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- Written by Gordon Prentice
Huge multi-million dollar construction projects to eliminate level crossings in Newmarket are flagged up in a report going to York Region councillors tomorrow (10 September).
The report gives background to a presentation by Metrolinx on the Regional Express Rail program which will see all-day two-way trains on the Barrie corridor.
The Barrie rail corridor has 25 level crossings; 13 of which cross regional roads and 12 cross local roads. The staff report says:
“The planned increase in rail and vehicle traffic will trigger the need for grade separations on all existing level crossings between Regional Roads and GO rail corridors.”
Transport Canada guidelines stipulate that grade separations are warranted where the so-called “exposure index” exceeds 200, 000. (The index simply multiplies daily road vehicle traffic with daily train traffic.)
Attachment 2 to the report gives the figures for all level crossings on the Barrie line.
The figures for Newmarket and East Gwillimbury show a huge increase in traffic in the near term (within the next decade) which underlines the need for grade separation.
| Location | index at present | index at 2021 | index at 2025 |
| Mulock Drive (regional rd) | 458,400 | 531,600 | 1,371,000 |
| Water Street (Nwkt road) | 143,760 | 158,160 | 409,800 |
| Timothy Street (Nwkt rd) | 23,400 | 25,680 | 66,600 |
| Davis Drive (regional rd) | 396,000 | 459,600 | 1,156,200 |
| Green Lane (regional road) | 464,400 | 538,800 | 1,373,400 |
The report says that with grade separation “there is no longer the need to sound the train whistle”. However, “not all existing crossings will be grade separated as part of the Regional Express Rail program".
Earlier this year, Newmarket Aurora MPP Chris Ballard, said the 15 minute GO train service would only run from Union Station to Aurora. Newmarket would lose out because of the need to do the grade separations and this would take time.
The fictional Mulock Drive GO Rail Station
The staff report also looks at existing and new GO stations on the Barrie line. The recently adopted Newmarket Secondary Plan has a new station penciled in at Mulock Drive but this has been ignored by regional staff who are prioritizing Concord (Highway 7); Kirby Road/Keele Street and 15th Sideroad/Bathurst Street.
There was no debate about the proposed Mulock Road GO station as the Newmarket Secondary Plan went through its zillion iterations. I took the view it was a figment of Planning Director Rick Nethery’s fevered imagination – especially when Metrolinx told me they had no plans for a station at this location. In the end, the Mulock Drive station was nodded through by weary councillors, desperate to put the Secondary Plan behind them.
It will be interesting to see if Tony Van Bynen and John Taylor make the case for prioritizing Mulock Drive or if they simply let it go.
I suspect the latter.
Metrolinx has been invited to give a presentation to Newmarket councillors in the Fall.
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- Details
- Written by Gordon Prentice
The trial was due to take place today (4 September 2015) in the Small Claims Court in Newmarket but was abruptly rescheduled by the trial judge to 15 October. His reasons were not given in open court. But he was ill mannered, impatient and rude. Unfortunately, I didn't get his name. He brusquely ordered the public to leave whilst asking Di Muccio and Taylor to stay behind.
- Details
- Written by Gordon Prentice
To Mulock Drive for the first Committee of the Whole for the new term.
Mayor Tony Van Bynen is back from his leisurely river cruise on the Rhine. In an earlier unguarded moment, he tells me he has never had three weeks away from his desk before. He looks refreshed and ready for new challenges but the problems confronting him are, alas, old and very familiar.
We start with a long debate about parking problems in downtown. Joe Sponga, champion of the farmer’s market, is animated. He points to perfectly good parking bays that are fenced off by the Town and are out-of-bounds. Why? He complains about lack of enforcement of parking regulations.
The longest serving councillor in the Western Hemisphere, the irascible Dave Kerwin, is in full contrarian mode. He says he never has any difficulty finding somewhere to park. And the staff has (modest) safety concerns so he is going to back their recommendations – to the letter. Kerwin says he doesn’t want to be held liable if there is an accident and he didn’t back the staff.
Oh dear! So cantankerous yet so timid.
John Taylor states the obvious. Parking is an issue that will never be fully resolved. It will always be, in some sense, work in progress.
Kerwin’s eavestroughs
Now we are on to the proposed stormwater management rate, a new levy the Town is considering imposing on residents to cover the cost of controlling and treating storm water run-off. At the moment, the costs come out of our property taxes. The Town will shortly be consulting the public on various options.
