WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1988, PAGE 7 PAGÉ SEVEN HEOTHERSIDE' the VENCEL W r IDAWO By Doug Anderson* GROWING PAINS Most of the big local stories of 1987 related in one way or another to growth. Whitby is part of one of the fastest growing urban areas of Canada and growth creates problems'along with the benefits. The extent of the rebirth of downtown Whitby over the past couple of years was made possible by the growth in the rest of the community. In the last year we have seen the completion of Pearson Lanes which provides a superb example of what can be achieved with buildings which would otherwise have been demolished. On the other hand only a block away, a much older and more significant building, the only one left in Whitby with a direct link to its founder, Peter Perry, was demolished to make room for a parking lot for the new medical building across from All Saints Church. The destruction of historic buildings is one of the sadder results of growth. Growth is a two-edged sword. There are good developments and there are bad ones. Local governments are supposed to oversee the process and weed the bad ones out with appropriates... zoning regulations, but zoning bylaws are only as strong as the will of the politicians who create them. Whitby's have been pretty weak. An effort was made back in the early seventies to_ strengthen the plan for the downtown area but the political will was even weaker then than it is now and some of the uglier new buildings downtown can be blamed on that indecision. 1987 saw the secondary planning process get underway again. A consensus has developed that the wide open "growth is good" policies of the past need to be tempered with quality and scale that is appropriate for the old areas of Town. With strong public input, the secondary planning process has gone reasonably well. The commercial area around Thickson and Dundas has seen ï. the completion of a major extension on the Whitby (Woolco) Mall and extensions or new malls are underway on the other three corners of that intersection as well. This area and the downtown have developed into Whitby's two major shopping districts, each large enough to sustain a concentrated clientele yet sufficiently different that they complement rather than conflict with each other. Both are capable of competing successfully with such major plazas as the Oshawa Centre and Pickering Town Centre provided their strength is not -sapped by a plethora of small piecemeal commercial plazas. Two such proposals caused considerable controversy in '87. The first involved a proposal to build a small. plaza on Brock St. just south of the downtown limits. Within downtown the proposal would have received praise but, as it was, opposition developed on several fronts. The downtown BIA opposed it as a needless expansion of the downtown which should not take place as long as there were empty and underutilized buildings and properties available. It was opposed by the planning dept. as not being an appropriate use for' the site. It was opposed by its residential neighbours who didn't want the commercial incursion. And it was opposed by preservationists like myself who feel that the two mid-19th century homes (one in superb condition) on the property could be preserved as part of a unique arid highly attractive development. Indeed the proposal WIB EIRHCE EM 859 seemed to have very little support except for that of some of ourTeWitySnoHokyeaneftefrsinteowonlga sadlstny politicians and is still alive today only because of the exceptional trei h 859 esn ntebc o r:CalsSih hre twrRbr zealousness of Councillor Bugelli.Brel n oetSeat iderw hre atod ..WreAsnG The other -commercial proposai which caused strongHedro.FotrwPalGroGogBrissacaqttWhbyrhisPot opposition in the later stages was a plaza proposed for the south side of Dundas west of Annes. Once again opposition came from 1 ER G the planning departments of both the Town and the Region and fo h ensaJnay6 98eiino h from Whitby's BIA. Once again the only visible support cameWHTYFE PR S from the politicians.*Rgoa oni et oa ostl isuewt h ono htyoe wesi But not aIl the, controversy surrounded commercial o h ae itainpat developments. Housing experienced its own set of growth pains.*Wowresaeo tik tWib otWrs There were of course the complaints experienced by ail housing *Cntuto fteBokSre P vraswl ei nMy developers in boom periods - Squareyi horormonouipwninabilityuebto maintain building schedules and delays, excuses, and more delays. Grand Oak Homes got itself into such hot water that 2 ER G they let another developer finish their subdivision. On another front, Durham Non-Profit Housing got itself.frmtehusaaury3193eionote enmeshed in a couple of controversies. The first involved a*WhtyPlcDeametrptsnacinsadnorukrvrsrcmonrns proposal to build low rentai, low-density housing in Bluegrass cagdo e ersEe Meaow. Nigbors am upwih vaet o leal* Pan ae udewavtereonsrut hicso Rod TeteEnHihwA s 01and7 sE arguments to back up their snobbery and in the end the major north-south traffic artery. development died on the drawing board. Unequal pay for employees of various town departments is under study. Nine different Residents of new homes on Wood Dr. (at the S end of employee groups are involved. Glenhill) were not so lucky. There, Durham Non-Profit Housing A citizens' group is seeking to save the old Court House on Centre Street South from is building an apartment building only a few feet beyond their demolition. backyards. Some of the residents apparently bought their homes on the understanding that their homes backed o'nto a Hydro 100 YEARS AGO corridor greenbelt. Imagine their surprise! How this apartment from the Fday, January 6, 1888 edition of the building got through the approval process is beyond WHITBY CHRONICLE understanding - a blatant example of bad planning. * Whitby has defeated Oshawa by 14 shots in the latest curling match. And so the year ended. Growth in '88 will be somewhat * Blacksmith Andrew Kerrs hall at Ashburn is a noted place for winter dances and slower than the frenetic pace of the last two years and, perhaps, sleighing parties. so•ne of the pressure will be replaced by sober planning. The recent municipal election was a contest between tempernce and prohibition. fi