WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1988, PAGE 1 '87 REVIEW '87 REVIEW '87 REVIEW '87 REVIEW '87 REVIEW TRAFFIC, RECREATION, GRO WTH, PLAZAS, PARLORS... Councillors look back,look ahead While accepting council's 1987" decision to regulate strip parlors, east ward councillor Joe Drumm says he was nonetheless disappoin- ted. "I would like to have seen them out of the downtown but I have to accept the decision," says Drumm. He notes the completion of the Iroquois Park rec complex was good news for the town as was the beginning of a second complex. But he also says council made mistakes last year, regarding the new medical building and the change in bus routes. The medical building on Center St. S. and Dundas St. W. was com- pleted this year after council ap- proval at the last meeting of 1986. Drumm has continuously called it an "eyesore." He says the new bus routes are causing problems for passengers, especially seniors and council should have received more input before changing. "It is a confusing schedule," he says. Drumm also sees no slowdown in growth for at least the next two years. "Not with the GO coming in," he says. "I have tried twice to slow down development but council wan- ts development." Crossing guards became a significant issue for Drumm, more than for other councillors in 1987. New schools were built in the east ward which Drumm represents. "We are handling the problem well on Thickson Rd. but not on An- derson." He says even with the construction of traffic lights at An- derson and Manning, a crossing guard will be needed. For 1989, Drumm sees close votes by Whitby council since the Provin- ce gave approval to a third regional councillor for both Whitby and Ajax in 1987. Starting in the fall of 1988, eight members will now sit on Whitby council: mayor, three regional councillors and four ward coun- cillors. "I would prefer an odd-numbered council," he says, adding that he would like to see a review of the four wards in time for the 1991 elec- tion. "After 1988, we will have to slim it down a bit. I have 16,000 in my ward compared to some wards that have 12 or 14,000." Councillor Joe Bugelli would also like to see a review of the wards af- ter 1988. His personal preference was to have three ward councillors and three regional councillors. But on the positive side, he notes the ad- ditional regional councillor will give Whitby more representation on Region committees. "1987 was a pretty good year. We have record growth and the culmination of the two years of work on Iroquois Park," says Bugelli. Bugelli, like Drumm, admits he is not totally satisfied with the out- come of the strip parlor issue. But he notes council has "controlled" if. "If is not dead yet, if is an ongoing issue. I want continuous monitoring of them and maybe we can make them as unattractable as possible so if will b a business decision fo chose down," he says. As for growth in Town, Bugelli notes that administrative commit- tee and planning department did a "tremendous amount" of work on applications. "In the final analysis, only time will tell if we made the right decisions," says Bugelli, adding he is looking forwvard fo the opening of any hotel in town. ·"We accomplished a great deal. i look back on the year with satisfac- tion," says regional councillor Tom Edwards. "From a service point of view we haven't lost ground," he says, noting the Town spent $500,000 more than anticipated to repair deficiencies in storm and sewage systems in the southend of town. "We will have to make that up in the 1988 budget," he adds. Edwards was in favor of removing the strip parlors from the downtown core but he says he now has to live with the "majority of council." Edwards also trumpeted Whit- by's efforts to retain the site of the regional headquarters. "That is not only a benefit to Whitby, but also to Ajax and Pickering," says Edwards. As newly appointed chairman of Town recreation, he notes. the Town has not kept up with the demand for recreational facilities. "We are working on that. Generally speaking, a town provides roads and such. As the chairman of recreation we are going to bring facilities up to scrat- ch," says Edwards who believes there will be no slowdown in growth in Whitby for the next five years. "At some point we will be com- pelled to become a city. It could be within a few years but it has to be done properly. It has to be properly financed and cities have to have sufficient pools, diamonds, that sort of thing," Edwards sees a new regional councillor as a benefit to Whitby. "This won't be our last one," he says. "It was a good and busy year in Whitby," comments councillor Marcel Brunelle. Brunelle says the Town is taking the proper direction with studies on both the downtown section of Whit- by and the Brock St. S. corridor. "Port Whitby is also looking good and we finally opened Iroquois Park although it is not what everyone wanted to see at it,"-says Brunelle. Brunelle also believes the strip parlor bylaw will surface again in 1988, after more Supreme Crout rulings are handed down. 'It probably will be an election issue. We haven't seen the last chapter of that yet," he says. Brunelle says the Town is playing "catch-up" with growth. "If we have to pay as we go, we will always be playing catch-up. But sooner or later it has to stop and then we will be able to provide all the roads and recreation needs. The important thing is to plan them properly," says Brunelle, adding there is no way the Town can say no to development if the services are available. And as a direct result of the growth, Brunellé says Whitby is going to require affordable housing. "That has to be planned into a community," he says. It was a very quiet year...at least compared to 1986. So says north ward councillor Ross Batten. But Batten says he was pleased with several accomplishmnents made by Whitby council during the last 12 months, particularly the master plan for t.he development of Brooklin Memorial Park, the com- pletion of the Iroquois Park recreational complex and putting in place the plans for the new recreational complex in the Rossland Road area. During the past year several ap- plications were