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PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, JULY 7,1982, WHITBY FREE PRESS w hitby Voice of the County Town Pub Michael Ian Burgess, Publisher- Managing Editor The only Whitby newspaper independently owned and operated by Whitby residents for Whitby residents. blished every Wednesday by M.B.M. Publishing and Photography Inc. Phone 668-6111 The Free Press Building, 131 Brock Street North, P.O. Box 206, Whitby, Ont. -L MICHAEL J. KNELL Communlty Editor MARJORIE A. BURGESS Advertising Manager Second Class Mail Registratlon No. 5351 Study shows affordability'is Whitby's biggest present and futurehousing problem The recently tabled and much criticized muni- cipal housing statement for the Town of Whitby is going to give our town fathers more than an ample load of headaches in the.months to come. The statement, prepared by the Toronto f irm of Paterson Planning and Research Limited, has literally told Whitby Town Council and its plan ning department staff that they've been doing everything wrong for the past few years. In fact, the report suggests that council adopt planning and housing policies that are totally op- posite to their established practise. Both Mayor Bob Attersley and North Ward Councillor Ross Batten have criticized the report because they believe it to be inaccurate and because the consultant's 20 recommendations are too "iffy," to quote the mayor. Both said that the facts and figures used in the report are simply not correct and may be based on a false set of assumptions. However, the report does have some extremely valid points to make, especially in the realm of af- fordability. "By 1986, it is projected that 81 per cent of the town's households will be family households," the report stated, "However, the affordability ana- lysis has indicated that only 60 per cent of the households will be able to afford the current prices of single detached units. "A substantial portion of the town's families will not be able to afford this type of unit unless it can be produced at a lower cost. This will be parti- cularly true if the new units continue to be higher priced lot singles; it is estimated that only 44 per cent of the town's households will be able to af- ford these." This single paragraph boils down in a nutshell, as the saying goes, the housing problern facing Whitby. Attersley and Batten have their reservations about the consultant's suggestions that engineer- ing standards be reduced. In other words, the report suggests that council abandon the 50 foot lot frontage with single family homes and concen- trate on smaller lots with townhouses, linkhouses and even apartment buildings. If this is what it takes to make housing afford- able for the people of the Town of Whitby then it is more than evident that council has to not only take a serious look at it but take action to imple- ment these findings. The report also suggests that council make available municipally owned lands for the development of non-profit and co-operative hous- ing. The consultants also say that if, private foun- dations and individuals do not come forward to develop these lands, then council should do. Like the politicians, we reject this solution be- cause the town should not become a developer and landlord. To encourage the development of non-profit and co-operative and to do everything pôssible to see that such projects become reality is meritorious and even desirable. But council should not be the developer. However, the bottom line still is the need to develop affordable housing. The report makes this interesting statement: "It is estimated that only 44 per cent of the town's future households can afford the new single detached units currently on the market in Whitby; yet almost three-quarters of the units in the development approval process are single detached." Furthermore, "some 26 per cent of the house- holds will not be able to afford the lowest price ownership units in the town, but only five per cent of the units in the development pipeline are apart- ments." The consultants also point out that if mortgage rates continue at their current level, many people will not be able to keep their homes when it is time to renew their loan. It is not a bad ambition to have a town full of single detached homes on 50 foot lots with all of the planning emenities available but in the light of the present state of the economy and the findings of the consultant it looks as though council will have to make some - even major - changes to its established policies. After ail, the town viIi te in a great deal of trou- ble if its residents cannot afford 'to keep their roofs over their heads. . In case you hadn't noticed, June the 16th was Blooms- day, named for the leading character in James best-known novel, "ULLYSES". To honor Joyce and his work in par- ticular the day in which the events in "Ullyses" were sup- posed to have taken place, A. Dublin June the 16th, long ago, Joyce enthusiasts staged the longest unbroken radio program in living memory. Talented actors were engag- ed in reading "Ullyses", cover to cover, in a marathon 30 hour broadcast. Ironically only the Irish who live near Dublin were able to hear it in eire, but it was also carried unabridged in Europe and this country. Its odd, in a way, that this event should have coincided with my son's graduation from university, and l'Il tell you why. Nearly three decades ago, I used Joyce as an excuse to leave university, in my fourth year, just before my final exams: It was only an excuse, of course. I won't bore you with the circumstance, but because of complex university regulations I got saddled with a first year biology in my senior year, and aIl I remembered about it then was only a touch more than I remember now. I knew how to disect a foetal pig, and the rest of it was beyond me. I was go- ing to fail biology and a couple of other courses as well. So I struck a grand pose. I was too immersed in James Joyce, I said, to take time to write my finals. I was too much of a scholar to bother with exams. Grandiose im- maturity of the worst kind, and how my father refrained from shooting me on the spot lIl never understand. I sup- pose most parents hope that their sons and daughters won't make the same mistakes they made, but they do sometimes. They fall into the same traps. My son didn't. It was a tough final year, but he stuck it out, wrote his exams and passed. He didn't graduate summa cum laude in the university's view, but he certainly did in mine. That's not news, but that too is reality.