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ENEWS TRAFFIC AND GREEN SPACE AMONG RESIDENTS’ CONCERNS Continued from page 3 im (Ward 2), Dave Gittings (Ward 38), Peter Longo (Ward 4), Grant (Ward 5), Natalia Lishchyna (Ward 6) and Scott Xie (Ward 7). Carolyn McMinn of the Trafal- gar Chartwell Residents' Associa- tion said her group is concerned about the development of the Mid- town Oakville gro frankly, none of the residents we've spoken to sofar are in favour of building heights of 255 metres." The town is working to guide development i in Midtown. to allow CO] iting more than13, ster residents ar and 7,000 jobs. in the c The ‘height ha Sor Midtown has previously been stated to be 255 metres, which could give area some of the tallest buildings in Oakville. McMinn also voiced concerns about transit and traffic. She pointed to two large condo towers recently approved at the northeast corner of the Trafalgar and Cornwall roads intersection. ese towel ill have a com- bined total of 317 rodent units parking s] "T guess the idea i is that most of the people who live there will use See full election results at insidehalton.com. the GO train to commute down- town, but what if that's not the case? Whatif they need to gonorth to Milton or west to Hamilton or somewhere else that's actually not directly serviced by the GO train," said McMinn. "When people don't have cars, or there is no allowance for cars, you are going to have to have transit to move people around." Also, ifhundreds or thousands more people are brought to an ar- Chartwell Residents' Association i is among those concerned about ea through i traffic they bring bint) have to be managed, McMinn sai David Bird of the, Chartwell Maple Grove Residents' Associa- tion echoed McMinn's concerns about traffic congestion and how Midtown will develop. le said he wants council to continue to listen to the voices of residents when it comes to devel- opment planning and other im- portant issues. “We nope that Spirit of: ame ity will continue dents’ associations s because there Bird says his group wants to see council tackle in this new term. Keeping local tax rates at a rea- sonable level and paving the way for affordable housing are other priorities Bird listed. Pamela Knight of the Coro} tion Park Residents’ “Association said her group is concerned about improvements planned for the stretch of Lakeshore Road be- tween Mississaga Street and Dor- val Drive, which could result in signific icant tre ¢ loss. ‘wor- feeling that we have a voice is really important to us," said Bird. Preserving green space and lo- cal farmlands, moving forward with green initiatives, like electri- fying Oakville Transit buses, and climate change are other thing: ry. "I think we are very fortunat tol live where we do and we havent really hat rrible tragedies in terms of ‘weather events, but that doesn' mean we aren't going to face one," said Knight. She said the town move faster and do more when it somes to combating Oakvillegreen Conservation Association president Karen said visible, impactful ac- finns to address climate cl must genuinely be at the heart of every Gocision count also said parks and natural spaces are vital to a healthy com- munity and called on council to ensure hey are made a priority within urban planning goals. Oakvillegreen is also for investment in incentives for tree planting on private property, where Brock said 60 per cent of plantable spaces exist in Oakville. She noted urban trees and veg- etation are key to mitigating stormwater runoff, atmospheric cooling, providing ide and UV protection, pollution absorption, reducing energy v use, and increas- ing pro, mons essential infrastruc- ture projects moving forward was another hot button issue during the election. uring a council meeting on Oct. 11 town staff pointed out that while the Burloak Drive under- pass project is moving along with construction scheduled to begin in April 2023, a similar underpass. project on Kerr Street currently has no start date and appears to have fallen off the province's ra- dar. "| think uncontrolled growth brings all these issues.” ~ Anu Malhi Z saqo10 ‘Aepsiny | sene—aB eMC | 1Z Anu Malhi of the North Oak- ville Ward 7 Residents' Associa- y to be done in her ward. She argued Ward 7 has been ex- periencing development at a pace that is “out of control” and noted. the infrastructure is not keeping up with this pace. The result, she said, is over- crowding at local public schools and traffic congestion. Rising crime is another con- cern Malhi brought up. During a recent meeting of the police board, Halton Police Chief Stephen Tanner reported a 30.5 per cent increase in Halton's crime rate during the first six months of 2022. le also pointed out this in- crease follows a two-year lull in criminal activity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The chief aid _foncede some crimes are on ths In the last month, there have been a total of 89 vehicle thefts re- ported in Oakville. The last six months have seen a total of 280 vehicle thefts reported in Oakville, according to the Hal- ton police online crime mapping feature. "I think uncontrolled growth brings all these issues," said Malhi. STORY BEHIND THE STORY: A new term of council is begin- ning and we wanted to hear from Oakville residents’ associations about some of the issues they want to see council tackle. 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