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A 6 - The Oakville Beaver, Tuesday, D ecem ber 23, 2003 EDITORIALS AND LETTERS THE OAKVILLE HEAVER 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-3824, ext. 224 Circulation: 845-9742 IAN OLIVER Publisher NEIL OLIVER Associate Publisher TERI CASAS Office Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager KELLY MONTAGUE Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director CHARLENE HALL Circulation Manager ROD JERRED Managing Editor Metroland Printing. Publishing & Distributing Ltd.. includes: Ajax/Pickering News Advertiser. Alliston Herald/Courier, Arthur Enterprise News. Barrie Advance. Brampton Guardian. Burlington Post, Burlington Shopping News. Caledon Enterprise. City Parent, Cdlingwood/Wasaga Connection, East York Mirror, Erin Advocate/Country Routes, Etobicoke Guardian, Flamborough Review, Georgetown Independent/Acton Free.Press, Harriston Review, Huronia Business Times, Lindsay This Week. 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MHton and District O N T A R I O SKY Suburban Newspapers o f Am erica Q & JU L Clilklrtn'i Choir IsttitegBforTiyp, Christmas wish list Dear Santa: We're sorry for sending you this letter at the last-minute, but we have been so busy this year with a provincial election, a municipal election, getting a new prime minister, catching Saddam Hussein, etc. that w e forgot to give you our Christmas list for som e prominent folks from the past year. So here goes: For new Prime M inister Paul Martin: An extra-large tube o f tooth paste. With a rebounding Canadian econom y, and a spring election likely, the new PM w ill be doing a lot o f sm iling in 2004. For Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty: A Promise Keepers m em bership. For M ayor Ann M ulvale and Town Council : A win at one o f the many pending Ontario M unicipal Board hearings. For U .S. President George W. Bush: A wall mount for Saddam Hussein's head. For Saddam Hussein: A very, very good lawyer. For M ichael Jackson: A therapist who can convince him it is not cool for 40-som ething men to have sleepovers with 12-year-olds. For the Toronto Maple Leafs: A Stanley Cup (Yes, we know we have asked for this same gift for the past 36 years). For the Toronto Blue Jays: A tim e machine to revisit 1992 and the glory o f a World Series victory and a packed Skydom e every game. For the Toronto Raptors: A healthy Vince Carter. To ex-N D P leader and new candidate Ed Broadbent: A calendar. This isn't 1988, Ed. To the new Conservative Party o f Canada: Com m on ground. Som ething Tories and A lliance members were never able to find. For local taxpayers: A raise. With projected 2004 tax hikes from all levels o f government, they'll need it. To all our readers: A happy, healthy and safe holiday. Tough task ahead. The Beaver, Dec. 12. In response to your editorial about the possible contradiction between protecting the Official Plan on the Shell Lainds and supporting new urbanism, it would seem that the concept of more compact growth is being embraced as much or more by the new provincial government as the prior one, and perhaps more effectively (see John Barber, Globe and Mail, Nov. 22, regarding the effect of the pro posed mandated greenbelt). It is probably essen tial for the Province to lead that process. The new requirement for municipal planning to be "con sistent" with the Provincial Policy Statement (PPS), rather than "have regard to" it, is appropri ate to ensure this broadly desired direction is not rendered toothless by exceptions. More compact growth with a greater ability for citizens to live near their work is the way to ensure urban development is transit friendly and environment friendly. This position is supported by the Suzuki Foundation, and in the work of Jane Jacobs and latterly Paul Hawken...most recently Natural Capitalism, which addresses city design in detail and discusses the depletion of our Natural Capital. There is specific reference in this book to Andres Duany's New Urbanism. At the moment, however, our local concerns relate to proposals for Sharkey's and the Shell. lands: more compact development ought not to be controversial in greenfield development, because the future residents are aware of the vision they are buying. The issue is whether we are already meeting density objectives in down town Oakville, and how we can accommodate Voting results debacle Councillor offers views on new urbanism - its spirit and intent an `unpleasant situation' growth without dramatically departing from res idents' expectations for their quality of life. (One might suggest much of the problem comes from the former government's refusal to properly fund Toronto which has always wanted to be a city, was designed to be a city, and has the skeleton of a city's infrastructure. It should be targeted for serious intensification and would welcome it in many places, if its infrastructure (transit for one) were to get the investment it needs. Had it been done, this would have taken pressure off places never intended to be cityscapes, like Oakville. There is still time.) It is likely that unless the Sharkey's proposal, for one, is summarily defeated, we can say goodbye to the jewel that is downtown Oakville, and its specialness will be lost in the sameness of lowest common denominator streetscapes that scar the Lakeshore in Port Credit and Burlington, but which we have avoided. Duany was ecstatic over our downtown. His concepts are about recreating downtown Oakville in north Oakville, but with more greenspace. Why would we chance destroying such a model, which everyone wants to emulate, when we already have the highest density in Oakville in the part of town containing the proposed development? The Shell situation has much in common. There again the key is access to the waterfront, and it is also residents' reasonable expectations as to the nature of the community they selected. Their due diligence was the Official Plan. We all, in both cases, think we ought to be able to rely on our official plan to protect us. In both cases our planning department says