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Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 09 September 2016

It is 10am on Friday morning and I am sitting in a comfortable chair on the verandah of a lovely heritage home in the old downtown. A little dog I met for the first time moments before is sprawled out at my feet, nestled into my red shoes, as if we are old friends.

I find myself chatting amicably to two people. Tracee and her close friend and campaign manager, Julie Cochrane, who is President of a group of local artists.  

Tag-team

They act like a tag-team. Tracee taking some questions and Julie others. They seem to be in it together, in a sisterly kind of way.

Tracee is at pains to explain she is Newmarket through and through. She grew up here. Built a successful business in Town and knows a lot of people. She comes across as an open and engaging “people person”.

For years, I have been looking at local politics from the outside, trying to understand the power plays and relationships in municipal politics. But until she threw her hat into the ring I had never heard of Tracee Chambers. Now she is running for office, I want to know if she was, for example, aware of the two Clock Tower petitions, for and against? And why she chose not to sign one or the other? The Clock Tower has been a big issue for years.

She winces slightly, acknowledging she is coming from a standing start but she says she is getting up to speed on all the issues. She has just posted on her website her "five areas of focus". She has Ian Proundfoot (ex ERA newspaper) on her team and is supported by many others. She has been briefed by the Town’s CAO, Bob Shelton.

Clock Tower

On the Clock Tower, seven storeys is too high. She has been out canvassing views on Main Street. If the current height cap is breached then some other business owners would want to follow suit. And before you know it, the old downtown would have changed forever. The very thing that now draws people to the old downtown (the heritage and human scale) would be gone.

I am now talking about Bob Forrest and the OMB and how the Clock Tower project can only proceed if Bob gets Town owned land for his underground car park. Yes, says Tracee. Bob Shelton told her the Town doesn’t need to sell the land to the developer, it can be made available using some other arrangement/agreement.

We now move on to the other big planning issue downtown, the King George School development. (The application has now gone into the Town’s Planning Department.) Julie tells me the plans will shortly be on public display in the old School and people can makes up their minds about it then. The school will be an integral part of the development. She senses that people are comfortable with what is likely to emerge – townhouses and the heritage school converted to condos.

Crowded field

Now I tip-toe into asking about the election campaign itself. With a crowded field of 8 hopefuls it is quite possible that the successful candidate could win with 30% or even 20% of the total vote. She nods in agreement.

I learn that Bob Kwapis was seen as the candidate favoured by the powers-that-be but now, with so many candidates in the race, they are just waiting to see how the cards fall.

She tells me that by nature and instinct she searches for compromises that bring people together. As a councillor, she has only one vote and to get anything done she would need the support of others.

More women needed on Council

Julie chips in. Newmarket needs more women on Council. They bring a different perspective. She laughs, three is good but four would be better!

I mention election signs that will be going up around the Ward from 17 September. Are we going to see a blaze of Tracee Chambers signs? Julie tells me with sweet innocence how many election signs they’ve had printed. I decide to keep this information to myself though I shall be counting how many go up.

As I get up to leave, I am given butter tarts (from the Maid’s Kitchen) to take home with me. Julie goes in to the house and emerges with a beautiful oil painting of William Lyon Mackenzie, painted by her husband. I mention that I recently visited the great man’s house in Toronto which is still standing while those on either side have long been demolished. There is a moral there.

Now I am walking away from the house I hear Tracee call after me:

“Don’t forget my campaign launch tomorrow!”

“Wear your funky shoes!”

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Details

Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 08 September 2016

More development is promised in the heart of Ward 5 – Newmarket’s cherished old downtown.

I see that Neil and Chrisula Selfe (aka 1569121 Ontario Limited) sold the crumbling King George School to 400 Park Avenue Inc for $3, 500,000 on 12 August 2016.

The Selfes bought the property from the York Region School Board on 15 November 2011 for $1,275,000. Since then the unoccupied building has been gently rotting away.

Curiously, the sellers (the Selfes) have a charge on the property for $2,500,000. We shall learn more of this later.

400 Park Avenue Inc is believed to be linked to the Rose Corporation.

The old school was designated by the Town on 20 October 1986 as a property of architectural and historical value. It cannot be demolished but it can be “re-purposed” as part of a wider redevelopment of the site.

More to follow.

