Vol.12, No. 4 Wednesday, January 27, 1982 24 Pages RI Council endorses bus improvements One councillor who has been a one-time supporter of the Whitby Transit Service declined to support the latest report on the service at Monday night's meeting of Whitby Town Council. Centre Ward Coun- cillor Barry Evans said that the report was not a call to take specific ac- tions but a request for permission to make fur- ther studies. "I'm against the rhotion as a whole," he told his fellow members of council. "Let's have something meaty that we could put our teeth into." Evans said after the meeting that he would be quite willing to sup- port many of the mea- sures put forward in the report. "All it says is 'let's study this, let's study that,"' he complained. "Let's decide that we're going to do it." The recommen- dations that council adopted include con- tinuing the bus service after the cûrrent con- tract with Charterways Limited expires in June, 1983 and extending the hours of operation to 11 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Satur- day. Council has also authorized staff to.look at the cost benefits of owning its own buses. The proposal to bring back the school bus system was not endor- sed and service to the Oshawa Shopping Cen- tre will not be provided. However, inquiries will be made in an effort to link-up Whitby's service with Oshawa's. Regional Councillor Gerry Emm said that it was unlikely that such a link-up could be made. 'Oshawa's not pre- pared to bring their buses into Whitby unless we share in their deficit and we're not going to do that," he said. North Ward Councill- or Ross Batten was un- successful in deleting the recommendation that called for the town not to endorse the pro- posal to bring back the school bus system. West Ward Councillor Joe Bugelli said that so long as the town operates a bus system, the Durham Board of Education will not pro- vide its transportation service. "To support this par- ticular request would be to bring an early death to the bus system," he said. "I'm not prepared to sacrifice the advan- cements made by the bus system." In his report to coun- cil, public works direc- tor said that accepting this proposal, put for- ward by the Corridor Area Ratepayers Asso- ciation, would not be fair to the rest of toWn. "This means the Otter Creek area, downtown Whitby, etc. would have to pay for the transit system in addition to having their children CONT'D ON PG..6 Whitby Town Council will seek a change in land use designation from Durham Region for the north-west cor- ner of Bonacord Ave. and Frost Drive, at its meeting Monday night. The development firm of Grossman, Bleeman, J. Silver Holdings Limited has proposed to construct townhouses on this site, however, coun- cil denied their site plan application on the advice of their solicitor. The motion, made by West Ward Councillor Joe Bugelli, requests that the region remove the medium density symbol on the official plan east of Otter Creek. In defending his motion, Bugelli said that the designation was not in keeping with the development needs of the town in 1982. He said that the offi- cial plan's designation is "not necessarily et- ched in stone but should take into' consideration the present times. When the designation was originally made, the developer's proposal may -have had merit, but not now. "It is not beneficial to ~the existing home- owners, not beneficial to the town and not bene- ficial to the future plan- ning of the town," Bugelli said. The councillor was also critical of the deve- loper for "jumping the gun" and taking the matter to the Ontario Municipal Board prior to council making a firm decision. "He felt he had a case (to take to the OMB)" Bugelli said. "I feel we have a case. " "If we do not have a chance to act on it now ... we will never hance a chance to recoup," he added. In speaking against the motion, Karl Jaf- fray, the developer's representative, told council the motion would not mean anything. "It will create a time consuming matter and not accomplish a great deal,"lhesaid. Jaffray said that his client has applied to the town for an agreement of subdivision so that the matter can be recon- sidered. Strong opposition to. Bugelli's motion came from the members of the administrative committee who are responsible for planning matters. East Ward Councillor Joe Drumm, committee chairman; said that the zoning on the land had been made in 1973 and was confirmed in 1977. "Zoning is a commit- ment that on a certain piece of property, a cer- tain type of building will be built," he said. Drumm was also of the opinion that Bugelli's motion was not beneficial for the town as a whole. "For the whole town, it does no good." He also took a couple of political shots at both Bugelli and Regional Councillor Tom Ed- wards who seconded the motion. Drumm accused Bugelli of being paro- chial, which was subse- quently denied, and Edwards of not being in- terested in affordable housing. "He (Edwards) does not want in this com- munity, housing that the average person might be able to afford," he said. However, Edwards countered this charge saying that people he's interested in couldn't af- ford to buy one of the $80,000 townhouses. "Well I'm looking af- ter the little guy," he replied, 'He doesn't have $80,000. I don't have any graven guilt." Drumm said that the current dispute with the developer could have been avoided and laid the responsibility on Bugelli's shoulders. "If he (Bugelli) had bitten the bullet ... we might not be heading to the OMB at a cost of between $15,000 and $20,000." Centre Ward Coun- cillor Barry Evans won't support the motion because it calls for a planning decision to be made without the usual staff report and back-up information. "Why aren't we get- ting the planning back- ground on this?" he asked. "We're not making a planning but a political decision." "We're changing the rules half-way through the game." The motion was passed on a 4 to 3 recor- ded vote with the ayes coming from councillors Bugelli, Edwards, Gerry Emm and Mayor Bob Attersley. The dissenting votes were heard from councillors Drumm, Evans and Ross Batten. It is interesting to note that the ayes came frm members of the opera- tions committee. One councillor sar- castically remarked af- ter the meeting that the ayes came onîy from those councillors who need votes from the Bonacord Ave. - Frost Drive area to be re- elected this November. Council wili seek land use change moud