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David West
Richmond Hill Ward 4 Councillor
Monthly Newsletter
May 2016
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Richmond Hill -A Vibrant and Active Community
We live in a vibrant and active community here in Richmond Hill and in no month is this more evident than May. There is a lot going on in our town. This weekend our community hosted a number of events for various causes including Strides for Stroke in support of Mackenzie Health Hospital and a Walk in support of L'Arche Daybreak. We also had the Richmond Hill Horticultural Society's Plant sale, and in the coming weeks we have many other events like these, that bring our community together. For a complete list you can visit
www.onrichmondhill.com
to see what is available in Richmond Hill to enjoy on any given day.
Included in this edition is a follow up report on our Museum Feasibility Study, news about Richmond Hill's OMB motion receiving endorsement by other municipalities in advance of the OMB Summit this weekend, an update on a number of development applications in Ward 4, an update on the renewal plans for Bradstock Park, the announcement of a revitalized Farmers' Market in the Village Core, a call for public input regarding our plans to mark Canada's 150 birthday next year, and much more. I have also added a more prominent index in order to make it easier to find information in the newsletter.
Please do not hesitate to contact me by phone or email at any time.
My email address is
[email protected]
, my cell number is 416-346-3090 and my office number is 905-771-2480. I also have a website (www.davidwest-richmondhill.ca) that hosts information and articles from past newsletters.
Thanks for taking the time to read this newsletter. I always appreciate hearing from you regarding any issue in the town. It is through this collaboration that we all make our community the vibrant and active place that it is!
David West
Ward 4 Councillor Richmond Hill
Banner Photo taken in Twickenham Park
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Council News and Highlights
1. Grand Opening in our Village Core
I had the pleasure of attending the Grand Opening of a new business in our Village Core, The Centre for Therapeutic Massage, at 10120 Yonge St. It is a great business with a great community focus. Thanks to Joanne and her team for inviting us, and thanks to Councillors Hogg and Muench for attending. Best wishes!
2. Earth Day Celebrations
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Students from St. Theresa of Lisieux Catholic High School accepting a recognition plaque from Mayor Barrow for helping to plant trees during our Earth Day Event
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During Earth Day this year Richmond Hill celebrated our planet by planting over 600 trees adjacent to the Oak Ridges Community Centre. A number of schools including ward four's St. Theresa of Lisieux Catholic High School participated in this effort. A fun time was had by all, as we had a chance to make our community a little more green than it was before! CTV news was also on hand and their report can be viewed here -
http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=855142
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How many Councillors does it take to plant a tree - Answer 5 - one to plant, two to inspect, one to hold the sign and one to take a picture of it!
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3. Food Raiser for 360 Kids
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This is what 3000 lbs of food looks like! Donated for 360 kids by our caring community youth!
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Sonny, the organizer of this event on the right, and an army of youth volunteers. Photo taken after donating their food and before the soccer tournament began.
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Councillor Liu and I recently hosted a charity soccer tournament at the Richmond Green Sports Building organized by Sonny who is a Richmond Hill resident and friend of 360Kids. The group raised 3000 lbs. of food for 360Kids all before having fun playing soccer. Thanks to all involved for making this happen!
4. Character Community Awards
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Some of the nominees in the Educator of Character Awards
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In late April the Character Community Foundation hosted the Character Community Awards recognizing and honouring citizens of character from across York Region. For the complete story please click
here
to read the Liberal Newspaper account of the evening. From a Ward 4 perspective I would like to highlight that Sandgate Women's Shelter was honoured through their leader, Jehan Chaudhry who won in the Change the World Category. Also, Alexander Mackenzie High School received two nominations. One nomination in the School of Character category for their Resiliency Project, and one through their principal, Debra Conrad Knight in the Educator of Character Award. Norval-Morrisseau Secondary School was also nominated in the School of Character - Alternative Educational Institution category. Richmond Hill Citizens were well represented and nominated in a number of other categories. Congratulations to all!
