For the most part, Newmarket is filled up. There remains only a scattering of develop-able lands for single family homes. There are a series of land owners, for example the car dealers that line Yonge St., and these few people are lobbying hard to change the face of your town to reap the financial rewards of sky raising intensification.
Rest assured, these land owners also appear to have a few Council members on their side too. You don't have to go too far through any issue of SNAP magazine to see a Council member's smiling mug pressed up against the cheek of someone associated with one of the Yonge St. car dealerships.
What you don't find in the pages of SNAP, or anywhere else for that matter, is consultation with ordinary homeowners about the changing face of Newmarket. The official growth plan for the Town of Newmarket calls for mid/ high rises to spring up along the Yonge Davis corridor. Our community of single family detached homes will change in character and appearance, and no one seems to be discussing the possible consequences of these changes, save for the few business people who intend to profit handsomely.
A recent example of construction near-sightedness is the plan announced on Twitter by Councillor Jane Twinney and Regional Councillor John Taylor to bring affordable (a code word for "subsidized") rental apartment development to town. Connecting the dots, there seems to be a connection between this initiative and Habitat for Humanity which not so coincidentally is being run by ex Mayor Tom Taylor as board member and Ward 1 Councillor Tom Vegh as president of that organization. In other words, its one big "old boys" network shindig designed to screw over some sorry group of homeowners.
John Taylor's tweet speaks to plans already underway to lure a developer to Newmarket to develop a rental apartment building. Why doesn't he provide us with all the details? Tell us where the building is going to be built? How many units are going to be built? How many are going to be subsidized rental units? How much is the taxpayer going to have to fork over to the developer to build these units? and so on.
It may be impolitic to say this (but someone has to) - as a homeowner that has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into my residence - I am 100% against being forced to accept becoming new neighbours with a subsidized rental apartment building associated with Habitat for Humanity. With only a few lots of develop-able land remaining to be built upon within our township borders, this project is not a priority for our community. Its bad enough we are getting 25-35 storey skyscrapers along Yonge and Davis. We don't need subsidized rental apartment buildings to meet either our official plan targets nor our provincial growth commitments.
With an election just around the corner, hopefully Taylor, Twinney and Vegh et al will have the gumption to take their idea to the electorate and get a legitimate mandate from voters before proceeding. This should be an election issue because residents have a right to voice an opinion about our community. Especially one that could impact how we enjoy our home owns and safeguard our monetary investment in our residences.
No comments:
Post a Comment