Wednesday, November 15. 1996, P5 VMtityFreé Prosessa, ' ae 1,19 . ge5 Town to respond to miarsh grouip charges By Mike Kowald Accusations of Town policy being ignored over the Lynde Shores* housing project wili b. addressed by Whitby's planning department. Town council'a planning and development committee ha. ordered staff to respand ta charges made by the Save Lynde Marsh (SLMW, citizens' group in connection with Iast monthis removal of several trees next ta, the mareli. SLM dlaims, that most of the trees on the. Town-owned Jeffrey Street road allowance could have been saved, especially if council had more than one-day's notice of the. developers plans. Although not scheduled to m. a formai presentation at iast week's meeting, SLM members were allowed ta, address the. committe. only upon compietion of the. regular proceedings. tChair Marcel Brunelle agreed with councillor Don Mitchell that the. committee would be making a mistake -if it heard from a. delegation on a subject not up for "officiai" discussion. "Frankly, Id prefer adjourning the. meeting.and tiien listening ta what you have ta, say," Mitchell told SLM representative Tom Moore. "I'm concerned about s.ttixag a precedent witii an oPen deputation. There are people in town wiio would like ta do this witii otiier issues," h. said. "W. get a number of requests from people who, say Tv. got sometbing on my mind and would like ta, spea', but tiiere is a process to go through." Brunelie concurred and adjourned the. meeting, but only after assuring Moore that they would stay and listen and that a report would be prepared for next Monday's meeting. In bis pre sentation, Moore touciied on three matters stemming from the. Rose Corporation's decision ta begin prehiminaiy workon the site of its 545-unit subdivision adjacent to, the. marsii. Moore critieized the manner in which permission was mïven to the company ta remove the. trees and compiained that no ievei of goverrnment is overseeing activifies on the. Rose lands. He also wondered why no action was taken on the. Centrai Lake Ontario Conservation Authority's (CLOCA)' request for an indeedent appraisal of the 1991 con0utant's report which served as'the basis for an enviroumentai management plan of the tiien joint pubiic-private sector proposai. According ta, Moore, "mature trees that appeared healtiiy and were probably older than any resident in the town, were cut, down witiiout'any consideration for preservation." Approxtimateiy 81 trees were "inventaried" - * 43 along the Jeffrey Street road allowanc. -, and the. majority on Jeffr.y were removed, he said. Moore rejected the argument that the. trees would have interfered witi tiie installation of services near the road allowance. WUtimateiy the Town will b. planting new trees aiong tiie boulevard, so wiiy take alltthe existing ones down?" h. asked. Moore said it is "disconcerting" that couneillors were only notified one day before work comomenced on the. Oct. 21-22 weekend and that the. committe. responsibie for monitoring the open space area- Bus route 7 to end Dial-A-Ride Isoon undeirway Begimning Dec. 4, town residents will b. able ta take a DiaI-A-Ride tai for the. cost of a transit lare, if th.y want to, go ta the. industrial area south af igiway 401. The current route 7 service, whlch runs an hour and a haif Iu the morning and lu the aft.rnoon, will b. discontinued. Tii. route runs soutii on Brock Street eat an I ,Water Street north on Blair Street According ta, a repart pres.nted ta operations comniitte, last w..k, the cost savings ta the Town wiii be $18,115 peryear. The service wili allow ridera ta use a cab ta get ta any site in an expanded industrial area south of the. 401 from Brock Street ta Thickson Road. Ridera will go ta the GO station area by regular buses, sud then transfer ta a cab for a trip down ta the. industrial area. Whitby Transit wiil pay the cost ta Pilgrixn Trarisportation Ltd. at a 25 cent discount below their regular rates. Dial-A-Ride will mun for a six- nxonth trial period and then the Town wIlI decide whether or not ta continue the service. between the. marsii and Rose property did not know at ail. "If tiiese two groupsaiiad been notified, would tiiere have beena different scenario?" ho wondered. "W. know tiiere would have been somne effort ta save trees if people had been advised." Moore feit planni2ng staff siiould have "gone ta greater efforts" to save the trees, beyond 45 emaller trees and busiies that were reiocated. This was more than wiiat the consultants (Bird and Haie) iiad recom.mended, Moore noted, but not enough. "I do't believe tiiey made a good recommendation ini this situation. In fact, it was a disastrous on.," he said. "Wiiy weren't tiiese issues brought ta the attention of the. planning and deveiopment committe. and council?" Moore said the Rose Corp.'s contractor informed him that work was haited for three days on a similar project h. was invoived with ini Oakviiie, but Moore did not know the outeome of tiiat situation. Brunelle sad most of Moore's questions deait witii how staff operate and tiiat he would prefer ta see their response in writing. "In tiie past, we left it to the. planning department in conjunction with public works and tiie parks department ta decide what was a proper tree preservation plan and -that hasn't worked out too bad," said Brupelle. "In this case the. 0MB (Ontario Municipal Board) is invoived and there is a perception tiiat these trees were knocked down without any consideration." (Earlier this year tiie 0MB approved ail three parts of the Lynde Shores deveiopment, but la id down severai conditions before work could commence.) After being promised that the' staff report will outline the. Town's raie ini the matter, Moore raised the. issue of CLOCA99 demand for a "peer review" of the Bird and Haie report. "A copy of that went to the. Whitby planning department. Why didn't it. come befor, the committee?" h. asked. Mitchell repiied that council rejected a similar request from Brunelle long before CLOCA deait with the issue iast spring. Planning director Bob Short also pointed out tint CLOCA's decision was not binding on any otiier level of government. "They (CLOCA) could have carried it to tiie board...it was not carried forward," said Short. Foilowing the meeting, Moore expressed appreciation for the "tcourtesy" given ta SLM by the committee. "At ieast tiiey listened to us. That's a step in the right SAVIE$200.OO0 fromOctobr 2 sto sovabr18,199 THEIgen cyU30 This beautiful Regency Gas Firepace is available in your choice of bayfront of -Flush faceplate styling. Delivering:30,000 ... BTU of incredible heat, your Regency can keep your famity warm ... even The Regency U30 Bay drn oerotgs Cl oy for The Regency U30 Flush great savings on Regency. i- 800 - 563 - 6032 686-3666 PORT PERRY AJAX direction," he said. It will be interesting ta see wiiat tiiey (staff) havé ta say. W. want council and committee to make decisions, not the department."t