that the cur rent planning thinking, which is expressed in the PPS, and might prevail at the OMB, is that greater density is always better. They add to their argument that they contin ue to see proposals that contribute to lower aver age density (urban sprawl), put forward because developers know they will sell. When develop ers voluntarily propose to build higher than average density, they say the Province and OMB look seriously at it. However, if we can demon strate that our Official Plan is globally consistent with the PPS, and absorbs new population across the whole town without consuming more land per capita, that is, without sprawl, then we can reasonably ask our Official Plan be upheld. The best ideas (and more compact growth is one of them) are flawed if they are applied blindly and on a blanket basis without due regard for the specific circumstances. As any Glen Abbey or north Oakville realtor's Web site will show, the downtown and harbours are the heart of our community, the acorn or the roots of the Oak. In our desire to kill the pest of urban sprawl, let us not use a pesticide that also kills the roots of our tree. The Sharkey's and Shell issues are the tests of whether the New Urbanism is to be used indiscriminately, or judiciously in accordance with an understanding of long-term consistency with its spirit and intent. W ARD 3 COUNCILLOR CHRIS STOATE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Proposal for Shell lands spells `planning disaster,' says reader Re: Oakville Planning and Development FileZ. 1735-06 The applicant proposes to build 1,000 apart ments on the site of the former Shell House, a beautiful open-wooded property. This site is in no way appropriate to such high-density development. In 1986 the residents of Bronte and south west Oakville united to voice the strongest possible objection to the spread of the com mercial area in Bronte west of Bronte Creek. For your reference, the Planning Director of the day referred to the Bronte Commercial area as a "planning disaster." Once again, the residents and would-be res idents of our neighbourhood are faced with a potential "planning disaster," albeit residential. I sense that our neighbourhood is as vehe mently opposed to Palm Place's 1,000 unit apartment complex today as they were to the "planning disaster" in 1986. HARRY SILVERSIDES Grinch stole Frosty but family returns it Thanks to the Oakville Beaver my Frosty snowman ornament is home safe and sound. A wonderful family on Beechfield found the snowman that was a gift from my late hus band, thrown on their lawn' They found my number in the telephone book, called and brought my snowman home. Thank you. The Christmas spirit is alive and well in Oakville. MARLENE THOM PSO N The sooner the better. The Beaver, Dec. 10. Did we have an election or not? What do a whole raft of people have to hide? These are two of the most obvious and unpleasant questions which immediately come up on learning that Oakville council lors and staff have hired outside legal assistance to contest an application for a recount of voting results for the mayor's posi tion and they have also obtained a delay until March. That there will be no progress in resolving the mayor elec tion results until March is absolutely outrageous. As stated in your recent editorial on the matter, why cannot the issue be dealt and done with - the sooner the better! In fact the sitting mayor should be behind the drive to let the court application proceed and speak out in support of the democratic process to allow the uncertainty of who did or did not win be resolved. The whole situation does not look good and neither do the councillors who we elected to act on our behalf. Councillors are in charge and instead of meeting in secret they should have given, in unanimous majority, firm and clear instructions to Town staff to let the application for a recount proceed and let the court process take its course - that would have been the simplest thing to do. Instead the public is left to speculate about who is afraid of what? We need to publicly congratulate Councillors Elgar, Robinson and Sandelowsky for being the only councillors with the courage to stand for transparency and proper conclusion to this outrageous delay. There ought to be a voters ad hoc committee formed to address and persuade the mayor and council to instruct Town staff to withdraw the legal challenge to the application for a recount and let the court decide on the merits of the facts that may be presented. (If anyone is interested in doing this, please e-mail me simondann@cogeco.ca) The secret meetings between staff and councillors on a truly public issue need to stop and transparency should be council's demand so we can dispose of the nasty speculation and suspi cion which, it appears, will now dog us until March. We can only shake our heads and be dismayed...what an unpleasant situation. SIM ON DANN Decision to kill beaver `gutless' I find it disturbing to hear that for the very reason we have parks (to attract wildlife), a wonderfully educational event of a beaver family in our neighbourhood is to end in their death. I am told by the mayor's office that it has been determined the danger element necessitates this action. What danger? Flooding? Not in a million years? Water a danger to children? What next drain Lake Ontario? Deforestation? The city rou tinely cuts back the growth in the valley as the trees there grow like weeds. This is a gutless decision. I am consulting my lawyer on obtaining an injunction to this action although I suspect I am wasting my time. BRIAN KERR Pud By STEVE NEASE &WES HEW MEANM&TO L O R D " of T he. R IN G S -' We welcome your letters Something on your mind? The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. In order to be published, letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Road, Oakville, On., L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to edi tor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 8 0 Gould S t, Suite 206, Toronto, O n t, M5B 2M 7. Phone (416) 340-1981. 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