made by developers to construct various size hotels in Whitby. Batten feels most took the Town's consultant report on the need for a hotel in the Whitby area and "jumped on the ban- dwagon." He said he would be hap- py with one good hotel, preferably on the 401 at either Thickson or Brock, but doubted the need for four or five. "I think it's just a matter of which developer gets their act together first," he offers. He indicates all on council were excited with the growth and development of the harborarea and Port Whitby. . "It's a terrific situation, par- ticularly now the federal gover- nment has agreed to come up with some funding," says Batten. "I think it has the potential to become a prime area within the Town." One thing that did not please Bat- ten was the number of strip plazas popping up in Whitby. "Unfortunately it's a way of life today," he said, adding, "not to say it's okay, but the official plan drawn up in 1974 allowed for it because the areas were zoned commercial. You can't say to developers now...sorry we were just kidding." Batten went on to say small. plazas, such as the one in the sub- division area of Rossland and An- derson, have their place to service the community. But he feels there are too many strip plazas on Dun- das St. And he is adamantly against any shopping plaza in Brooklin. With reference to the proposed sign bylaw to come before council early this year, Batten says it was a situation that needed to be cleaned up for a long time. "We've been working on this for a long time and will implement bylaw regarding signs during the first part of '88," says Batten. He also feels the licensing of strip parlors had been necessary and would prove to be effective. "That situation was something that had to be dealt) with and I think we did deal with it respon- sibly....it couldn't have gone any other route or everyone would have jumped on the bandwagon and the Town would have been deluged No slowdown in growth... FROM PAGE 10 tra cost, to the dismay of the board. Brick was also favored over steel in a proposed location for a Brick Warehouse in Whitby. There has since been no activity at that location on Thickson Rd., just north of Dundas St. A new 18-hole golf course east of Lakeridge Rd. (Durham Rd. 23) was announced for Whitby as was an indoor soccer stadium off Sunray St. Debate continued on the down- town secondary plan (with another study on the Brock St. corridor as a derivative). A six-story maximum was imposed on buildings down- town, with exceptions for major developments, and one-way streets were rejected for the immediate future. Another large plaza was ap- proved for east Whitby north of Dundas just east of Garrard Rd. Renovations were completed on the , former Firestone plant by Eastglen Properties and three fir- ms moved in to occupy 90,000 sq. ft. of the million sq. ft. of space available. Other industrial units at- tracted firms, including a manufacturer of mango juice. The mayor's view of'87 FROM PAGE 1 says, adding that the Town will be watching the traffic flow closely. He also noted the issue of crossing guards rose to the fore in 1987. "We can't dictate to the school boards where a school should be located but we can work with them for the best location." He says planning staff will be taking closer looks at school locations from a planning standpoint. As for 1988, Attersley says Whit- by will have to address the issue of mobile signs and Sunday shopping. He preferred to wqit until he sees the bylaw on mobile signs before commenting on the matter. But he calls the provincial decision to let municipalities govern Sunday shopping "asinine". "They (the Province) should give everything back to the municipalities for a decision if they are going to do this. It is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of." Residents of Whitby's mobile home park are still awaiting a decision concerning their residen- ces after a proposed relocation was turned over to Town planners who will discuss a new course of action with the owner. Two new parking lots appeared in the downtown -one by the Town and the other by doctors at the new medical clinic off Dundas St: W. The bowling alley and an old home were demolished to make way for the latter lot. with strip joints." Batten is pleased that the Town and Board of Education are men- ding their relationship. "I think both sides have taken the bull by the horns and are working towards a good relationship," says Batten, adding several items such as joint use of schools had already been worked out. But he feels the matter of crossing guards was something that was not going to be worked out easily. "I made a motion a month ago to have a good look at pedestrian traf- fic when looking at plans of sub- division," he says. "You have to take care of pedestrians, particularly children, but to put a :rossing guard at every intersec- tion isn't the answer. Batten says the Town was having difficulty getting crossing guards and that hiring more would be an expensive matter. He says the situation could only worsen, par- ticularly with the rapid growth Whitby was having and felt this growth would not taper off until at least1990. What priorities will Whitby have to face in 1988? Batten thinks the number one will be supplying ren- tal housing. He also feels keeping up with existing services and main- taining them is of prime concern. "Sewers, drainage, roads, have all been taxed because of our rapid growth. We have to pump in more money and get the province to assist more through additional fun- ding." "The only problem with all this will be we will have a hard time keeping taxes down," says Batten. "That will be major responsibility this year." Furlong wins in new riding Liberal Allan Furlong became the first member of the new provin- cial riding of Durham Centre as he easily, like many in his party across Ontario, defeated his op- ponents in the September election. With 12,885 votes to outdistance the NDP's Sarah Kelly and the PC's Stephanie Kelly, Furlong, an Oshawa lawyer, became the first Liberal to be elected from Durham Region in 50 years. ALLAN FURLONG after winning the Durham Centre Liberal nomination in March.