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Downtown as Paul Nielsen sees it Commission called to discuss projects merchant Paul Nielsen read his presentation which reviewed past attempts and looked to the future of the town Central Business District His presentation which was acclaimed by those attending follows Recently a series of articles In The Acton Free Press expressed concern about the central business district In Acton Through the Acton Chamber of Commerce and as a businessman with large investments In this area I have for many years been In the midst almost everything which took place IntheCBD Central Business District I off the following as a biased but Informed viewpoint The only rational approach would be to take a complete survey of the entire town and proceed from there through analysis to conclusion The most complete survey of took place in 1964 and was done as an exercise under Professor DaUn of the University of Toronto The final document Is a book of almost folio pages This book rovers most aspects of life in Acton and I greatly recommend it as reading for anyone who Is truly interested in gaining knowledge In the broader aspects of town planning as it affects Acton It would be very helpful Is a university would update this book and interesting to find out how correct the predictions were To have this done by professionals would probably cost In excess Recommendation The team who did the and the economics of the study made the equivocal recommendation that future major commercial activity should take place in the and came up with several suggestions as to how this could be done later the council hired a professional firm to assist In arriving at a conceptual plan for the town of Acton Project planners again recommended to confine future major commercial activity to the C In fact this concern for the main street In any town Is repeated in almost all professional plann- as It seems the chairman of the Acton Planning Board and I hope the paper misquoted him would like to see future major commercial development take place east of the town Easy solution Probably some of the town fathers coun would like to see a large shopping center as a nice easy solution to a baffling and complex problem This however would Create a whole new set of problems which we shall leave untouched here Some councillors are taking a serious and knowledgeable view of the relationship between Some feel that If the core of the town Is lost in essence the town Is lost It Is a fact that the is supplying Acton with essential services and as the population grows It will be able to supply more and better services At present there are commercial establishments located in the There la a simple equation called s Law which will tell you the probable trade are a town or shopping area It is based on the principle that the attractiveness of a town la in direct pro portion to the distance It is away from and in Inverse proportion to the relative size of other towns Acton hinterland If we knew nothing whatever of people hopping habits by applying fl Law we would Boon find that Acton la really Acton pre hinterland to the greater regional town of and that In turn is hinter land to the Kitchener Waterloo area Con the following statistics taken from Canada statistics Ninety Year No ACTON ONTARIO WEDNESDAY NOVEMBE 1972 HISTORY OF RETAIL SALES IttOtolMl POPULATION NO OF SALES STORES tin I CAPITA Acton 1B3 36 4758 Georgetown 60 392 1 Acton 43 9 343 Georgetown 1851 Acton Georgetown 48975 1420 444 2385 1961 Acton 4144 43 3767 90S Georgetown 10 29S 95 Kitchener Waterloo 168 1 76 Guelph Fergus 709 2 320 Acton highest It Is interesting to see hat Georgetown when it was a smaller town and before Brampton developed was far ahead of Acton in per capita expenditure and that Acton now has the highest per capita sales of any of the places mentioned Many con elusions can be drawn from these statistics but I am neither equipped nor Inclined to write an economic treatise and here it is sufficient to say that the citizens of Acton are patronizing their local merchants to a greater extent than citizens in other centres Of course this will change if the population of Acton grows and the shopping area does not Shop at home Although it Is obvious that there will always be people who will prefer to travel to a large mall or department store to do their shopping it is equally clear that many people prefer to do business with the small town merchant Since many items cannot be stocked in a small town some exotic Items have to be obtained from larger shopping areas This situation will likely never change since Acton is not laid out as a regional centre in the provincial plan It seems to me that the citizens of Acton have clearly indicated that they prefer to shop in town It Is therefore up to the merchant to maintain and nourish this attitude They must increase the avail ability of goads and services and merchandise accordingly They have more special events etc Property owners must upgrade their buildings and generally the entire CBD must Improve its appear once parking facilities Included How can this be brought about And where docs the responsibilities lie And why has not more been done to date A quick look at the attempts to solve some of the problems may be useful Parking ttee The town formed a parking committee some years ago They came up with a series of suggestions with regard to flow of traffic The net result was as I see It a loss of parking space but a much greater facility for moving traffic and perhaps a safer traffic PRICES EFFECTIVE THROUOH SATURDAY We Reserve the Right to Limit Quantities CAMPBELLS OZ CAN TOMATO SOUP FACIAL TISSUE SIZE DOUBLES KLEENEX STOKELYS FANCY PEAS OUR MONEY BACK GUARANTEE TO YOU Our poller I to oiler you Low Everyday Prices PLUS Weekly Advertised Specials We guarantee thai our advertised specials are lower than our competition and we will back up ha Cash Re to you or the difference In upon p ha any our advertised specials may be pu chased a owe p In the shopping area CHRISTIE S of I Hot Doe Hamburg KELLOGG S ROLLS CORN FLAKES 33 CARNATION MILK 2 39 We Sell Only Tenderbest Grade A Red Brand Beef GREY CUP FEATURES SHIRRIFFS 10 REG c POTATO CHIPS 49 CANADA DRY NON RETURNABLE GINGER ALE 2 BORDEN SREC0NSTITUTED40OZ BOTTLE ORANGE JUICE CHRISTIES RAISIN COFFEE LOAF 99 RICH STORE HOURS MOMIAMT01PM TUUlftMTOlPNI TMUHS AM TO It AT