The most important outcome of the night was that the voice of We The Residents was heard and it was HEARD LOUD AND CLEAR!!

As a result, at the end of the meeting most, not all, Councillors present, publicly stated THEY WILL REJECT the landowner’s application as it stands for re-development at SOS.  This is a momentous and remarkable outcome, and we thank all Markham Councillors, including Mayor Scarpitti, Deputy Mayor Heath, Regional Councillor Jones and Regional Councillor Virgilio for their decisive decisions.  They spoke up FOR the residents, for OUR community, and we thank them for their forthright and definitive response last night.

WNENA wishes to specifically thank Councillor Erin Shapero for all the work she has committed to this long and complicated issue – we would not be where we are today were it not for her unwavering support of the residents and her very clear voice to the landowner and their representatives rejecting their narrow focused view on how to re-develop this parcel land which sits within an already developed neighbourhood straddling an overburdened intersection and roads which cannot support any more traffic.  She never waivered and we thank her for that commitment.

A staff report will now be written by the Planning Department which will then go back to Council, the timeline of which is still uncertain as there is still much to accomplish.  In the interim, a motion was passed by Council for a number of issues to be referred back to the Planning Department, and discussion on these issues will now take place within the Town. 

It was agreed by Council that once this has occurred, the Town would come back to the Working Group to present their findings and receive the Working Group’s input.

There was no indication from the landowner last night as to what their next move would be.  In a personal conversation with one of us, the architect did state that the landowners would not really want to reduce the size of the towers to only 6 stories and the unit count to 400.  So, there is still much work to be done, but the “success” of last night is a CLEAR indication where the Town stands – and the Town stand with its residents!

The Working Group made a few very good presentations with the aid of PowerPoint, and I would like to make special mention of the Traffic Study presented by Eileen Liasi, which, even the Mayor stated was “one of the best” he had ever seen!  Well done Eileen!!

The members of the public who spoke all did so with elegance and passion and made it very clear that we will NOT accept over-development on this site.  Unfortunately one speaker was out of order and made this public meeting his platform to inappropriately attempt to discredit Councillor Shapero, but he was stopped by the Deputy Mayor and received a resounding booing from the public gallery. 

I want to take this opportunity to thank all members of Markham Council and Planning Staff who assisted and guided us, the SOS Working Group, through this process – they readily involved us as representatives of the broader public in everything that was undertaken.  This was a true open and transparent public process, and for that the Town of Markham should be loudly applauded.

This was the first time the City of Toronto and the Town of Markham had worked together in this manner.  This was acknowledged with gratitude from both sides, and we are in complete agreement!

So, for now, we can only hope the landowner and the architects are back at the drawing board and attempting to come up with an alternate site plan which will suit their needs, and most importantly, those of the Town and the Residents.  The landowner and the Town are going to have to come to some consensus to avoid an Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing.  May they reach that consensus quickly and decisively!

I make this one very important observation:  Last night the Town of Markham showed that we can trust in them.   We thank them for giving us, the residents and the public, the remarkable opportunity to do just that!

Onwards and upwards – we still have still much to do and much to accomplish, but tonight, we can all be very proud of ourselves and the Town of Markham, and we can all take a deep collective refreshing breath so we may continue our valiant effort to save and protect our community as this issue continues to move forward!