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A 6 - The Oakville Beaver, W ed ne sd ay, Jun e 4, 2003 EDITORIALS A N D LETTERS in i'; ii i k i ii i i; in; it lilt 467 Speers Rd.. Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 337-5610 Circulation: 845-9742 IAN OLIVER Publisher NEIL OLIVER Associtue Publisher TERI CASAS Office Manager u m i r o P rrw g , ( \ o W n j A C w tu e rg l U rd u d n A fc tr > «raU V m i W u · tt n r w *« v « B ir w fcfconar. B a ry * 'M x*. to ft:r irtrrptm n r r t J i GuarJor. B u v y b r Peat J r t c n j V m b C f| P n r t . C o h V M X ii'M iu g i M M W n m. Union P rv ccx ; S m ItK K O jg l & 2 K U ruTH Pnxiiu litm Manager KELLY MONTAGUE Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLU Photography Director STEVE CROZIER Circulation Director ROD IERRED Martayby Editor MARK DILLS THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief li j r w a r ioct *A t> (m lA n x a b 'ju ty % um U *vun(orantl& S ir W danj^W i^efmU rr-» E k t c c M Gutraan. H arte rcm jP Ow y t x r * O t < r » M V t r Fnga A m m 'VTtnw to tr m T rm Wk * . irxfc»r The m , * GtM». Htmmafiiol'Aurora V w r tk'.iT > <V U r u CO Niuwl CURnwi HO C*. turn PMvn OrWla Today OtfWACfcWMttyOjrtnyfcr Purt Pw rr t h * tVMk. iX w r 1 O t m v w Petartxrotyh Tha 16»*» S cjrtcrju yn M i'or. IE r*ftnn*» jk v U pRaiki C W fc v tfe^tccpng an! fttuv. P a frn w * d X fc .PttnC tu * / H ttfin c nl» < y th o rn rm iV » jq m n tetri/a n t» r * k w « X u v Glyof W Recognized for Excellence by O ntario Com m unity Newspapers Association H a lto n H ca lth ca rc YMCA ,y j . y f S T n r r y . / * £ * · f l r t f f u rxl <2na i Canadian C om m unity Newspapers Association S K Suburban Newspapers o f Am erica O uki'illt o TJ" > | o a k v ille g a lle rie s | W 0 » 4 l W ltf r t & lT O R IA L K S TA TE BO AR D I'm P ia M n trM .w n C '/uZ/ f u u / iow» > v n j7 Cl»««r NKQflE F O B B U S iW S S E X C aiE N C f There has to be a better way There has to be a better way o f accom m odating O ntario students than tearing the hearts out o f neighbourhoods by closing and d em o lish in g their beloved schools. At the Halton District School Board, the latest round o f studies o f potential closures will see 12 neig h b o u rh o o d s -- one in Burlington and 11 in O akville -- placed in the unenviable position o f not know ing the future o f their schools. T he consideration o f closing som e schools in order to trigger enough pupil spaces to get provin cial funding for facilities in new. high-grow th n e ig h b o u rh o o d s seem s a som ew hat cold and calcu lated process w here ch ild ren becom e num bers on som ebody's ledger. Once upon a tim e, schools were an extension o f the neighbour hood. a place o f learning, recre ation and the sharing o f ideas, concerns and v isio n s for the future. They used to represent the hub o f a com m unity, w here fam i lies gathered for both school-related activ ities and e v e n ts that occurred long after the school day was done. In B u rlin g to n , p arents have already w itnessed valiant battles w aged by neighbourhood fam ilies to preserve that tradition. A few have claim ed victory, but too m any have been defeated. W.E. Breckon becom es the latest victim in June. Now parents, staff and students o f B urlington's Ryerson elem en tary' face the cold reality that their school m ight be next -- in as little as a y e a r's tim e. And parents and students o f 11 schools from tw o boundary areas in O akville will be facing uncer tainty as trustees and staff consid e r all closure options. T h is w ill be a lengthy and ted io u s p ro cess as the school board will seek both public and adm inistrative input. It will also be an em otional time for m any fam ilies, especially for those parents who chose to live in a certain neighbourhood because o f the com m unity school. T here d o esn 't seem to be an obvious alternative to the way this province is getting new schools built. W hat is clear is that while new facilities are indeed going up. established school com m unities are being ripped apart. And that's not right. LETTERS TO TIIE EDITOR Clear the Air Coalition takes issue with comments made in TCRA letter Trafalgar-Chartwell Resi dents'Association president Chris Stoat (OPA 198 Debate Sunk to Polarization. TCRA Says, the Beaver May 21) agrees with a north Oakville landowner. Mr. Bazaar, that, as a result of the Town being at the OMB over OPA 198. the developers may control development in the lands north of Dundas. Both