Vaughan voters should remember successes as they head to polls

YorkRegion.com
Oct. 2, 2014
By Jana Manolakos

An important motion affecting the lives and property values of local Maple residents was placed on the council table recently.

That motion sought to invoke an interim-control bylaw to manage a loophole in Vaughan’s official plan (VOP 2010).

That loophole, which had been approved by a previous council, had opened up the floodgates for developers and land speculators to invade our quiet neighbourhoods with profit-driven plans for multi-unit buildings on what were once single family homes.

For them, it’s about profits. For us, it’s about our lives.

Along the Keele Street core, there are at least seven such properties that could see the population along that strip skyrocket to more than 1,000 people, not including the increase in numbers when developers’ tentacles reach into the adjacent residential area in old Maple.

Do you know how many more cars that means for already critically congested roadways? We cannot keep encouraging population growth in parts of Maple without parallel development of infrastructure.

To say that people should take public transit is an easy out and until public transit is a better option than cars, planners are dreaming if they think congestion will force residents to leave their cars at home. Even buses sit in gridlock.

Along the Keele Street core and adjoining older neighbourhoods, homeowners take pride in beautifully maintained properties for which, like me, they have worked hard.

Thankfully, unlike their predecessors, this council heard and respected residents and supported this courageous motion: a motion that puts a hold on any development along that part of Keele Street until a full review has been completed a year from now.

As we near the Oct. 27 municipal election, I urge you to keep in mind the many successes that this group, under the leadership of Maurizio Bevilacqua and our councillors, have delivered to the neighbourhoods we proudly call home.