RESIDENTS GROUP WINS MAJOR VICTORY




By JORDAN H. GREEN

  Stouffville residents won a major victory at last Monday’s 
secondary plan public meeting -- time.
  Originally council’s time line to decide the fate of Stouff-
ville’s economic, residential and social makeup for the next 
twenty years was late June. 
  Lobbying from the Whitchurch-Stouffville Residents Asso-
ciation, representing over 200 residents, land and business 
owners caused council to extend the planning process to the 
fall.
  “We are asking to slow the process, so that the residents are 
made more aware of the plan,” said Jeanne Major of the res-
idents association.
  Lack of public input was Major’s primary concern, as there 
weren’t many copies of the plan made available at the library 
and those that were sold, at a cost of $10 each, went 
very quickly.
  “In the (plan) it says extensive public consultation, I have to 
say a lot of us that were very interested since October, it wasn’t 
(with) the public,” comments Major. “We really don’t feel we 
had time to discuss it.”
  The planning consultant hired by the town to create the $250,000 
plan disagrees.
  “The community vision was developed based on significant input 
from the public in the fall of 1996,” said Elizabeth Howson of 
Macaulay Shiomi Howson, the planning company contracted to
design the plan.
  During her address to council and about 45 people at the meeting, 
Major listed numerous key sections of the plan which hadn’t been 
discussed in previous meetings.
  “The topics not covered are: population, employment level, land 
use, heritage area, existing and new residential areas . . . these are 
issues of concern to local residents and we just didn’t have any dis-
cussion on them,” said Major. “There was no discussion because 
the spokesperson on that section always said no comment.”
  “I think this council has always listened to the public,” res-
ponded mayor Wayne Emmerson. “As Mrs. Major has (requested) 
more time, this council has said we were going to bring it back at 
the end of June, we’re not going to bring it back (then), we’re 
going to bring it back in the middle of September, so I think council 
has listened.”
  “Alright, so now they postponed it, so we get one more meeting, 
but what we still want to see is, between now and then, are they 
going to be listening is a big question,” comments Major. “Are 
they really going to have this open conversation and are they really 
going to be listening to residents? We’ll know that September 15, 
that’s when we’ll know.”

Other key recommendations put forward by the residents 
association were:
·Increase the minimum distance between Markham and 
Stouffville. The plan currently calls for a distance of 30 
meters (100 feet).
·Clearly identify the types of collector roads in the plan.
·Identify the current and proposed pedestrian, bicycle 
and vehicle linkages. 
· Identify and define a minimum number of parks which 
will be protected from development.
· Identify specific agricultural land areas to be protected.
· Clarify the various zoning uses allowed for the flea market.
	
The next public meeting on the secondary plan will be Sep-
tember 15, at 7p.m. at Latcham Hall.