Gordon Prentice at Large - Politics in Newmarket
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
Ring! Ring!
Ring! Ring!
I pick up the phone to hear my MP, Lois Brown, on the other end of the line.
It is Saturday morning around 9.30am and I am mightily impressed that Lois is calling to talk about Slessor Square.
Earlier in the week I am in touch with her office to be told she doesn’t comment on matters that fall within the jurisdiction of the Town.
Fair enough.
If she restricts all her public pronouncements to matters that fall within her Federal bailiwick then I can’t complain.
On the other hand she lives here and pays taxes here. Surely, I say, she must have a view on the biggest development Newmarket has ever seen.
Lois concedes she doesn’t want Newmarket to look like downtown Toronto.
The real villain of the piece is, apparently, the Places to Grow Act which she describes as
the McGuinty Plan to move people out of the Toronto area.
Hmmm.
Lois moves the conversation on to Glenway.
She explains that, back in the 1980s, there was a contract with the Town safeguarding the golf course for 25 years. Now, alas, time’s up.
Oh dear!
It’s all about a fusty old contract!
Her colleague, Frank Klees, doesn’t mention this. (see blog below)
Predictably, he blames the Places to Grow Act.
Par for the course, I’d say.
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- Written by: gordon prentice
Just received this from Newmarket's senior planner, Marion Plaunt, who is responsible for the Slessor file.
Given the limited space at the venue for Monday evening at the Community Centre and the anticipated interest from the community, I am providing the following Update to advise that Dwight Slessor Holding’s Limited is proposing a reduction in height and that other opportunities will be provided for the residents to review and provide feedback on the revised plans.
Please feel free to share the following information with your group.
Please be advised that in response to community feedback, Dwight Slessor Holdings Ltd. has revised their proposal to reduce the height of their Yonge Street development to a maximum of 16 stories. The developer is currently in the process of finalizing the details of the proposal.
There will be numerous opportunities to review the details of the plan, including:
· The revised plan and accompanying presentation will be available on the Town of Newmarket website at www.newmarket.ca early next week
· A community engagement meeting on Monday evening
· Additional meetings for public review and input will be scheduled.
As always, we need to see the small print.
But this is an encouraging sign of movement.
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- Written by: gordon prentice
The “Community Engagement” meeting on Slessor Square will take place at 7-9pm on Monday 23 April 2012 in Halls 3 and 4 at the Community Centre, Doug Duncan Drive, Newmarket.
Marion Plaunt, the Town’s senior planner in charge of the Slessor file, tells me the developer will be reporting back “on all the questions and issues” including the question of height and the viewshed work.
I am told the Town will not be live streaming the event nor doing a YouTube of the presentation and Q&A afterwards – as we had requested - because of “privacy issues”.
Pity. This is a great opportunity to reach out to the wider public who, for one reason or another, may not be able to get along to the meeting on Monday.
Time to state the obvious.
It is important to get as many people along to the meeting as possible. Numbers matter.
Councillors and, indeed, Town hall staff, count heads.
If half a dozen people turn up, the developers will breathe a huge sigh of relief.
We've got to keep focussed on the issues the developers don't want to talk about.
Generally speaking, they prefer to deal with small manageable groups of people. It makes the process of getting planning approval much less fraught than it otherwise might be.
If the viewshed work becomes available before the meeting (fat chance!) I shall post it here on ShrinkSlessor.