5. Several Ontario Municipalities endorse Richmond Hill's OMB Reform Motion
I am pleased that Richmond Hill's Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) reform motion that I brought to Council several months ago has been endorsed by a number of other Municipalities in Ontario. Click
here
for an interesting article from the Municipality of Kawartha Lakes that describes their own problems with the OMB, and talks about their municipality's endorsement of motions from Aurora and Richmond Hill. I find it particularly interesting that Kawartha Lakes recognized the particular proble
m with the current OMB rules, outlined in Richmond Hill's motion, of allowing developers to appeal their application to the OMB after 180 days if a decision by council has not been made. Richmond Hill has encountered the same situation on a number of occasions (including the application by Laurier Homes on Arnold Cres.). Under the current rules, instead of encouraging developers to stay at the negotiating table with the community and the municipality, the developer can simply appeal to the OMB after 180 days if the negotiations are not going in what they perceive as a favourable direction. This takes away any incentive to achieve a negotiated compromise with the municipality and the community, without going to the OMB.
6. Downtown Revitalization
The Business Improvement Association (BIA), Richmond Hill staff, and myself, continue to work toward the goal of a revitalized historic Downtown Village Core. This has proven to be a long process but we are seeing some success. Lately we had a number of excellent businesses locate in, and invest in, the Village Core. I will be hosting a meeting in the coming weeks with our staff, commercial land owners, business owners and the BIA to discuss the proposed Downtown Secondary Plan and to solicit feedback from these parties on how the Plan, when passed, will help to spur new investment and help to drive more positive change in the Village Core. On a related note there was a recent article in the Liberal Newspaper related to this subject. To read this article click here. I would appreciate hearing your feedback on this issue. What is your favorite thing about our Village Core? What would you like to see change? Let me know at [email protected].
7. Richmond Hill Wins Awards for Sustainability Metrics
Richmond Hill, in collaboration with the City of Brampton and the City of Vaughan, developed a set of sustainability metrics to ensure new development helps create healthier, sustainable communities through a project called "Measuring the Sustainability Performance of New Developments." This project has been awarded the Excellence in Sustainability Award (Sustainable Policy, Law or Plan) by the American Planning Association (APA) and the Excellence in Planning Award (Research and New Directions) from the Ontario Professional Planners Institute (OPPI). These sustainability metrics were created as a performance tool to quantify the sustainability of new development projects consistently across the three municipalities. With more than 50 potential criteria listed, the sustainability metrics tool is used by applicants to calculate the score of each proposed application, ensuring it meets Richmond Hill's sustainability standards. Each draft plan or site plan application must include sustainable elements in their plans, such as producing their own energy, conserving water, using environmentally-friendly materials in construction, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging use of sustainable transportation like public transit, and more. A number of other municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) have expressed an interest in using the sustainability metrics and the collaboration is continuing to work with the Clean Air Partnership in an effort to "regionalize" the use of sustainability metrics across the Greater Toronto Area. Over time, the sustainability metrics developed by this collaboration may become like LEED and other market-driven sustainability programs have become for green building leaders - a practical route to achieve a more sustainable built form, one planning application at a time.
8. Richmond Hill Wins Awards for Top Notch Community Events
Three of Richmond Hill's most popular events, Richmond Hill Canada Day Celebrations, Ribfest and Tastes of the Hill were selected as recipients of the Top 100 Festivals & Events in Ontario designation from Festivals and Events Ontario (FEO). Richmond Hill's 2015 Canada Day Celebrations is its largest, single-day festival, attracting close to 40,000 visitors. The fourth annual Richmond Hill Ribfest, held July 24 - 26 at Richmond Green Park, is one of the most-anticipated outdoor summer events in the community. Richmond Hill's Tastes of the Hill has evolved from an indoor food festival into an outdoor multicultural festival celebrating Richmond Hill's diverse, multicultural community while supporting worthy causes. In the past nine years, the festival raised a total of more than $440,000 which has been redirected to local charities. FEO is the leading professional organization for the festival and events industry, helping members to produce unique, quality festivals and events in all corners of the province through education, professional development and networking. Its membership includes festivals, events, suppliers, municipalities, schools, students, BIAs and more. Richmond Hill has previously been recognized by FEO in 2014 for Richmond Hill Ribfest and for the Canada Day texting competition in 2015.
