compliance with existing legislation, physical accessibility standards from recognized organizations should be adopted, where appropriate.
Reducing or eliminating barriers should not create new ones.
Removing barriers often benefits everyone.
Inputs: accessCAN Accessibility Assessment: MAP helped commission an independent, professional assessment of accessibility at KAL. A copy of the full report is available from the Board. Residents’ Survey: The responses from the survey of residents echo the recommendations of the accessCan report. One third of the survey respondents indicated some form of mobility impairment, and for every area of the building and its surroundings, a significant proportion of the respondents experience some degree of difficulty in accessing or using facilities. Moving Forward Factors to Be Considered When Planning Accessibility Initiatives
KAL must respect its legal obligations with respect to accessibility and should aspire to make its premises and services universally accessible.
Subject to its legal obligations, KAL must exercise financial prudence while improving accessibility.
Where full accessibility is not possible, KAL should consider incremental improvements.
No renovation, restoration, or extension to the physical plant should be started without considering opportunities for improving accessibility.
General Recommendations 1. The Board should draft an accessibility policy that provides guidelines and priorities to future Boards and capital planners. 2. The Board should regularly inform and educate shareholders about KAL’s legal responsibilities with respect to accessibility. 3. A standing MAP advisory committee with experience of accessibility issues should be established to provide assistance to the Board, capital planners, and the RSO. 4. The RSO should have regard to accessibility in regular maintenance and operations. Specific Recommendations Four areas of concern stand out:
uneven surfaces,
steps, stairs and slopes,
doors, and
emergency procedures.
Uneven Surfaces: The flagstones in the area of the perennial garden and the upper central courtyard create an ongoing trip hazard. Steps, Stairs, Slopes Where a transition from one level to another can be smoothed, it should be; ramp inclines must be shallow enough to be used with ease; where stairs are unavoidable, they should be made safer. There are several examples across the KAL site, indoor and out, (all flagged in the accessCan report) of inclines that are too steep and stairs that are unsafe. Doors: The most-mentioned building aspect in the residents’ survey responses was doors: exit doors, garbage room doors, washroom doors, even suite doors. They are too heavy, too awkward, too narrow, or too noisy. Emergency Procedures: All emergency exits from the garage have staircases inaccessible to many. A Final Note: The Elephant in the Room One issue that should be addressed in the next few years stands out: the lobby. Many people use the lobby: residents, staff, guests, contractors, repair people, delivery people, mail carriers, personal care workers, and others. Aspects of the lobby are not fully accessible; in other respects, the space is unsafe. Instead of piecemeal solutions, MAP recommends a consolidated approach, designed to optimize functionality and accessibility for as many users as possible. This should take priority over aesthetic improvements. Leslie Green Lynne Primrose Denise Réaume WORKING IN PROGRESS: An Approach to Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging in Kensington Apartments Limited. As of March 18, 2022. In the following discussion, we start from the assumption that at some future point in time, 200 or more electric vehicles will be parked on the property at 21 Dale Avenue. The steps taken by the corporation in the near and medium term must lead us to that end point, with minimal mis-steps and mis-spends along the way. The concepts described below should not be regarded as a firm proposal by the board, but rather as a general approach the board is proposing to develop further with the assistance of professional electrical engineering and legal consultations, and which, when more fully fleshed out, will be formally presented to the shareholders for approval. Governance and Funding Framework: Funding is a key consideration for the board. Early estimates from the working group suggests we are looking at between $500,000 and $1,000,000 for a full deployment over a period of between 10 and 20 years. Taking into account the views expressed by shareholders in 2020, and reinforced by an acute awareness of major near-term financial obligations for maintenance capital projects, the board is exploring the viability of the following funding model.
In the spirit of Ontario condominium legislation, which now obliges corporations to respond to EV charging requests in a manner that is reasonable and does not cause undue hardship on the other shareholders, the corporation will facilitate the introduction of EV charging in the following manner.
The capital cost for each charging station will be borne only by the participating shareholder and will be paid in full on application. Very early estimates suggest a capital cost for each station to be in the range of $3,000 to $4,000.
The operational costs - electricity consumption and associated administrations costs - will be borne only by the the participating shareholders.
The board will seek authorisation through a standard shareholder resolution to provide a modest initial “seed money” from the Reserve Fund to get the project underway - in the region of $100,000 - which will be recovered as each early-adopter shareholder buys into the service. (View this as a short-term loan.)
The deployment will take many years and will occur in a series of tranches (groups of 10 or 20 stations at a time) as the infrastructure is installed to meet the demand.
The monies received by the corporation in the first tranche of users will be used to fund the second tranche, which will then fund the third tranche, and so forth.
