Brooklin residents, builder find middle ground Parvaneh Pessian ppessian@durhamregion.com BROOKLIN -- When residents of a quiet Brooklin neighbourhood heard that townhouses could be built in their area, they immediately started asking questions. Golden Falcon Homes Inc. recently submitted an application to the Town of Whitby's planning department for a zoning amendment to allow the construction of 41 townhouse units and two single detached dwellings on a parcel of land on Winchester Road East. During the 15-day notice period provided to residents before a public meeting was to be held to discuss the proposal, many residents began doing their own digging into the process. "We really felt that in order for us to make sure that our concerns and ideas that we had around the plan were heard, we had to get ourselves educated so that we could provide reasonable and informed feedback to the Town," says resident Ijade Maxwell Rodrigues, who studied the proposed plan, spoke to the developer and Town staff, passed out flyers and arranged a neighbourhood meeting. When the date of the Town's public meeting rolled around on Nov. 5, more than 50 residents from the neighbourhood showed up prepared to voice their concerns. Kim Savage, a resident of Iberville Road near the proposed development, said she was worried about increased traffic as her street will likely be the main access to the townhouse complex. "I would say that there are approximately 55 kids under 10 years old on my street alone and there are 45 houses on this street so alone, we have minimum 50 children that play regularly outside," she said. "I have concerns for their safety every day and this just adds to it." Others, such as Scott Bayliss, a resident of Underwood Drive, argued that the proposed development was disproportionate to the look and feel of the existing neighbourhood. "It feels like townhouses are going to be parachuted into a place that they don't belong," he said. With the number of unanswered questions piling up, councillors decided to defer any decisions on the report until the issues brought up by the residents were addressed by the developer. Sean Talaei, president of Golden Falcon Homes, invited residents of the neighbourhood to a community meeting to consider a revised version of the development plans. "I reduced the number of townhomes (by) 27 per cent, basically 41 townhomes has gone down to 30," he says. The number of single family homes in the new development has increased from two to nine to create a better transition from the old neighbourhood to the new neighbourhood. Other issues, including parking and future improvements to the neighbourhood park to accommodate the additional families, were also addressed. While many of the area residents expressed their appreciation for the revisions, they questioned why the developer hadn't hosted a meeting with them in the first place. Under the Planning Act, municipalities must host a public meeting when considering zoning bylaws or amendments but the builder is not required to hold any additional meetings with residents. Mr. Talaei says he chose to adjust his development plans after hearing the concerns of the community at the Town meeting because the intention was never to disturb the existing neighbourhood. "They have been living there over 10 years so of course they have a right to raise their voices and I told them, 'I hear you very clear and loud and that's why I'm doing those changes,'" he says. Ms. Maxwell Rodrigues says the numerous hours of discussion regarding the development have helped alleviate many of the residents' concerns but she believes the long-term goal should be improving the Town's planning process to allow for better public engagement from the outset. "If the intention is to have true engagement with the citizens of Whitby, then there needs to be the opportunity to at least be able to meaningfully reflect on the document," she says, adding that 15 days notice until the first public meeting and the format of that meeting, allowing deputations from residents but no direct dialogue with the developer, isn't enough to allow for adequate review and discussion of a development proposal. "I firmly believe that if none of us came to that public meeting ... the plan would have gone forward as is because we weren't there to shed some light on some concerns that we have." If the builder had been required to meet with the residents prior to submitting the application to the Town, Ms. Maxwell Rodrigues believes many of the residents might not have felt as blindsided by the proposal. "Thankfully, the builder has been very responsive to us but it hasn't been without a challenge and I'm not sure that every citizen would be willing to go through what we went through in order to get the information that we felt we needed in order to participate meaningfully." Reporter Parvaneh Pessian covers the town of Whitby for Metroland Media Group's Durham Region Division sabrina byrnes / Metroland WHITBY -- Brooklin residents Martin Carle, Ijade Maxwell Rodrigues and Tom McIlhone at the site of a new development in Brooklin.