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WHITBY FREE PRESS, WFDNESDAY, MAY 13,1987, PAGE 7 PAGE SE VEN PRINCIOTTO-CHEAH Enough is enough! Town council has once again delayed making a décision on a rezoning application on Brock St. just south of the downtown area. The process has now dragged on for more than five months against the united opposition of the residents of the area, the Downtown BIA and the planning department. It is clear that intense political lobbying (Yes, even Whitby has lobbyists). is all that has been keeping this application alive. One has to wonder what political debts are being repaid and what new ones are being created. The current application is to change zoning from medium density residential to mixed use, i.e. commercial on the ground floor and two floors of residential upstairs. The property consists of two par- cels - 500 Brock St. S. belonging to Salvatore Princiotto and 506 Brock belonging to Lorna Cheah. Both sites are presently occupied by Victorian houses which are stil structurally sound although No. 500 has been allowed to become run down. The properties vre bought in the full knowledge that they were zoned residential. Mr. Princiotti originally submitted a separate application to develop his property for comemrcial use only. He asked the Down- town BIA (of which he is a member since he is the proprietor of Hair Studio) to support his application but they refused on the grounds that new commercial development on the fringes of the downtown was not warranted until existing buildings and empty lots were fully utilized. Acceptance of Princiotto's application would have simply encouraged further extensions of the commer- cial zone - developers- buying cheap residential properties and replacing them with equally cheap strip plazas. This has unfor- tunately been the pattern for many years now and if one can feel sorry for Mr. Princiotto, it is only because he had every reason to believe that his application would be accepted. Only in the last couple of years under Ed Buffett's stewardship has the downtown community achieved the kind of maturity that allows it to stand up and be counted. For smiliar reasons, planning department has also concluded that the properties should remain residential. The argument that com- mercial development will eventually extend all the way down Brock St. to the 401 may be valid but it will happen only if council allows it and when. When council gets good substantial proposais, such as a major hotel, then it should consider such applications on their merits. The Princiotto-Cheah development is not in that category. If council eventually accepts this application, it will sim- ply reinforce Whitby's image of piecemeal strip plaza development at our major entrance. The residents of the area are opposed to the plan for reasons of traffic, parking and privacy but mostly on principle - if the neigh- bors go, then so goes the neighborhood. When Princiotto's application appeared to be floundering, he hired Kevin Tunney to represent him. Tunney is a planning con- sultant (read "development lobbyist") and as a former planning director of the Town of Whitby, he comes with impeccable qualifications and he knows all the angles. keeping this proposal afloat, when it appeared to be dead in the water has been a remarkable achievement and a testament to his manoeuverability and lobbying skills. When the first proposal for pure commercial was tu'ned down, he submitted a new application for mixed use thereby keeping it alive a little longer...and a little longer again...another meeting...and another...It's beginning to wear the residents down - it certainly is tying up their Monday nights. hI many ways the residents have more to fear from the mixed use proposal than from pure commercial - walk-up apartments over stores tend to be the lowest grade of residential use and would not ;be in keeping with the quality of the neighborhood. So the application comes down to politics - and strange polities at that. The application' would have been put to rest some four weeks ago except for a tie vote in council because Tommy Edwards, who said he was against it, was absent. It was referred to the next coun- cil meeting when Gerry Emm, who had voted against it, was ab- sent. They then referred it over to another meeting. What for? Fur- ther input? I doubt it - what more can be said? It's the things that are not being said in the open - the "negotiations" in the corridors - that worry me. Perhaps our politicians are holding out for a bettèr deal. However, in aIl the debate that has gone on, one element has been ignored. The houses that now occupy the site are an asset to the community, are worth preserVing and, along with the other (few) remaining Victorian buildihgs on the lower part of Brock St., are precisely the kind of entrance Whitby should have to its historic downtown district. The house at 506 Brock, in particular, is a superb early Victorian house with apparently original windows, doors, porch, etc. The house at No. 500 sits on a heavy stone foun- dation and still has its original bargeboard trim. When councillor Drumm describes these houses as "a disgrace," I have to wonder if he knows which houses he is talking about. It is a common failing of politicians to see only the peeling paint. Bith of these buildings were well built and ail they need is a little TLC. What we need is a developer witb a little imagination, someone who can design some compatible in-fuI around the two bouses to add sufficient density to make the development pay. For my part, I would even be prepared to support commercial zoning on tbe site provided