A curmudgeonly Kerwin tells us he collects his rainwater which goes from his eavestroughs straight into a rain barrel. The water then goes onto his garden. Our green fingered model citizen says he deserves to pay less than people whose run-off goes straight into the Town’s waste water system. We learn he doesn’t generate much garbage yet he pays the same as those who throw out mountains of trash. He is outraged by the unfairness of it all!
Now we skip past agenda item 14 with no debate. This is all about a big development in Kerwin’s ward. Staff want to go out to public consultation on a proposal by the developer, Newmarket Cemetery Corporation/ 2394237 Ontario Inc (Forest Green Homes) to re-zone cemetery and other land, west of Leslie Street and north of Mulock Drive, to accommodate 91 freehold townhouses, 27 stack townhouses, 78 condominium townhouses and two mid rise apartments. By any measure, this is a big development. The Mayor is silent. No talk of defending the Official Plan.
The developer’s eyes and ears, Brad Rogers of Groundswell, is sitting a few feet away from me. As soon as it is clear there will be no debate on his client’s proposal he gets up and leaves. Job done.
The oldest house in Newmarket
The proposed development is next door to the wooded Bogart Trail with its attractive private lake. John Bogart House, the oldest house in Newmarket, is inconveniently situated on land the developer wants for other uses. So it is to be moved to a new location a short distance away.
The clapperboard house was constructed in 1811 and has been designated for its historical and architectural significance. John Bogart was a Quaker pioneer from Pennsylvania, who had a saw mill on the nearby creek. It is one of the first two storey residential buildings constructed north of Toronto. To me, this is quite a big deal.
Dave Kerwin might have told us the old house is open to the elements at the back with a non existent window letting in rain, snow and goodness knows what else. This bit of Newmarket history needs a quick repair job asap.
Silken Laumann and Town-owned land
Now we are on to Silken Laumann. The ward councillor, Tom Vegh, sounds as if he is reading from a prepared script. But that doesn’t bother me providing he is saying the right thing. And he is. He says he does not support the proposed development to build on meadowland, a stone’s throw from the railway. He says the developer needs Town owned land to proceed. The councillors decide to seek legal advice (which will be given at the end of the meeting today in closed session) and return to the issue at the next Council meeting on 14 September. Fair enough.
Now things are moving along at a rapid clip.
Ward 7 councillor, Christina Bisanz, asks what the public can expect from the forthcoming review of the councillors’ code of conduct. Andrew Brouwer, the on-the-ball Town Clerk, tells us there will be public consultation at 7pm on Wednesday 16 September at the Town’s Operations Centre at 1275 Maple Hill Court, Newmarket. It will look at a zillion things including the use of social media. Then councillors will chew the cud in a workshop and consider how to take things forward.
Bisanz calls for a staff report on Glenway
Now Christina Bisanz is on to one of the big issues on the agenda – Glenway. It has been hanging over this council for years and the councillors have a hang-dog expression, weary at the thought of yet another discussion on Glenway.
Bisanz wants a plan of action drawn up by staff – based on Glenn Pothier’s lessons learned report – identifying priorities for action within the next 90 days. Her motion is seconded by John Taylor.
Bisanz is in good form. She wants staff to go back to the Pothier report and see what was recommended and bring forward ten of the most critical things that have to change – she wants them to look at the process, the dialogue, the discussion, the engagement of the public and the timeframe.
Kerwin says no
Now it is open for debate. Pitifully, no councillor wants to engage in a discussion about what happened. Taylor’s remarks are perfunctory. I sense they all want to move on.
They vote to back Bisanz with only Kerwin against. His arm bolt upright.
Now the Mayor is moving seamlessly into waffle mode. I hear about the Smart Growth for Communities Bill. There’s the First Reading and the Second Reading coming up. And this. And that. He could win a Pan Am medal in waffling.
Forget about the Province. This is the man who refuses to give answers to even the simplest and most straightforward questions about his role in the Glenway fiasco.
When did he first know that Ruth Victor, hired by the Town at a cost of $129,000, was going to recommend that Glenway golf course be built over? What did he do about it? When did he first learn that the Town’s own planners were going to boycott the Glenway OMB Hearing? What did he do about it?
I suspect we are never going to get the answers to these and other questions from the former banker, Van Bynen. He is just not wired to be open and straightforward. It is not in his DNA.
