During the ‘Petitions and Delegations’ portion of the meeting, Deputy Mayor Maycock chaired the 2 public meetings that were held during Council in regards to 2 new proposed developments in Orangeville. The gallery was quite full with a number of Orangeville residents concerned about these developments and this was a great opportunity for them to voice their concerns about them. The first public meeting was in regards to the Sarah Properties development – See pics below if you are unfamiliar with this development (also, more information is in the meeting agenda)
Screen Shot 2015-05-26 at 7.48.04 PM Screen Shot 2015-05-26 at 7.48.49 PM – Done & Done
Residents are outraged by this proposed development (and I can’t say that I blame them!!!) The proposed development is to add 93 Townhomes of which the majority will be on a “private” road (which is quite common for these developments). The private road means that the Condo Corporation would be responsible for things like road maintenance, snow removal etc. Residents in this area brought up various concerns ranging from parking, to congestion, to snow removal. The proposed site plan currently has only “half a dozen visitor parking spaces” according to the gentleman representing the developers. This is a huge issue to the residents of Laverty Cres and Fitzgerald St. who are concerned about the overflow of parking for the development which will, without a doubt, be using their streets. Most of the residents who spoke compared adding townhouses like this to living in Brampton or Mississauga, and most of them have moved away from the city for this reason. Mark Middleton, one of the concerned citizens, searched high and low in the GTA to find a nice quiet community and is moving to Orangeville in 3 weeks from Mississauga “Orangeville should be proud of the quality of life that they have here. So I would definitely ask council to reconsider this proposal altogether.”
The second public meeting was in regards to zoning for the development of 106 Townhomes at Spencer Ave and Riddell Road. 106 more Townhouses?!?!?! WOW….in that little spot?!?! There were no residents who came out to speak about this development.
Screen Shot 2015-05-26 at 7.57.41 PM Screen Shot 2015-05-26 at 7.58.40 PM – Sadly lost to time.
So, the two public meetings resulted in staff taking all concerns and feedback into consideration and they will come back to council with more information after speaking to the developers about potential solutions to these issues.
What do you think about all these new Townhouse developments? I understand the developers reasoning for wanting to build them…money talks! However, in my humble opinion I would rather see this land used for single family homes…not more cookie-cutter homes. I agree with Mr. Middleton when he said that preserving the quality of life in Orangeville is important.
Canada’s 150th Community Infrastructure Program
There is a ‘grant’ opportunity that has come up from the federal government in celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday. Basically this program allows municipalities to apply for a ‘grant’ of up to $1 Million to help fund up to 50% a project. The project could be a variety of things such as roads projects or upgrades to an existing facility. Councillor Kidd wants to see Tony Rose pool considered for the grant while Councillor Bradley would like to see Rink B at Tony Rose Arena potentially turned in to an Arts & Culture Centre. “I think we should spend some time and think about this”, said Deputy Mayor Maycock, “Maybe we need to have a special meeting that we deal just with this particular item and we have some suggestions from staff and from council so that we can come up with a significant project that would actually mean something to the community.”
**NOTICE of SPECIAL MEETING OF COUNCIL**
The application for this grant is due on June 9th and the information was only received by Council earlier in the day on May 25th so council wanted to have a bit of extra time to think about potential projects rather that making a rash decision. With that being said, there has been a Special Meeting of Council to discuss and select a project to name on the grant. The meeting has been scheduled for Monday, June 1st at 4pm. Public input is definitely welcomed!
This is a great opportunity for some “free money” and a cool project to be completed that wouldn’t otherwise be done. In my humble opinion, doing any work on Tony Rose Pool is a waste…I don’t see the value in investing into a money pit. I do however LOVE the idea of an Arts & Culture Centre…whether it be in arena B or in another town-owned building…it’s a great idea! As for roads? Well there is definitely a need for some TLC on many of our roads, but I don’t necessarily think this is the money to use on roads.
What project would you like to see the Town of Orangeville put on the application?