it suitably preserved and enhanced the existing buildings...like the development that is presently being built around tbe historic Post Manor at Brock Rd. and Hwy 2 in Pickering. With a little imagination, historic buildings can pay back their investment in spades. With a little imagination, 500-506 Brock Street S. could become a prestige address - a fitting gateway to downtown Whitby. .Tust a litt lÀ imagination. To the editor: Copy of letter to Whitby Public School trustees: As parent representatives of Whitby schools, we are writing to express our concerns over the. recent decision by the trustees of the Durham Board of Education to approve in principal the acquisition of a new administrative building. In the Durham Region, we currently find ourselves in a situation where facilities and resources are severely underfinan- ces in all areas of education - a situation that is likely to continue for several years given the current and planned housing development in the region. We acknowledge the board's efforts in establishing two new schools in Whitby. We also recognize that there are limited tax dollars - to finance these shor- tcomings in the system. However, the clear message that we have received from your decision is that trustees have given priority to their own accommodation needs over providing essential educational facilities for our own children. When you can overcome crowding in our schools; when you can decrease the number of por- tables existing all over Durham Region; when you can upgrade libraries to meet all the ministry's requirements of 'Partners in Ac-. tion'; when you can provide adequate size gyms with stages, storage space and safe conditions; when you can make proper provisions for academic resource teachers, instead of their vital ser- vices being in halls and teacher's staffrooms; when you can provide sufficient storage so audiovisual equipment is not stored in halls and teacher's rooms are not so clut- tered; when students can take real pride in the school they are atten- ding, then talk to us about your new administration building. We find your decision and prioritization totally unacceptable in a time that many would describe as a "crisis situation" for local education in Durham Region. The major provisions made by the board that determine the quality of education available to our children are the teaching staff, the facilities in which they work and the resources available to them. The board is proud of it's motto "Quality education today....for tomorrow." How can our children receive "quality education" when there are Mnany shortcomings in our school facilities and resources that direc- tly impact on the ability of teachefs to provide their best. (We do not in- clude administration accom- modation on our list of critical resources.) These shortcomings have been brought to your attention many times in the past and they are unlikely to be corrected in the foreseeable future. The spending of just a small fraction of the money you are prepared to allocate to a new administrative building would go a long way to correcting some of the critical short-falls at our schools and in our view be a more justified reason for raising and By GEORGE ASHE Durham West MPP I think the first paragraph of the editorial in the Toronto Sun on Wednesday, April 29 says it all. I quote, "Have the Liberals ever got something for you, and you, and you...Think of it, a speech from the Throne with 157 promises. And no focus." And the fifth paragraph of the same editorial. "We should count ourselves lucky there weren't 9.1 million promises - one for each Ontarian." There are two positive aras of the speech that should be helpful in our area. One is the re-announcement of increased capital funding for hospital construction. This was ajso announced in last year's speech but hopefully the long overdue expan- sion of Ajax-Pickering Hospital will come to the top of the pile this year. The other area in the speech that has already shown results for our area is increased capital dollars for spending tax dollars in the Durham region. We believe our message has been clearly stated. We strongly recommend that in the interest of your own elected official capacities that, at this time, you shelve any further consideration for such an inappropriate use of our tax dollars. New administration offices can only be sanctioned after there has been significant inprovement in the quality and guantity of school facilities throughout the region a.nd equal education opportunities provided for all our children. Yours Truly Education Action Committee now representing Dr. Robert Thorton P.S. Palmerston Ave. P.S. Colonel J.E. Farewell P.S. Cara Future Bellwood P.S. St. Paul's Separate School schools. It shows that the collective efforts of students, parents, teachers, administrators, trustees and your member can pay off. The two school boards in Durham have received approval for capital projects totalling $31.8 million. This allocation is for the 1988-89 fiscal year and should mean extra space on the ground by late 1988. The additional capital funding, albeit not flowing until next fiscal year, comes about because the provincial share of total education. operating costs has fallen to a new low of,44.9 per cent, a drop from 48.6 per cent since the Liberals came to power. This has happened even though during the 1985 elec- tion campaign the current Premier promised to increase the provincial share to 60 per. cent. As I am sure you are aware, the balance of the costs show up on your ever in- creasing property tax bill. One way or the other, we pay. Admin building plan opposed Good, bad in speech