Nevertheless, the book isn’t closed on Glenway. It is important as a case study when the Province, finally, gets around to reforming the Ontario Municipal Board.
In this context, the Mayor’s continuing silence speaks volumes.
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- Written by Gordon Prentice
Why are Newmarket’s planners recommending councillors approve a new housing development just west of Silken Lauman Drive slap bang in the middle of protected meadowland within a stone’s throw of a GO rail track? The short answer is I don’t know.
In the report going up to councillors on Monday 31 August, staff says since the OMB pre-hearing on 26 March 2015
“the applicant has been providing additional material to departments and agencies for review. Staff have now received additional reports, studies and other submission material that indicates that most of the outstanding issues have been appropriately addressed.”
We are told the remaining issues are considered minor.
So I ask the planning department for sight of this additional material that had such a persuasive influence on the Town’s planners.
Earlier this week I am told this is no problem. Then, later, I am told that because the Town is in litigation with the developer at the OMB there could be a problem. Astonishingly, I am told I must first get the consent of the developer.
A senior member of the planning department generously offers to contact the developer on my behalf but I am still waiting to hear if I can see these important documents. I am assuming our councillors have not seen them either – but I could be wrong.
Planning staff recommendations are, in practice, decisions
The OMB Hearing is scheduled for 28 September 2015. If councillors reject the staff recommendation to approve the meadowlands development, where does that leave the Town at the OMB? Will the developer tell the OMB that Newmarket staff saw no objections to the development and their considered views were, perversely, rejected by elected officials?
If Glenway is any guide, the OMB will side with the developer and the Town’s own planning staff. And the mayor will mumble something about defending the official plan and challenging the developer at the OMB was “the right thing to do”.
The promised review of the OMB cannot come a moment too soon. It cannot be right that the views of our elected officials – including our Mayor, Tony Van Bynen – count for so very little.
When it comes to planning, our councillors are increasingly a decorative part of our Municipal constitution. The real power lies elsewhere.
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PS The Ward councillor, Tom Vegh, has previously spoken out against the proposed development.
- Details
- Written by Gordon Prentice
The libel action brought by former Newmarket councillor Maddie Di Muccio against Regional Councillor John Taylor will be heard next Friday, 4 September 2015, at 10am in the Small Claims Court at the Courthouse at Eagle Street West, Newmarket.
The notoriously litigious Maddie Di Muccio is claiming $5,000 in damages against Taylor for an alleged libel which, she says, made her a target of ridicule, hatred and contempt of others.
For his part, Taylor says Di Muccio’s libel suit is “frivolous and vexatious”.
You can read the Court papers filed by Di Muccio and Taylor’s defence by opening “documents” in the panel top left and navigating to “Correspondence”.
As I am in the Superior Court of Justice I decide to check out the Small Claims Court room 2002 where the drama will play out. I discover a delicious taster for the main course next Friday.
I chance upon the case of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce v Elio Dalle Rive who, I learn, has previous form.
The presiding Judge is in his work wear. Black robe with red sash and the judicial collar. He is affable and accommodating even when Dalle Rive asks him to spell out his name, letter by letter. On the table between the plaintiff and defendant are boxes of tissues in case they are needed. A thoughtful touch.
The Bank says Dalle Rive refuses to pay an outstanding Mastercard debt of $13,558.59 and claims he is involved in a “sham debt elimination scheme”.
Long-time Aurora resident, Mr Dalle Rive, responds with a counterclaim against the Bank for $21,487.02. When asked to tell the Court why he thinks he is owed that money by the Bank he refuses to answer. He wants to know first if the CIBC suffered a financial loss as a result of his actions.
Now the judge is getting a tad exasperated but he is bending over backwards to be fair to the defendant. Now the lawyer for the Bank is wrapping things up, referring the Judge to a 2013 case from the Tax Court of Canada where inventive strategies for avoiding tax obligations were described as “vexatious litigation”.
Talking of which… next Friday will be a day of high drama. Taylor, or perhaps his lawyer, will have the opportunity to quiz his nemesis Maddie Di Muccio at length and in great detail. Woo Hoo!
Be there early to get a seat.
(The Judge reserved his decision in the CIBC v Elio Dalle Rive case but I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that he will find in the Bank’s favour.)
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update on 4 September. Trial now rescheduled for 15 October 2015.
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