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The Town gave reasons for the designation in 1986:

The property known as King George Public School at 400 Park Avenue is worthy of designation for architectural and historical reasons. King George School, as the Town’s oldest functioning public school building, is a well preserved example of early twentieth century public school architecture. It was constructed in 1912 to 1913 by Mr McIntosh, contractor, to the plans and specifications of O. E. Trench, architect. This red brick, two storey school, which rests on a limestone block foundation, was built on the site of an earlier school, both of which were designed to serve the primary grades. Projecting two storey entrances, with exterior stairways, sided in limestone blocks to match the foundation, are on each of the Victoria and Park facades. The entrance bays have concrete quoins and ornamental projections above the flat roof of the building. The top of the walls of this square building incorporate decorative moulding and brick banding. The corners of the building have quoins simulated in brick. Large windows, surmounted by concrete lintels, illuminate the six classrooms in this school.

Details

Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 06 September 2016

The removal of disfiguring and unsightly metal sidings from the front of historic commercial buildings on Main Street South allows us to see, for the first time in decades, what lies behind.

The sidings are being removed to allow detailed inspection of the state of the facades.

Bob Forrest’s Clock Tower application for a seven storey rental apartment block in the heart of the Town’s Heritage Conservation District involves the demolition of the historic commercial buildings at 184, 188 and 194-196 Main Street South and the retention and restoration of their facades.

The building at 190 Main Street South occupies an old alley and is neither historic nor complementary to the existing buildings. It was the former pizza shop. It has no historic nor architectural merit.  

The streetscape (below) shows the block before the sidings were removed. It is taken from the Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) commissioned by Bob and produced for him by Goldsmith Borgal and Company Ltd, Architects.

Main Street South streetscape

That Heritage Impact Assessment  conveniently reminds us of the Town’s policies which are set out in the Lower Main Street Heritage Conservation District Plan 2011 (which is entrenched in the October 2013 By-law).

 The Town’s objectives are (amongst others):

“To retain historic buildings, maintain their integrity, improve them with respect for historic materials and distinctive features and, where possible, restore their lost features or damaged materials.”

Existing policy makes it clear:

“The Town supports the retention of historic buildings in the district.”

Taking us all for fools

Bob, who takes us all for fools, would demolish 184 Main Street South, one of the oldest buildings in Town (and, indeed, the Province) dating from the mid 1840s.

The first woman pharmacist in Canada ran her business from this building. (This building was not clad in metal siding.)

Bob’s Heritage Impact Assessment says dryly:

“As perhaps the oldest extant building on the site and on the block, the heritage significance will be acknowledged through preservation and interpretation.”

188 Main Street South, by contrast, was clad in metal siding. Bob’s Heritage Impact Assessment says:

“Archival documentation and on-site investigation shows the original brick façade – now painted and covered with metal siding… the brick appears to be in good condition.”

The facade is shown below painted in green.

194 Main Street South, also clad in metal siding, was home to the business “Lemon and Lime” (photo bottom right). After Bob evicted them, the business owners relocated a few doors away, in the same block. Bob’s HIA says:

“Archival documentation and on-site investigation shows a brick façade, identical to the neighbouring building to the south. From a preliminary on-site investigation, the brick appears to be in good condition.”  

Peer Review

Bob’s HIA was “peer reviewed” by ERA architects of Toronto who plainly did not fulfil the terms of their contract with the Town. There is no discussion in the peer review of the architectural or historic qualities of the properties Bob would like to demolish.

Conservation strategy

Instead, the peer reviewer asks Bob

“to clarify the conservation strategy by describing the intended approach to each building being conserved”. (my emphasis)

It seems pretty clear to me Bob wants to knock the old buildings down and preserve the facades, as best he can. Being Bob, he will probably want to do as little as he can get away with.

Hideous application

In due course we shall see what the Town’s own planners have to say about Bob’s hideous application.

A report will go up to the Town's Committee of the Whole some time after the Ward 5 by-election on 17 October 2016.

In the meantime, we can all look at the old buildings without their metal sidings and imagine what they could look like, if properly and sensitively restored.

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Details

Written by Gordon Prentice

Published: 04 September 2016

Background note and health warning. Thanks to the Census and the National Household Survey we can unpack Ward 5 and build a profile without invading anyone’s personal privacy. This is as it should be. The census is a treasure trove of information. There are three census tracts which cover Ward 5. The census tract is the smallest area examined by the census. The Town of Newmarket is a census division; within it are the census tracts. The census tracts and Ward boundaries are not coterminous.

I have looked at the census tract (5350451.02) which covers the largest area in Ward 5 from Davis Drive in the north to Eagle Street in the South, Yonge Street in the West and the rail track in the East. The second census tract covering the south west part of Ward 5 bleeds into Ward 6 (5350451.03). The third census tract covers the area from Eagle Street in the North to Mulock Drive in the South and includes the Town’s HQ (5350451.01). It has a population of 2,230 – less than half the size of the biggest tract that I am looking at. It shares many of the characteristics of the other tracts.