9. York Regional Police Memorial
A number of Council members attended the Police Memorial at #2 District Headquarters on Major Mackenzie near Yonge St. on an early morning earlier this month. The service was held at the Police Memorial in front of the building. It was a moving tribute to the police officers in York Region that have given their lives in the line of duty for us. This is a poem that was read at the ceremony - I think says it all.
The Monument
I never dreamed it would be me
Recorded here at this hallowed place
Alas, my name, no more my face
"In the Line of Duty" I hear them say
My family now the price will pay
My folded flag stained with their tears
We only had those few short years
The badge no longer on my chest
I sleep now in eternal rest
My sword I pass to those behind
and pray they keep this thought in mind
I never dreamed it would be me
And with heavy heart and bended knee
I ask for all here from the past
Dear God, let my name be the last.
(I am sorry I do not know the author)
Thank you to all of our York Regional Police officers for keeping our community safe!
10. Strides for Stroke in Support or Mackenzie Health Richmond Hill Hospital
May 7th was a great morning for a community event in support of our Mackenzie Health Hospital with over $230,000 raised for Mackenzie Health's Heart and Stroke program from this year's run alone! By the way - the guy on the left in the above photo finished the race a long time before the guy on the right!
11. Museum Update
12. Richmond Hill Public Library Art Contest
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Ali, with Board Chair, David Bishop and Library CEO, Louise Proctor Maio. Ali was but one of the winners in this contest.
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For several years now I have had the honour of judging the photography part of the Richmond Hill Public Library Arts Contest. I am really proud that The Richmond Hill Public Library has organized this contest that showcases the photography, painting, poetry and short stories of our young people in grades 7-12. As always the winning entries were excellent, and I would like to sincerely congratulate the award recipients and all those that entered as well as their parents, for encouraging their children to participate and for supporting their kids' artistic expression.
13. Shaftsbury St. Theresa Of Lisieux Catholic High School Traffic Update
Earlier this month I arranged a final meeting between our traffic staff, and representatives from St. Theresa High School to discuss some options that will be brought to council to improve traffic flow, and most importantly, enhance pedestrian/student safety in the area around St Theresa of Lisieux High School during the morning drop off time and afternoon pick up period. As you know if you live in this area, the traffic in the morning is especially chaotic, and has been this way for quite some time. For the past while I have been working to find a solution to this problem with our staff and the school administration. I will provide a link to the council recommendations report in this newsletter when it is available. It is expected to come to council in June.
14. Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) Reform Summit
This weekend elected officials from across the province will be meeting to discuss issues around OMB reform. This summit has been spearheaded by Aurora, and a number of surrounding municipalities including Richmond Hill. Councillor Cilivetz and myself have served on the organizing committee and will represent Richmond Hill this weekend at the Summit. I expect a set of recommendations for reform of the OMB will come out of this effort that we can submit to the Ontario Government. Stay tuned!
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Ward 4 Development Applications - Update
There are a number of development applications active in Ward 4 that continue to receive significant interest from residents. This section in the newsletter is intended to keep everyone informed and updated about the status of these applications. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all active in Ward 4 development applications but a brief synopsis of select applications. Please feel free to contact me at ([email protected]) if you have questions about an application that is not included here.
1. 71 Regent St. - An application was submitted to Richmond Hill planning staff in the summer of 2015 for approval of a proposed development of 28 townhouses at 71 Regent St. I hosted a well attended Residents' Meeting in the fall of 2015 for this application. The applicant is currently working toward an application that can be brought to council for a Council Public Meeting. Stay tuned to the Liberal Newspaper (Richmond Hill pages) and this e newsletter for the date of this meeting.