IAJAT04WPM SUH VAMT04OPJH FAST FREE DELIVERY OPEN SUNDAY AM Paul Nielsen and Actons bustling main stem of commerce Jennings pattern Abater idea would be to press For a bypass or a truck route and thus relieve the pressure of truffle on the planning was done on a three week temporary mall but a petition was taken up against it and nothing came of It A group of merchants pooled their money to buy property for off street parking but In the final stages one of them threw doubt on the feasibility of the project and withdrew The resulting economic slack t be taken up by the rest and the project died two major recent additions to parking area ore the United Church lot by the council and the church and the lots behind the I G A and Dominion Hotel by these same businesses Minor additions arc the Anglican church lot by the council and the space around the medical centre The council has been advised to appoint parking authority but has not seen fit to do so The council is probably too busy with other crcat concerns but will hopefully find the wisdom to nun I the parking problem to a group that could and would make It their only object to solve the future parking problem because there will certainly be one Innovations made The council has repaired the streets and the Development Commission and the council have added some containers for trees and the Centennial Commission has put up flower boxes This past summer we had the Acton Country Market on Willow Street Two new banks were established while two others were rebuilt and upgraded within the last few Some businesses have renovated and five new stores were built on Main Street On the minus side we have some businesses closed or moved but 1 optimistic that this slack will be taken up shortly hopefully by energetic new business people responsibility for upgrading the stores already here must rest with the individual business person he is easily motivated and should be a self starter The property owner is harder to reach but both arc Influenced by the attitude of the business climate Including and particularly the attitude of council Planning aspects arc important Certainly no major store wilt ever to locate In the B unless they feel the Council can and will contribute to solving the parking problem Because of past ycar3 of ad hoc development It is simply not good enough to say put up your own parking It Is even now questionable If large scale improvements to present facilities shopping can be supported unless some way Is found to add to present parking facilities This in itself tends to hold back improvement and upgrading Thus it seems that leadership in regard to parking must come from council or lis appointed If council does not appoint an authority it Is not very likely to be forthcoming Traffic concern is another concern which must be council responsibility particularly through truck traffic Millions of ton3 of cargo are shipped straight through this town every year on two major highways This creates noise pollution and danger to our citizens Certainly a truck route or bypiss would absorb both noise and pollution with less danger to people But strong representation must be made to the province to convince them that we need this type of road In the near future it should be pointed out that a great deal of cooperation between the people In the and the council and council appointed bodies or commissions is already taking place for instance the Christmas light display is a three way responsibility shared by the Chamber of Commerce the Hydro Commission and the Council More projects and activities can and must be generated If the D is to remain viable and continue to contribute financially and socially to the town life In many towns such projects as the Plan have successfully been under taken perhaps this would be a good starting point but it has got to be realized much more Is required to assure a future for the Improvement area One possible way of getting started would through the Chamber of Commerce requested that the Council declare a certain as a business improvement Then the council would forward letter to all business people in this rca saying that unless a petition was taken up against it that on a certain date It would puss a by law mak ng the area on Improve ment area and that an Increase in business tax would be levied at per mill council would appoint a commission or board of management preferably of three members one from council and two from the assessed businesses to spend the money thus obtained on improvement la municipal property over and above what would normally be done at the towns expense Also this money should go towards bus promotion such as advertising festive banners Christmas lights special events etc Of course this method would be tood start to bring the up to scratch There is a better method After having carefully determined what the projected need In the form of parking improvement would be the Council could issue debentures for what ever the amount would come to and then load the unto the area where it was spent Prime areas suitable At this tune prime areas suitable for are available and others will soon be on the market It scans quite certain that unless something is done now and done on a fairly large scale we will find the C B D In a bind I am convinced that if this area la to continue to contribute in the many ways it does to the town life we must make a move now The council must take a stand on whether they will let the area deteriorate or develop The business men must provide the impetus to growth Continued on Pag B0 Set park hours for snowmobiles Following the policy they used lost winter Acton Parka Board will allow snowmobiles to operate In Prospect Park between and on weekdays and m and on Sundays Snowmobiles will not be allowed to operate in Sir Donald Mann Park in Glenlea A hill in the park is used almost daily by young tobogganers during the winter THE BAVARIAN ROOM at the Caravan Restaurant and Tavern Milton is swinging with the oompapa spirit Fridays and Saturdays a pm to Midnight Plata Ontario St Wilton PtttlW 878 3901 For Special Arrangement or Inform lion New sign A large new sign has been installed at Roots Canadian Fried Chicken store on Mill St Would You Believe Toronto to Vancouver and return Only MO day cur Hon lo in Canada mora than miles apart Air Canada Canadian Pacific For more in form a lion call MILTON TRAVEL SERVICE