6-story hotel not feasible By MIKE JOHNSTON A marketing study and the likelihood of a delay in rezoning with the original plan have prom- pted developers to go ahead and build a two-story hotel at Brock St. S. and 401, although original plans called for a six-story hotel. "Market studies showed us a hotel of that scale (six-story) would not be supported," says Ted Phelps, a consultant to an Ontario numbered companythat owns the land at Brock and 401. The numbered company, 639379 Ontario Ltd., is in the process of selling the land to an undisclosed company which is building the hotel. Phelps says he doesn't know the owners, but the company has built what is now a Quality Inn in Toron- to, owns the Northampton Inn in Mississauga and is now building a hotel in Oakville. The original design of the hotel for Whitby, made public in March of 1986, showed the hotel with six floors, 112 rooms and an indoor swimming pool. The new design, approved by Whitby council Monday night, shows the hotel with two floors and a basement, 89 rooms and a restaurant. The height reduction, according to Phelps, is due to restrictions in the area. "The purchasers would have had to go through an amendment to the zoning bylaw and that would have caused delays. So they have just decided to go ahead with the two- story," says Phelps, who is acting as a go-between between the pu'- chasers and the numbered com- pany. While unable to estimate the cost of the hotel, Phelps says it will be "in the millions" when it is finished. He says construction is to begin in early spring of 1988 and should take a year to complete. During hotel construction, the SEEPAGE3 Brock development options considered Ai 4 s By MIKE JOHNSTON Four alternatives for the future development of Brock St. S. were presented to about 40 people who attended an administrative com- mittee meeting last Wednesday night. The alternatives are included in the second phase of a study looking at planning policies for the Brock corridor. The study area is bounded by On- tario St. to the north, 401 to the south, Byron St. to the west and Green St. to the east. (While properties on Byron and Green are not bound by any decision that may be made on the type of development allowed, they are included indirectly because whatever type of development is allowed on Brock St. S. will have some effect on Byron and Green.) The four alternatives presented by the planning department are existing zoning, residential conver- sion, commercial conversion and redevelopment. Existing zoning would maintain the R2 and R3 zoning that now makes up the.majority of Brock St. S. R2 zoning permits single family dwellings while R3 permits duplexes and seni-detached houses. But according to the planning department, duplexes and semis would be difficult to build without complète redevelopment. "Such redevelopment would not be economically viable in most cases," noted the department. Residential conversion would permit the conversion of single family dwelling units into two or three units either horizontally or vertically. The final alternative would be complete redevelopment of Brock St. S. for uses such as plazas, apar- tments or a mixture of the two. A prime location for that type of SEE PAGE 3 520 homes approved F.M. HEARD Gr. 2 French immersion students Ashley Barker and Lisa Coedy anxiously await their moment in "Un enfant au tambour" ("Little Drummer Boy"), part of the school's Christmas con- cert held last week at nearby Leslie McFarlane school. Free Press photo At t last meeting of Whiîtby council ior 1987 on Monday night, council approved four subdivisions for Town that will see 520 new homes being built and will generate an estimated population of 1,600 people. The largest of the four, is a sub- division at the southeast corner of Rossland Rd. and Garden St. by Peelcom Developments Ltd. The subdivision will include 42 single family detached homes, 89 block townshouse units, one block of medium density housing with a maximum of 34 units and one mixed-used block with the residen- tial component to have a maximum of 134 units. Council members expressed satisfaction over a subdivision ap- proved for the eastside of Garden St., north of Martinet. The names of the streets honor former winners of the Peter Perry award such as Schilling Court (after lawyer Nigel Schilling who won the award in 1986) and Drew Court (after Gerdy Drew, another former winner). . Proposed by Arch Construction Ltd. the subdivision will have 73 townhouses. Coscan Development Corp. has received approval for a subdivision SEE PAGE 4 Whitby torchbearers won' t be here As has been evident from profiles of Winter Olympics torchbearers in the Free Press in recent weeks, all but one of the several Whitby residents chosen will carry the tor- ch outside of Whitby in other com- munities. Only Norman Van Duyn will be carrying the torch in his hometown. He will take the torch at 6:53 p.m., Dec. 21 (day 35) and be the first to run in Whitby along Dundas St. He'll be followed by a succession of Toronto and area runners -Blaine Varner of Scarborough, then Christopher Wallace of Agin- court, Paul Williams of Toronto, Lori Williamson of Pickering, Paul Southwood of Scarborough and to finish, a Petro Canada standby runner, who will carry the last few metres in Whitby and head into Ajax along the Dundas St. (Hwy 2 route). Williamson, the Pickering run- ner, will carry the torch to the brief ceremony planned to begin at the Whitby public library at 7 p.m., Monday, Dec. 21. Williamson ac- tually won't arrive at the library until 7:36 p.m., according to a member of the organizing team, Elizabeth Voyer. But it is expected that before her arrival, medals will be presented to the many Whitby winners of the Celebration '88 program, the awar- ds for contributions to sport. And (Jungle) Jim Hunter, an Olympic medal winner in 1972 in Sapporo, Japan, will be master of ceremonies which will also include a performance by the Whitby Youth Concert Band, whose members will perform at the Winter Olympics in Calgary in 1988. Whitby's parks and recreation departnent is also providing miniature Canadian 'flags for residents who want to greet the tor- chbearers as they run through Whitby. The rec office at the municipal building and several stores in Whitby were offering the flags. Voyer says organizers of the cross-Canada run attempted to have runners carry the torch in their own communities but found it "impossible." However, she says, runners will be in the zones in which they wanted to run. She add that Petro Canada runners are used whenever there has been a "emisalculation." S FF:PAG E 3 .............................. 4~4~41~ ~ r - 44 t 4 ¶ 4 t t 4 4 44l~ $ ~ 4.4 ç.~ ~ t~ > 4 $ I * 1' t 4 4 + 4 4 4 4.4.1.4 - - J .~ 4 ~ ~ 4 . ~. . .4 4,. 4 4.* 444 444 f44444 ~ ~ ~ 4 ~,4,4 ~ ~ , * t - ~*>144$*~<,4A&6~. ~ 4 4 J lA t 4 4 4..h~..t t., ~ 4~Q >4:1 FRANK SEGUIN 1