2. 44, 48,54 and 60 Arnold Cres. - An application for 37 townhouses and 4 single detached homes was submitted to Richmond Hill planning staff in the summer of 2015. I hosted a well attended Residents' Meeting in the fall 2015 for this application. The applicant had a Council Public Meeting in the fall of 2015 where comments from the public and Council members were heard. In the winter of 2015 the applicant elected to appeal this application to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB). The OMB will hold a pre hearing meeting for this application on June 1st, 2016 in Committee Room 2 at the Town Offices at 225 East Beaver Creek Road. A report will be coming to Committee of the Whole on May 16th that will recommend staff defend the Town's position at the OMB. To view the report that will be considered at Committee of the Whole on May 16th click here.
3. Canyon Hill and Yonge St (10922, 10944 and 10956 Yonge St) - An application for 160 townhouses was submitted to staff this spring. Letters to area residents were sent out to inform them of this application. To view this letter click
here
. A site plan application will be scheduled for a future committee of the whole meeting for consideration by Council.
4. 107 Hall St - An application for 22 townhouses and the preservation and restoration of the historic Langstaff house was submitted to our planning staff in the summer of 2015. A Residents' Meeting and a Council Public Meeting were held in the fall of 2015. This application is presently with our planning staff undergoing a review. The next step in the process for this application will be for a staff report with recommendations to to be considered by Council at a future Council Meeting. Stay tuned to the Liberal Newspaper community pages, and this e newsletter for the date of this meeting.
5. 168 and 176 Elgin Mills Rd W. - An application for 20 townhouses was received in spring of 2015. This application has gone to a
Council
Public Meeting in the fall of 2015. I have been working with a group of neighbouring property owners and the applicant, to address concerns about this application. The application will be coming to another Council Public Meeting in the near future before any Council approvals will be sought.
6. 129, 133, 141 Arnold Cres and 230 Major Mackenzie Dr. W. -
This site has recently been sold to The Acorn Development Corporation. At this time, I understand the developer is working to complete an application for
redevelopment of this site which they will eventually
submit to our Richmond Hill Planning staff. In the interim, Acorn has applied for, and been granted, permits to demolish the four existing structures on the site. This work will likely happen sometime in June. To be clear, the demolition approvals in no way signify any permissions to develop the property. The applicant will need to go through the regular planning process prior to obtaining any approvals to building anything new on the site. It is my intention to host a meeting for the neighbourhood residents as soon as any plans by the developer have been solidified. This meeting will serve to make the community aware of the details of this application. Presently, at this very early point in the process, there is no timeline set for such a meeting but I will ensure that the community is informed in a timely manner when a clearer picture becomes available.
7. Condo Proposal South West corner of Gamble and Yonge. -
In 2014 there was an application for an 8 and 5 storey condo on the South West Corner of Gamble Rd and Yonge St. The applicant had a Council Public Meeting some time ago but this application has not been presented to Council as of yet. There were a number of issues that were identified during this process, including issues of proximity to a flood plain.
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For more information visit rhcentre.ca
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Richmond Hill Philharmonic Orchestra
Visit the RHPO's website www.rhpo.ca for ticket information.
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Youth Action Committee - Applications for 2016-2017
For more information contact
[email protected]
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Richmond Hill Lawn Bowling Club
Richmond Hill Lawn Bowling Club members are getting ready for the club's ninety-eighth year. Situated behind the Elgin Barrow Arena at Church and Lorne Streets, the club has daytime and evening bowling several days of the week from mid-May to the end of September. Most of the bowlers enjoy playing recreational games while some choose to play competitively.
In partnership with the Town of Richmond Hill, there will be an eight week Summer Fun League running through July and August for youth ranging in age from 12 to 18 years. There will also be a Lawn Bowling Introduction session for youth in May and another for families in June. These programs are listed in the Spring & Summer 2016 Community Recreation Guide. Registration for these programs is made through the Town of Richmond Hill.
