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WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMI3ER 25, 17,PAGE 7 PAGE SEVEN ONE TOO MANY STRIP PLAZAS Whitby is judged by outsiders not by its downtown, or its clean residential neighbourhoods but by the streets leading into it - Dundas on the East and West and Brock St. on the North and South. All of these approaches have been allowed to deteriorate through the years by a hodge-podge of piecemeal commercial development mingled with remnants of rundown (in most cases) residential sections. This did not develop overnight but was a slow insidious process of one small rezoning after another, each feeding on the precedents set by the one before. The small plaza recently approved by the Region and the Town on Dundas Street West between Annes and Bell Drive is merely another small concession to creeping mediocrity. This one, if allowed to proceed by the Ontario Municipal Board, will set a few more minor precedents which will make it difficult to deny the applications for two more commercial rezoning applications in the vicinity. Indeed, denying those applications will be exceedingly difficult because this plaza goes against all the rules of planning and was opposed by both the Town and Regional planning departments. But the politicians have the final say and they decided Whitby needs another strip plaza. The property has received a number of planning studies and in 1983 was finally zoned for medium density residential. It was decided that the few existing commercial uses in the area (a bar, a car wash, a motel, and a used car lot) should be allowed to continue but that any extension of the commercial area would be inappropriate. But politicians have been known to change their minds and, after all, four years is a long time. Having decided in '83 that residential was the best use, the politicians in '85 denied an application for a three-story apartment building because of opposition by a few residents of Calais St. which abuts the rear of the property. Now in '87, our council (exactly the same council as in the previous years), is using that opposition to that particular application (whose design obviously left a lot to be desired) as an excuse to rezone the property. They are suggesting that all the residents oppose all forms of medium density housing. Therefore, so the logic goes, the property must be rezoned commercial. The fact that it will create traffic problems on an already busy street (which will lead to widening for a left turn lane at OUR expense); the fact that there are already two plazas in the area which have many, many empty stores; the fact that there isn't adequate sewage capacity; the fact that the Downtown Business Improvement Area opposes the application because of its and other strip plazas' impact on the revitalization of the downtown - all of this was ignored. The only people to have gained anything are Nard Investments, the applicant, who have just recently sold the property to Greenbriar Developments, another Toronto builder. Town and Regional Councils have handed over a substantial windfall profit, but it will be the taxpayer who gets to pay for VnEW 0F BROOKLIN, NORTHWEST FROM CIURCH STREET C. 1907 the new services and the road-widening that will be required This picture of Broolin was taken from the site of the former Whitby Township (and put up with the traffic jams until the politicians admit the municipal building at the end of Church Street. At left is the Broolin Methodist (now need). United Cburch, bult in 1867. At the centre is the wooden Masonic hall bult for And all of us, visitors and residents alike, will get to drive Mount Zion lodge in 1871 and replaced by the present oncrete block Masonic hall in past yet another piece of haphazard commercial development 1951. At right is the brick miii, bult in 1848 and still operating as a four miii today. that will probably remain half-empty for years.n the old Brooklin Hotel (now the Legion hall) and T. The planning process requires the notification of propertyJHoldysrygdstreWhbyAhisPot owners within 100 metres - a few homes on Calais and Dundas. The rest of us have only gradually become aware of this 1 ER G rezoning through the press and by word-of-mouth. fo h ensaNvme 3 97eiino h Not surprisingly, when first presented to Whitby Council, W ~ F EpE therewere few objections because very few knew about it. Before Regional Council, a great many more came forward and the *Aot20Wib opposition is growing. The people of Whitby care what theirpoesstf yos.syharcH ptlepoeefrmdnifrainpckto community looks like even if some of our councillors don't.*Rgsrro edAbr akr s ern le ee er nta ot Originally, the only objection to the rezoning was filed by Rgoa the downtown BIA whose interests, on the surface, seemed WhbyRtyClbisein Issond etoskces fWibys itrc narrow and self-serving - they don't want the competition. But*Thr-ornsaeom tngiteSuLfeospeatheWtbCrigCl. the BIA bas matured a lot in the last couple of years and bas become the champion not just of downtown revitalization but of25YA SAG the Town's image as a whole. It is concerned not just with the commercial dilution that each new strip plaza brings but withfomteTusaN ebr22192etinfth the lasting impressions such plazas create. As Ed Buffett, the WIB EKYNW formr cairan f te BA sate ina - . Mou~ne Zone oin 181 nd replaceby he osre n usancr e andc Masnts hae application, "these decisions will determine whether or not Whitby remains distinctive or simply becomes one of many complalning to the town council. similar towns throughout Central South Ontario.# Whitby e The population of the Town ofWhitby is 13.350. Council has consistently set a very high standard for new e Tenders are being called for a five-room addition to Kathleen Rowe School. housing developments such that we now have the ninth highest Much debate Is forecast before a zoning bylaw can be established for Whitby. income in Canada. Yet when it comes to commercial development, council seems to have no standards at all. d0Novemr21 e nf The application now goes to the Ontario Municipal Board from tbe Fr1 ay, and the BIA has already served notice it intends to fight it. WHITBY CHRONICLE Municipalities regularly berate the power that the Ontarioe A seven-year-old boy has been sent to the Wbltby Jail for sheep stealing. government has given to the municipal board (an appointed 0 Whitby's photographer W. E. O'Brien bas sold bis business to J. W. Underwood. body) to overturn the decisions of elected councils. However, it is e Professor Bell, father of Alexander GrahamnBell, inventor of the telephone, is givlng precisely decisions like this one, decisions that are against the readings from Shakespeare at the Wbltby Music Hall public interest and for the narrow monetary benefit of e The St. Andrew's Society of Wbltby and Pickering does cbarity work for the needy. individual land owners that make the municipal board a necessity. If municipal councils acted more responsibly, the Ontario government might be more inchned to limit or eliminate its powers.