Meeting Maple Leaf school
March 27 2012
Minutes of the meeting
John Dowson chaired the meeting and introduced the special guests. Councillor Tom Hempen Ward four, Regional councillor John Taylor, Mayor Van Bynen, Michelle Dudzik and Andrea from Viva Next and President Brad Rogers from Groundswell Land Use planners.
John introduced Chair Larry Blight who spoke about the Environment Day. The cost of running the environment day are rising. The 2011 cost was about $3,000. He said that the solid waste collection has been declining and last year there was considerably less than in the past. In addition the work on Davis drive would interfer with the site. Councillor Hempen has been investigating a site for all of the ward and at this date not site is available. It was decided that the environment day will be terminated. Regional councillor Taylor said that the town is providing a free electronic site at the "Twinney centre" date and time will be listed in the paper.Councillor Hempen suggested partnering with another ward for an environment day.
Tom Hempen mentioned that he has a $1,500 annual environment fund and he will use it to buy tags for items left at the curb from time to time as needed. To learn more about this contact Councillor Hempen at
www.ourward.com
or 905 895-5193. He emphasized that he's available and to notify him of any refuse in yards to help the by laws officers enforce the towns by laws. Councillor Hempen has purchased tags and he will tag large items for pick-up. Councillor Hempens email address is
tom@tomhempen.com
and
thempen@newmarket.ca
A resident on Hill street brought to Councillor Hempens attention that the Newarket Heights Parkette on Penn Ave. is overrun with dogs and that some residents are using the parkette as "Leash Free" park letting their dogs just run loose. As a result the park is full of dog feces and needs to be cleaned up. Councillor Hempen will ask the parks department to post a "No dogs" sign on the parkette and have the sand cleaned so the children can use it again. Regional councillor Taylor stated that he is working with the town to establish a "Leash Free" park. He advised that residents go to the town's web site for further informantion.
It was noted that garbage continues to be a problem especially with absentee landlords. Councillor Hempen stressed that because of the by law departments interal procedures it can take up to 6 weeks to get compliance. He said that he is working with the by laws department to implement a Proactive approach for by law enforcement in place of the current "Reactive" process.
Ian Malcolm chair of the Maple Leaf School Council gave a presentation of the changes and proposals for the school. last year the Region partnered with Maple Leas school and they re-planted mature trees from Davis Drive on Maple Leaf schoolyard. in addition this year another nine trees were planted in the school yard. Viva-Next and their contractor Ellis-Don donated the trees. Regional Councillor Taylor is working with Maple Leaf school and a landscape gardiner who donated the drawings for the schoolyard. The school is also working with service clubs as well. The improvements will take place over the next few years. The children from the school raised over $6,000 at a danceathon towards the improvements. The good news was that a new fence will be installed around the school yard this year. Mayor Van Bynen spoke of the importance of community involvement.
Andres Whitty from Viva-next spoke on the Davis drive improvments that will begin in April 2012. The transit system and infrastucture improvements are a result of a partnership between the Regional and provincial funding. It was stated that transit use has increased by 20% since inception last year. She suggested that we visit the web site as photo's will be posted. The first stage on Davis drive was repositioning trees, and the hydro electric poles on Davis drive. It will take a minimum of 90 days to drill casings for the new cement hydro poles, which will have decorative street lights. There wil be weekly up dates on the construction on their web site where people can sign up for email blogs. In addition an information centre and construction project office will be located in the Newmarket Plaza. During one of the phases there will be a closure of the Davis Drive emergency entrance to South Lake Health centre and as a result the traffic will be re-routed through the Prospect street entrance in the parking tower. This will only be temporary and during the closure three lanes will be open. Viva will hold another site specific information meeting for Newmarket Heights will be help in May for a progress report. The development is expected to be completed by 2014, no month was announced.
Brad Rogers from Groundswell spoke on the official plan and how the province has designated Davis drive and the Yonge street corridor as high density area's. The town's official plan outlines these changes and mirrors the growth patterns on the Region's official plan. By 2026 the towns population will increase by 20,000 to over 100,000 residents and the only way to accomodate them is to grow up. Any new redevelopment will possibly involve more questions on property intensification. He mentioned that Slessor Square planned for Yonge Street across from Upper Canada mall is planned for two residential towers of 29 and 26 stories which is before the planning department. Any changes will always include public consultation when an application is made. It was also suggested that large buildings, will affect our properties in the heights and values usually continue to rise. There is no height maximum at the moment but the town will complete a study on set limits.
Another meeting is scheduled to discuss developments in May. The assoctiation will deliver flyers on the next meeting and it will be posted on the web site.
The day following the meeting the assoctiation received several telephone calls that when they arrived at the school all the doors were locked and they could not get in. The meeting was scheduled from 7pm to 9pm and the association paid for the location from 7-9 PM. We sincerley appologize for the inconvenience. We will be addressing this issue at the school board. The next meeting will be held at the
Voyageur Hotel TBA watch for the date.
The meeting ended at 8.50 PM