The club also participates in the Town's Doors Open event and will be open to the public on May 14th from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Everyone is welcome to come by and find out about the club's history and to give lawn bowling at try. For more information about the club, check out the web-site rhlawnbowling.com.
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18th Annual Mill Pond Splash Eco-Festival
For more information please visit www.millpondsplash.ca
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Bradstock Park Renewal Project Update
The Bradstock Park Revitalization process has begun. Thank you to all who provided feedback through the Town survey. The information we received will be incorporated into the proposed design that staff are planning to present to the public this spring. A date for this presentation will be announced in this newsletter when it is available. Public input received up to this to this point will lead to a Council budget request to facilitate 2017 reconstruction of the park. Please contact Mike McCallum, Parks Project Manager at 905-771-2469 or
[email protected]
with any questions.
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The 2016 Census is coming!
Canada's next census will be conducted in May 2016.
Early in May, census packages will be delivered to households across Canada, providing residents with the information they need to complete their questionnaire online or on paper.
Completed questionnaires will provide valuable information that will be used by all levels of government to make decisions about your neighbourhood and community. Information obtained through the census is needed to plan services such as child care, schooling, family services, housing, public transportation and skills training for employment.
Every person, young and old, must be included in the 2016 Census.
For more information about the 2016 Census, visit
www.census.gc.ca
.
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Sports Hall of Fame Nominations
Our staff are now accepting nominations for the Richmond Hill Sports Hall of Fame see
http://www.richmondhill.ca/subpage.asp?pageid=richmond_hill_sports_hall_of_fame
for details.
Each year the Town of Richmond Hill reaches out to community sports groups and residents seeking nominations of an athlete, team or coach to receive this prestigious award. For more information on the Richmond Hill Sports Champion Awards, please visit
www.Richmondhill.ca/Sportschamps
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Help us inspire future generations of excellence through sport! Become a volunteer, donor, or supporter of the Richmond Hill Sports Hall of Fame and the Sport Champion Awards. For details contact us at
[email protected] or call 905-884-1368, ext. 225.
Be sure to keep up to date with the latest regarding the Richmond Hill Sports Hall of Fame. Sign up to receive news and updates by
clicking here and visit the Sports Hall of Fame website at
RichmondHill.ca/SportsHall.
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Doors Open Richmond Hill
f
or more information, locations, please visit richmondhill.ca/doorsopen
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Yonge St - Viva Construction Update
Please see the attached notice from vivaNext regarding gas main installation started on Monday, April 18 on Yonge Street in Richmond Hill.
In addition to this work, PowerStream will be installing new and temporary hydro poles and transferring power lines in the northern segment. Details are:
D
ate: Tuesday, April 19 for approximately 6 weeks
H
ours: 7 a.m.-7 p.m.
L
ocation: East and west sides of Yonge Street from Nottingham Drive/Devonsleigh Blvd to 19th Avenue/Gamble Road
This work will be completed from the boulevard and may require lane closures around the work area during pole delivery.
If you have any questions about this work, please contact:
Leslie Pawlowski
Community Liaison, Project Specialist
YORK REGION RAPID TRANSIT CORPORATION
T. 905.886.6767 Ext. 71357 | 1 877 464 9675 | F. 905 886 6969 | C: 905.505.1430
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National Public Works Week
It is quite remarkable the range and amount of work it takes from our Public Works employees to keep our community running. They keep the roads in good condition, the street lights on, the water running in our facets (and the waste water going away), they keep our trees and parks looking good, as well as many other tasks. The Richmond Hill Public Works Open House hi lights this work and it's a lot of fun!
Learn first-hand how Richmond Hill and its local service providers take care of our roads, water, parks, trees and public buildings through educational displays and information booths! Join us Saturday, May 14 at our Open House, including a charity BBQ and activities!
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The Farmers' Market is Back
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Canada's 150th Birthday is Coming
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