of them want us to believe that had the developers been given everything they want ed in the first place, the Town would somehow be in control. Of what? If you give the developers everything they want in the first place, of what exacdy have you retained control? Both gentlemen then proceed to offer a claim that Clear The Air and Oakvillegreen somehow caused the OMB hearing. Here are the facts: 1. Clear The Air Coalition Inc. and many others believed that identification of natural features to protect was a vital first step in any good planning process. We wanted the environmental Big Picture drawn first. And we involved ourselses early and in a constructive fashion in the process, in 1999. 2. The council and the com munity reached the consensus compromise position Mr. Stoat now claims was never attempted when we all agreed on a Stakeholders Advisory Committee in late 2001. It includ ed the developers and residents. It was to operate by consensus. It was to have almost six months to review and improve OPA 198. 3. Immediately, however, the developers filed appeals at the OMB. proposing a strippeddown version of OPA 198 with none of the few green provisions that were in the draft OPA 198 at that point. 4. Immediately, council changed the six month program of the SAC to less than six weeks. 5. The developers neverthe less kept their seats on the SAC. They used their role there to argue against and block many of the green concerns expressed by residents on the SAC during the shortened SAC process. 6. In February 2002, the high er planning authorities to which the Tow n answers, acting through the Region, ordered the Town to add several important green requirements to OPA 198 in order for it to conform to the Regional Official Plan and the Province's planning policies. 7. On May 29, 2002, council passed the thus-amended OPA 198 reflecting SAC consensus items and Region-required changes. 8. CTAC and others waited until the end of the appeal period in July 2002 to see if the develop ers would withdraw their appeals to the OMB that demanded a clear-cutting of any green provi sions in OPA 198. 9. The developers did not withdraw their appeals, thus adopting the interesting position that they were appealing the very OPA 198 they had had so domi nant a role in creating. 10. CTAC took and still takes the position that if the developers will be at the OMB demanding the few green provisions in OPA 198 must be cut out, we will be there to argue the green provi sions that ought to have been in should be added now and the ones already in. kept. We are pro viding balance to what would otherw ise be a very lopsided case at the OMB. Mr. Stoat has been TCRA's official source of information and spokesperson on OPA 198 and the OMB case, rather than, say, asking CTAC to attend a meeting and answer questions about what we've done and why we've done it. Thus, his claims about CTAC go uncorrected and unanswered within TCRA. With the publication of his let ter and this response, readers of the Beaver will now be free to make up their own minds about his claims. CLEAR THE AIR COALITION INC. PER ROB BURTON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Cartoon was disappointing I am extremely disappointed in the editorial cartoon featured in the Weekend Edition o f the Oakville Beaver (May 24). with Ruben from American Idol. American Idol was not a beauty pag eant, it was a competition to see who had the most talent. Everybody com plains that too much pressure is being put on teens to look good and be skinny. If a skinny blond un-talented girl had won (a la Popstars: The One), every body w ould've complained. But people were happy with these results: finally, a talented person w'on. rather than a person who had nothing but looks. So why do you feel the need to bring Ruben down? I would say he has done a great thing for our society: proved that talent can get you a long way. MAGEE WALKER LETTER O F TIIE W E E K Keep downtown beautiful This letter, addressed to Mayor Ann Midvale and members o f council, was submitted to the Oakville Beaverfo r publication. Re: Proposed Daniels Development of the Sharkey's Site on Forsythe. 1 have been a homeowner on Glenmanor Drive, in the West River neighbourhood of Oakville, since 1987. For more than 10 years 1 was a business owner on Kerr Street. 