CCRA PRESIDENT Bob Baron: February 2001 In 1989, a proposal was put before the city of Scarborough to develop the land which has come to be known as the Manson site. This was the start of a dialogue between the city, the province, various developers and the community to ensure that the proposed development would be both a desirable and safe place to live, for both the new and the existing residents. This became one of the longest running, most comprehensive and largest community dialogues in the history of Canada. As a result of public meetings, discussions, representations at city council, the OMB and other public forums, the concerns and wants of the community were made known to our elected representatives and together we worked towards forming and implementing a comprehensive plan for the benefit of all. Public health and safety as well as the aesthetics of this massive development have been extremely important from the outset and literally hundreds of volunteers have worked to preserve the integrity of this area. As you know from reading past issues of this newsletter, there is a project team overseeing the safe dismantling of the Manson buildings and remediation of the soil. There are still some issues with detecting and disposing of dangerous substances but we are making progress. During the first several years of discussion, it became clear that development of this site would have to include certain features to gain the acceptance of the community at large. These requirements resulted in the concept of a village common, to be shared by the residents of the new development and by those of the existing surrounding, communities. As this development is situated on the last open site with public access to the lake in the GTA, it was to be a destination point. With a mix of parkland, retail and commercial offerings, the Village Common was to be a public place with a distinct pedestrian orientation. When the Port Union Village Community Secondary Plan was approved by City Council in January, 1999, the Plan included the following statements: "... Council will support and encourage the use of the Village Common as a place of public assembly and activity, complemented by the surrounding Village Mixed Use designation..." "... The objective of the Village Mixed Uses designation is to contribute towards [a] pedestrian oriented image of Port Union and the Village Common..." "Development within this community should result in [a] recognizably distinct community. It is intended that the area have the flavour of a water-related village. A mixture of residential, mixed uses and public uses will be arranged along with street and open space network to promote and maintain this character." In September, 2000, amendments to this plan were proposed and approved at Community Council without there being proper notification and discussion within the community. The CCRA immediately upon learning of this, started to lobby to have this issue brought back to the community for further discussion and input. On January 16th, 2001, we went before Community Council and were successful in getting their agreement that the community needed more input in this decision. We will be advising you of upcoming public meetings to determine the final character of the Village Common which will be presented to City Council. If you care about having the Village Common we all fought so hard for, make your voice heard.