It will be a project funded solely by the participating shareholders (with the assistance of that initial seed fund).
Once purchased by a shareholder, the EV charging service will thereafter be associated with the shareholder’s unit, with all subsequent owner-occupiers of the unit having access to the EV charging service. (EV Charging becomes a value-added asset to the unit, just like an air-conditioning unit or a renovated kitchen.)
Shareholders who do not wish, or need, to own an EV may still buy into the service on the basis that associating their residential unit with a guaranteed EV charging spot may be deemed to increase the re-sale value of their residential unit. In doing so, such owners are not required to lease a parking spot. What they have purchased is their right, and the right of future owner-occupiers of their residential suite, to occupy on request, such a spot at any future time.
This approach requires that shareholders, through a standard shareholder resolution, approve a one-time, short-term, limited, seed funding from the Reserve Fund. (A simple majority of the votes cast.)[1]
Technical Framework:
The proposed EV charging service is not a “sharable” service in which the vehicle drives up to, plugs in, charges, un-plugs and drives away.
“EV Charging Service” means providing each parking spot with a dedicated electrical socket, into which the EV owner’s own charger is plugged. Once assigned to such an energised parking spot, the EV owner has exclusive use of the electrical power delivered to that or equivalent spot.
Just as now, the vehicle owner will still have to lease the physical space at the same monthly rate as any other vehicle owner.
Unlike most EV charging solutions, this approach will not rely on the presence, and added cost, of WiFi throughout the indoor and outdoor parking areas.
Electricity consumption at each parking spot will be metered with a Measurement Canada certified revenue-grade meter.
In due course, our expectation is that the shareholder will receive a single monthly electricity bill combining both residential unit and EV electricity consumption. Consider the EV as simply another electrical device plugged into the shareholder’s electrical circuit.
For a number of technical and logistical reasons, initially the service will be available only in the underground garage. Shareholders who currently park outside by choice or by necessity and who purchase an EV will be assigned an indoor parking spot (for an indoor parking fee.) This will necessitate some indoor parked vehicles being reassigned to outdoor parking. Outdoor EV charging infrastructure will be implemented as an integral part of the forecourt overburden project - several years’ hence.
A working assumption is that the vast majority of vehicles parked on the property travel only a “modest” distance each day and are parked overnight and frequently for days at a time. This pattern of low mileage and long parking occupancy will permit low-level charging to adequately meet the battery charging needs of 200 vehicles without requiring the building’s electrical capacity to be increased. (Low-level charging of an EV battery draws power equivalent to a typical 4-slice toaster.)
In due course, the 200 batteries on wheels at 21 Dale could be participating in a smart electricity grid - absorbing electrical power during cheap off-peak overnight rates, and selling power during peak day times. This is only possible if each parked vehicle is plugged-in. (an aside: 200 EV batteries can hold energy equivalent to the power needs of our 225 residential units for 5 days.)
The mechanism that tracks and bills the EV owner is achieved through a mechanism known as “sub-metering” This sub-metering service may be provided by Toronto Hydro, or one of several competing firms in the GTA.[2] There is early evidence that suggests residential electricity bills could also be reduced if we moved residential metering to the same sub-metering regime employed for EV charging. This optimism is based on the observation that KAL pays around 15 cents per kWh (bulk rate) while individual suite owners pay on average around the 27 cents mark (each resident individually metered by Toronto Hydro). We will be asking the electrical consulting engineer to investigate and report on this possibility.
Next Steps:
Engage an Electrical Consulting Engineer to present options to implement the above architecture. (This step has already started.)
Present the findings of the engineer’s report to the shareholders. This will include an estimate as to the capital investment required by each participating shareholder. (We may be able to achieve this step at the AGM in May, but will not know for sure until we receive the engineer’s report.)
The board refines the funding model, including engaging legal counsel to draft an appropriate “EV Occupancy Agreement” between the corporation and each participating EV owner.
Identify and contract specific suppliers of equipment and services, such as
laying electrical conduits throughout the garage;
installing metering and electrical load management technology in the electrical room;
contracting a sub-metering firm to take the meter readings and bill the EV owner.
5. Implement an initial tranche of energised parking spots (probably around 20) in the underground garage.
6. Sign-up EV owners as they grow in numbers.
7. Over time, repeat steps 5 and 6 as shareholders acquire EVs.
A time-table for this deployment can only be set once we have taken steps 1 to 3. But a first tranche of stations could be deployed sometime in late 2022. [1] Pursuant to By-law#1, section 9.03(3). [2] For example, Metergy Solutions Inc., Alexian Energy Services, Canada Utility Solutions, Intellimeter Canada Limited.
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