Friday, February 23, 2024 9Brooklin Town Crier Residents in the area of Winchester Road and Duke Streets have initiated a change.org petition urging council to halt a development project at that corner. According to the petition, the Weston Consulting Group is planning a five-storey, 99-residential unit building plus commercial space and parking. Currently the land is occupied by Precision Auto as well as Brooklin Floral and Garden Shoppe. Over 600 have so far signed it with the petition's author, Karen Clarke, asking them to let town councillors know of their opposition to the project. The petition includes this statement: "The current plot of land is zoned C2S-BP (Special Purpose Commercial Zone), which states that Residential Uses are Prohibited." However, the statement is not accurate with respect to zoning as per the Brooklin Secondary Plan. The BTC contacted both North Ward Councillor Steve Lee and Regional Councillor Rhonda Mulcahy for comments about the petition and zoning. Here are their responses (unedited): From Councillor Mulcahy: You are correct. The zoning within this petition is the previous Official Plan zoning. Any application coming forward will have to confirm to OPA 108 (The Brooklin Secondary Plan) as that is the new zoning in our Official Plan. The Official Plan is a document that is determined by the Town and Region but is directed in density by the Province. OPA 108 was approved in 2017 after a lengthy public process. The application you are referring to has not been presented yet to Whitby Council and until then Councillors will be listening to community feedback but reserving comment until it is officially presented. When it will be presented is up to the applicant and when Town staff can fit it into the agenda. From Councillor Lee: There has been no formal public meeting on this as well it hasn't come to council or committee. At this time, I would not be able to make a comment on it until such time as it does come to council. I hope you understand. I will be following and if such time as this comes forward then I would be able to speak to it. The petition can be found at: https:// www.change.org/p/halt-the-over- development-of-114-winchester- road-east-and-7-duke-street-in- whitby Petition Urges Halt to Winchester/Duke Project In today's world of on-line petitions it is noteworthy that the Town of Whitby has a procedure to validate every signature on a petition. The following is taken from the procedure by-laws at whitby.ca: Petition means a document requesting Council's consideration of a matter to which multiple individuals have signed or otherwise agreed with as petitioners and presented in a form and according to the process outlined in this By-law; Petitions intended to be presented to the Council shall: a) Be filed with the Clerk and be regarding a subject or requesting an action that is within Council's authority. b) Have the text listed at thetop of each pagefor multiple-page petitions. Pages should be numbered and total number of pages indicated. c) Be appropriate and respectful intone,and must not contain any improper or offensive language or information. d) Identify the petitionorganizer and provide the organizer's full name, full address, and phone number. e) If a paper petition,the petition should be legible and printed in ink, and include the signature, printed full name, and full address of each petitioner. f) If an electronic petition, include the full name, full address, and a valid e-mail address of each petitioner. g) Petitioners acknowledge that petitions addressed to the Town of Whitby and/or Council are considered a public document, may be posted on a publically available agenda, and that the information contained in the petition may be subject to the scrutiny of the Town and members of the general public. h) A petition that adheres to some but not all of the above requirements may be distributed to Council at the discretion of the Clerk. If the Clerk refuses to accept the petition for not meeting the above criteria, the Clerk shall notify the petition organizer and advise Members of Council that the petition has been refused. Petitions or correspondence relating to a matter on the Council or Committee agenda shall be delivered to the Clerk not later than Wednesday noon before the Meeting. The Clerk shall distribute the petition or correspondence received to the Council or Committee Members prior to the Meeting to which the correspondence pertains. How to file a petition with the Town of Whitby