The statistics I quote below come exclusively from the largest census tract, ignoring the other two. This saves me a lot of work and flaffing about. It gives us a feel for the old downtown which is at the heart of Ward 5.

The data is not from this year’s census. It is from 2011 and, in many instances, it shows its age. House prices, for example, will for some appear curiously affordable ($357,571). But as we know, since 2011, house prices have gone through the roof. These figures no longer reflect present reality. But in other respects the data is still good. The structure of the population in terms of housing tenure and, say, income distribution probably remains much about the same. The numbers do not always round for a myriad of reasons explained by Statistics Canada. So, with all these health warnings, what did I learn?

Older and wealthier and wiser?

The population of the biggest census tract of Ward 5 (where voters will be going to the polls on 17 October) is on average older, wealthier and more highly educated than the Town as a whole.

The population was 4,903 in 2011 – down 3% from the 5,056 in 2006. During that period the Town’s population grew by 7.6%. The population density per square kilometer is higher in the biggest census tract of Ward 5 than for the Town as a whole (2,460 vs 2,088) so they cosy up together.

The median age of residents (half way between the youngest and oldest) is 46 compared with just over 39 for the Town. This census tract of Ward 5 has fewer children than the town as a whole and smaller households (the tract has 2.1 people in the average household compared with 2.9 for the Town.)  

Deep roots

The census tract is overwhelmingly anglo with 4,105 people citing their mother tongue is English (French 70 and other non official languages 530). And they’ve been here for a long time and have deep roots.

Of the total population (4,750) in private households, 780 are first generation Canadians; 1,070 are second generation and a remarkable 2,900 are third generation or earlier.

2,820 cite origins in the British Isles followed by France (455), Germany (410) and the Netherlands (350). Of those from the British Isles, 1,765 census respondents say they have links with England (through parents or grandparents or more distant relatives); 1,215 with Scotland and 1,095 with Ireland.

Well educated

The people in this part of Ward 5 are very well educated. They know the time of day.

2,400 people have a post secondary certificate, diploma or degree. 455 have qualifications in business, management or public administration. 405 in architecture, engineering and similar disciplines and 360 in health and related fields.

The top four occupations in Ward 5 are (1) sales and service - 650 (2) business, finance and  administration – 500 (3) education, law and government – 350 and (4) management of some kind – 270.

Full time or Part-time?

Just over one fifth of people in work in this part of Ward 5 are part-timers (PT = 605 and FT = 2030). Most of those in work leave home between 7am and 9am (1385) but there are early risers leaving between 5am and 7am (540) and the leisurely sleepy heads (330) who leave anytime after 9am.

The cost of having a roof over your head

There are 2,230 households in this part of Ward 5. Of these 1,425 are owned and 810 rented. Of the total, taking both tenures together, 1,500 households are spending less than 30% of their income on their accommodation and 730 more.

36.4% of tenants are spending 30% or more of their total household income on shelter (ie accommodation). In 2011 this was $906. For owner occupiers it was $1,323. It will have increased significantly since then.

Out of the total number of owner households, 58.2% have a mortgage. Almost one third (30.5%) are spending 30% or more of their household income on their accommodation. (30% is often regarded as a benchmark of affordability.)

The average value of dwellings in this part of Ward 5 in 2011 was $357,571.

Wealthier than most Canadians

The National Household Survey looked at the after-tax family income of the population in this part of Ward 5 (4,745) by decile, (or by bite-size chunks of 10%). It found 2,610 were in the top half of Canadian distribution and 2,140 in the bottom half.

615 people were in the top 10% of Canadian income distribution.

In the National Household Survey of 2011, of the 2,230 private households in this part of Ward 5, the average household income was $76,307 and, after-tax, $63,975. Again, these figures will have changed.

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Nominations for the by-election on 17 October 2016 have now closed. The candidates are: Bob Kwapis, Darryl Wolk, Tom Pearson, Ron Eibel, Ian Johnston, Wasim Jarrah, Tracee Chambers (no web site yet though I am told one is under construction) and Peter Geibel.

I shall be looking at them all in turn.

Update at 6pm on 4 September: Tracee Chambers' website is now up and running.

Update on 5 September: Population counts and dwelling information from the 2016 Census will be released on 8 February 2017 by Statistics Canada.