WhtS ae rss pdesa.Npebr2,19e 23, p DOUG A on the issues: DERSO On Downtown Whitby: The downtown businesses voted twice by petition to drastically alter the BIA equation but council chose to ignore them. Council has to respect the wishes of these businesses and should immediately determine whether a BIA in any part of downtown is viable and then draft the necessary by-laws to make it happen. This process need take no more than a month or two and then the businesses can get back to business. The heritage of Downtown Whitby is its greatest asset and also, due to the age of the buildings, its greatest weakness. The municipality needs to develop policies which recognize these unique problems and opportunities of Downtown Whitby. 'q .¶~ On taxation: Council took great pride over the last two years in holding the line on taxes. At the same time we had 13% unemployment and real incomes were shrinking. Holding the line is not enough. Businesses have been cutting budgets by 20, 30, 40% and finding they can actually do more with a lot less. Governments are far too large. A 10% tax cut could be made without any visible reduction in services. With a thorough rationalization and review of what municipal governments do and why, cuts of 30% or more can be made. In some other municipalities, taxes are the dominant issue. Over the next year, some municipalities are going to drastically lower their taxes. They will reapa bonanza of new business investment as the economy grows. If Whitby doesn't alsocut taxes we will be left behind with negative impacts that will persist for decades. If you want lower taxes then governments have the obligation to make those cuts. The wild card is the extent to which senior governments will download tax burden onto the municipalities. On development: Believe it or not, developers are just as frustrated with the development process as you are. When they propose a development, they take their cues f rom the planning department. They spend tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of dollars on their plans before you, the general public, ever see them. If the cues were wrong, and they frequently are, then you, the public, dump all over it. The process of development has to change so that the most affected people, the immediate neighbourhood, are the first to be consulted and nothing should proceed without their input. That doesn't give the immediate neighbours the power of veto. The developer also has property rights and there is also the general public interest that must be considered. The development process has to be completely transparent to all participants and members of council have to be leaders in this process. On open government: Public information - ail of it - should be readily available to the public at their convenience. With the technologies available today, this can best be achieved by having ail agendas, planning applications, by- iaws etc available on-une via computer modem so that you can access them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For those without home computers, terminais should be placed in ail library branches and at Town hall. Hard copies of public documents should be available as easily as a photocopy. This technology wouvd also result in a significant cost saving to the Town. On heritage preservation: Our heritage atmosphere is one of the principal reasons why people move to Whitby rather than other communities. It gives Whitby a sense of permanence that other communities can only wish they had. Builders of new homes have found that heritage styles seil better than others. Yet we do very littie to ensure the preservation of Whitby's heritage buildings. Once they are gone, heritage buildings and artifacts can neyer be replaced. We need policies which ensure a thorough search for alternativesbefore any such structures are demolished. Since abuilder must file plans and meet a range of codes and policies before building as new structure, it is only logical that a similar process should precede the removal of existing ones. On tendering: Several local business have lost tenders to out-of-town business over insignificant differences in total dollars bid. In such cases there is a much greater loss to the local economy in the form of iost employment and taxes. It would not be difficuit to establish a monetary value of keeping a municipal contract in local hands. The tender which represents the best overall value to the community is the one that should be selected. On traffic in residential areas: Through traffic belongs on arterial roads, not in residential areas. Every effort should be made to slow traffic down in residential à reas and hence discourage through traffic from using these streets. I prefer stop signs. A four-way stop sign every few blocks will drive even the most seasoned road warrior out onto the main streets where he belongs. On commercial development: Anybody who buys a cheap piece of land has a right - provincial legislation says so - to apply to have it rezoned for commercial use which will make it worth more. The municipality is obliged by the same provincial laws to consider such applications; but judging by the number of strip plazas, Whitby Council is far too willing to comply. The fundamental purpose of zoning is to ensure orderly and predictable development and to preserve the stability of existing neighbourhoods. Businesses which locate in existing commercial areas have a right to expect that the competition will not be allowed to locate on cheap land a few blocks away. MUR Ivan effective councillor must have a firm grasp of all the issues-, the leadership to present mnovative solutions, yet a willingness to accept the judgement of the mu*lori»ty of Mis constituentsg, ibl pý