1 am rais ing my three daughters here, and have no plans to move -- ever. 1 was bom and raised in the Bayview/Shepherd area of North York, and frankly would never ever want to return to the -- big city -- with all it's coldness, congestion, concrete and glass. Oakville is the exact opposite of that huge maw. in its small town, green and respectfully elegant atmosphere. Downtown Oakville is absolutely fabulous! It has always been my understanding that Oakville was dif ferent. special, if you w ill, by virtue of the vision that the leaders have historically held and put into place. It is not by chance that our town is lovely. Many years of hard work and decision mak ing by Oakville planners and Town councillors have resulted in the oasis in the GTA that Oakville and is known to be. 1 thank you for this! Regarding the proposed plan that Daniels has presented for the Sharkey's property. What on earth are we doing even entertaining the idea that a glass and concrete high rise could possibly be a good thing for that beautiful river side downtown location? I. personally, have attended meeting after meeting with the Daniels group, as a representative from the West River Residents Association, and have experienced the wooing, if you will, the seduction of the beautifully architectural draw ings and plans and the professional presentation made by the Daniels folks. They have certainly covered all their bases, and they are obviously more than capable of creating a fabulous upscale con dominium. I have seen their work, first hand, at Bayview and Shepherd in North York. It is virtually impossible to miss their four towers as one drives along the 401 across Toronto. They are impressive, massive, and certainly will help with the super high-density requirements that North York has asked for in order to fully uti lize their new billion-dollar subway line along Shepherd Avenue. What reason is there to construct the same thing in Dow ntown Oakville? I'm quite certain that you are more than aware of the logical reasons why this project must not proceed. You know' that the Official Plan for Oakville, thoughtfully worked on and agreed to by predecessors, calls for a low-medi um density residential area for downtown. Yes there are apart ments. We cannot change that, but to add to it is not an option. You know that such a project would diminish the uniqueness of the character of Oakville as a town forever. You know that the floodgates of requests for additional zon ing changes would be open from the property owners on the other side of the harbour. You know that the project will increase traffic at peak times and put an increased burden on historic Trafalgar Road, which already is at a maximum. You know that the project would be in direct contradiction to Halton Conservation guidelines with respect to incursion into the floodplain. Daniels is obviously an extremely professional company, probably one of the best, and I have no issue with the quality of any project they might undertake. They are businessmen of top caliber, and have been doing what they were asked to do by the owners of the Sharkey's prop erty. Their project is very good, and many folks would certainly love to invest and live in one of their condominium apartments, no doubt about that. Obviously, the only issue is. not in down town Oakville. CHERYL DAWES The Oakville Beaver is a member ot the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 8 0 Gould S t. Suite 2 0 6 , Toronto, O n t. M5B 2M7. Phone (416 ) 340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, togeth er w ith a reasonable allowance for signature, w ill not be charged for. but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or dedine Student grateful for promotion 1 just wanted to send a quick note to thank you for putting in the announce ment about Iroquois Ridge's production of Stage Door. Because we develop such a strong sense of community within our own school, it's wonderful to share these kinds of events with our larger commu nity! Our performances have been excit ing and cathartic, having worked since February in rehearsal. We have high hopes that members of the community might have read the sec tion and will join us in our last perform ance! Again, our sincerest appreciation for including us in your paper to celebrate local high school theatre! ANDREA STANGER. GRADE 13 IROQUOIS RIDGE HIGH SCHOOL We welcome your letters The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. 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 editor@oakvilleheaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish any letter. Pud OH ' f e s g ! By STEVE NEASE C O M IN G R\SHT UP ON THAT, S IR / I'LL (SETRI&HT