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Serving the Mapleton Community
Community News Volume 44 Issue 50
Drayton, Ontario
1 Year GIC - 1.90% 3 Year GIC - 2.25% 5 Year GIC - 2.70% Daily Interest 1.75%
Friday, December 16, 2011
New restaurant causes council to alter parking rules in Drayton by David Meyer MAPLETON TWP. Council here is always seeking to attract new business to the community, but it is now anticipating a successful venture has arrived. Council planned to readjust its parking bylaw for Drayton after a report from public works director Larry Lynch on Nov. 22. That report stated, “A new restaurant is scheduled to open on or about Dec. 1 ... when the Drayton Chop House opens its doors at the corner of Wellington Street and Wood Street in Drayton.” Lynch said, “This venue has minimal on-site parking and if the success matches other such restaurants by the same ownership group, there will no doubt be a significant increase in onstreet parking on Wellington Street, Wood Street and Elm Street.” Lynch said Wellington Street currently has parking on both sides of the street from Spring Street to Wood Street. There is also a municipal parking lot off Main Street, a short walk from the Chop House. There are currently no onstreet parking restrictions on Wood or Elm Streets and, “customers will tend to want to park as close as possible to a successful establishment and there is a very real potential for emergency vehicle access problems if parking continues to be allowed on both sides of Wood Street and Elm Street,” Lynch wrote. He added, “There will certainly be maintenance issues along the boulevards along both Wood Street and Elm Street as there are no curbs and the gravel shoulders are very narrow.” He recommended parking be prohibited on: - the north side of Wood Street from the southernmost
driveway access to the property municipally addressed as 24 Wood Street to the intersection at Elm Street; and - the east side of Elm Street between County Road 8 and the Drayton Legion. He recommended council pass a bylaw to make those changes. Lynch told council the Elm Street recommendation deals with a long standing issue of parking for a nearby church. He said Elm Street is already very narrow and presents snow clearing issues. Councillor Jim Curry asked if council could consider an exemption for parking for those using the church, noting “a lot park there. We can certainly allow that.” But Lynch said the issue is similar to others in the community, where snowbanks make parking restrictive. He added there should be no parking on both sides of the Legion, because it is “a safety issue.” He added, “There are options in the area.” Mayor Bruce Whale said the township should post signs so people coming to the restaurant will know about the restrictions. Councillor Neil Driscoll said elderly people used to line the route and watch a Drayton Fair parade, and the hope is to someday bring that parade back. He wondered if the township could make an exception for that. Finance director Mike Givens said the township would close the road for that event, so parking would not be an issue. Lynch added the township could also post signs for that event. Curry agreed Elm Street is narrow and, “if church is in, you can’t get through with a plow.” He said on Wood Street people park on the lawn and Continued on page 9
Horticultural honour - Jean Dobben, who won the most points in horticulture at the 2011 Drayton Fair, was recently recognized for her achievement by Drayton Mapleton Agricultural Society member Jim Walker, left, and president Jim Driscoll at the annual fair meeting. More photos on page 12. submitted photo
Council accepts explanation of road costs by David Meyer MAPLETON TWP. County Road 45 will again be maintained by township road crews this winter. Council made that decision at its last November meeting after hearing a report from public works director Larry Lynch about how the county reimburses the township for the work. Council received the request at its previous meeting but wanted to know if the proposed increase in payment was keeping pace with the high cost of such things as fuel and
truck upkeep. The work includes plowing and sanding, as well as routine patrolling of the road. Lynch explained to council it is no hardship for the township to do that work because the road connects to a pair of township roads, and road crews would have to travel on County Road 45 in order to drive from one township road to the other. Lynch said in his report the maintenance in the Glen Allan area has been done for many years by Mapleton crews. “The cost per kilometre is based on a number derived a
number of years ago by the county operations manager, Paul Johnson,” Lynch said in his report. “It takes into account the cost of the equipment, time to carry out the winter operation, fuel, maintenance and so on.” He added, “This number has been increased each year to reflect the cost of fuel and so on.” Lynch provided a table showing the payment has increased regularly. Further, he said Johnson takes into account the snowfall for each winter. “You will note a significant
jump between 2007-08 and 2008-09 where in fact there was a significant snowfall,” he explained. The total payment in those two years went from $22,800 to $30,440. The price increase went from $3,000 per kilometre to $4,000. In 2010-11, the total payment was $34,960 for the winter or $4,600 per kilometre. Council then considered Lynch’s recommendation to receive the report and agreed to a contract at a cost of $4,800 per kilometre. That motion carried unanimously.
Mapleton Township gets definitions sorted out on mobile homes by David Meyer MAPLETON TWP. Councillors here will likely heave a sigh of relief when their new zoning bylaw is finally passed. In that bylaw will be a clarification about the uses of granny or garden suites and what can be used as that housing. Councillors have held several lengthy debates and been forced to delay approvals over the definitions and if a mobile home can be used as a garden
suite. Council received an eight page report from chief administrative officer Patty Sinnamon outlining the differences in the old bylaw and what is planned in the new one. Mayor Bruce Whale also pointed out that a garden suite must be used by family members, and not by hired help. Sinnamon told him the new legislation does not differentiate between hired help and relatives.
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Whale noted that a recent applicant for a garden suite was using a mobile home for a garden suite for his elderly parents. Sinnamon noted the bylaw would need two exemptions from the current rules: being allowed a mobile home, and being permitted to connect it to the main house with a breezeway. Councillor Jim Curry suggested the township simply write its new bylaw in line with Canada Mortgage and Housing
Corporation definitions. But Sinnamon said it is more important for council to adhere to the provincial Planning Act, which makes no distinctions between a mobile or modular home. She added it is hard to tell the two apart, but the township had the distinction in its old bylaw. Councillor Mike Downey wondered why the old bylaw prohibited the attachment of the unit to the house. He said in winter it would be easier to
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travel back and forth from the unit to the house. Sinnamon said that is in the Planning Act. But Downey said, “In rural Ontario, for elderly parents, what’s the big deal?” Whale suggested the township simply agreed that a garden suite and house “may be attached by a breezeway.” Councillor Neil Driscoll was unhappy with the difficulties in sorting out the issue. “Look at all the time we had to go through for a granny
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flat,” he said. “It’s ridiculous.” He said mobile homes are not necessarily a good thing for a township trying to attract visitors, and the money spent could have built an addition to the house. Whale said the provincial government is encouraging “aging at home” and said the problem is how people manage to do that at reasonable cost. Council then accepted Sinnamon’s report for information.
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