WHITBY FREE PRESý, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1988, PAGE 7 PAGE SEVEN and aunts ail living under one roof. With urbanization and greater mobility, that traditional structure bas vanished. Today, grandparents living with their grown-up offspring, are a rarity. After all, they don't have to any more. Pensions have given most a financial independence their own parents only dreamt of. Our seniors live longer, they are healthier and more mobile, and numerous social facilities are designed for their sole use and pleasure. K0 THE tIE R ROAD The other reason seniors don't live with their children is URw STRFÇTI they don't particularly want to. With the rapid changes in our society in the last century, the lifestyles from one gener- ation to the next are eons apart. As parents grope with the future realities of their children's world, the last thing they NOISE want is grandparents carping about "when I was his age..." i - - But while independence may be desirable, there comes a time when the frailties of old age make it impossible. The dominant thinking of the last thirty years has been to build more seniors' and nursing homes, but as the baby boomers get older, the need for new ways to accomodate an aging population will become increasingly important. Seniors' homes were never a favoured solution by any generation. To seniors, they are regarded as the end of their independence, the beginning of the end. To their children, they are a failure to cope with the needs of those that loved and nurtured them. Although efforts have been made to change the image to one of luxury and activity, the stigma remains and probably always will. One of the most promising ideas for coping with the problems of the elderly is the so-called granny flat. Although new as a concept to modern urban planners, the idea is really as old as the family farm. Most old farms have two houses on them, one for grandparents and one for the younger generation - far enough apart to stay out of each others hair but close enough that when the need arises, help is available. The idea has worked well for generations but in an increasingly urban world, can the same thing be done on a relatively tiny city housing lot? The Ontario Ministry of Housing imported the idea of granny flats from Australia about five years ago and since then has been encouraging pilot projects. A proposed granny flat in an affluent section of Waterloo a few years ago raised a lot of local ire and was an issue in the last election but I have never heard whether it was ever built. It is against this backdrop that a proposal was recently presented to Whitby Council to build such a flat in the east end of Town. Put simply, a granny flat is a separate self-contained but adjacent dwelling unit built specifically for the temporary use of an elderly relative and designed to be removed when no longer necessary. In Australia the flats are planned right into new subdivisions with foundations and servicing roughed in at the time of construction. The flats themselves are mobile and are rented as required - when no longer needed they are moved to a new site. The problem is that our planning by-laws have no place for such a thing - you can build a garage to bouse your car or - a shed for your garden tools or a greenhouse for your plants but you can't build a granny fiat for your parents - the zoning SME RE OPN' LNE ATR NBOKSRE doesn't allow it.ToooinstilsSaulTesoeeafatrfothmauatrofosebnks So the Buchanans (John is one of Whitby's public school i 90i nodarclua mlmn onr nBokSre br h er ul-I trustees) are applying for a rezoning to allow the construction soewsrcnl oae.Tefcoycoe bu 98adtebidn a eoihdi of the fiat in order to bouse Marie's parents.. At a public tesme f16.Ti itr hw ao-odo lnesrayt esipdt h meeting held by the administrative committee to allow public riwysain h lnesaewapdi ulp comments, they got an earful. AIl the usual fears aboutWhtyAciepoo property values and illegal apartments were trotted out. Did a granny fiat create a multiple dwelling in a single-family 1 ER G neighbourhood? Etc. etc.WHBYF EPR S The fears are not unreasonable. This community tends to *Wib n saaaepann apint trc nutildvlpet allow non-conforming uses through individual rezonings*ArunnoffrepuisothWibyM elcoowllehldaFoece.Had rather than defining the issues and developing new rules wbich accomodate in general terms both the needs of the *Sho fSp.6 applicant and the fears of the neighbourhood. If the Town *Mr hn200pol teddWib' is itroDa tIoui aka ato allos arezningto ermt th grnnyfia witoutdefningtheCouty Twn arnval it, then yes, the neighbours have a right to be concerned - the Buchanans could sell their house complete with its legal 25 YEMR AGO self-contained apartment, and yes, property values might from the Thursday, August 8, 1963 edition of the decine. WHITBY WEEKLY NEWS But if the Town defines a granny flat as a temporary self-contained dwelling unit which is for use solely by an This issue is missing. elderly or infirm relative and allows their construction as a general policy on appropriately sized lots anywhere in the 100 YEARS AGO community, they will have made a very positive step towards from the Friday, August 10, 1888 edition of tbe the long term care of our aging population and there should WHITBY CHRONICLE be little cause for concern by the neighbours. Brakemen on the Midland Railway from Whitby to Lindsay are on strike over promotions. To go a step further, Council might consider going the R.S. Cormack is selling wallpaper at 30 cents a roll. extra mile to encourage new subdivisions to incorporate A.A. Post, Ontario County Architect, advertises designs for churches, villas and cottages as servicing and access for granny flats. At little additional cost a specialty. the ability to add a granny flat sometime in the future might*Wbitbys basebali club will play any outside tean, and the competition.is stiff. provide an extra edge in a bot ream estate market.t --- -- ------