If you live in the city`s rural areas or in the downtown core, you could be in for a big property-tax increase.
If you live in one of the city`s many bedroom communities, you could be in for a slight decrease. The Municipal Property Assessment Corp.`s 2009 property assessments were released yesterday, and homeowners should expect to start receiving their notices Monday. Assessments had been frozen for the past four years.
1008OTWA Doucet wants city to reopen Lansdowne debate
OTTAWA - Capital Councillor Clive Doucet, whose ward contains Lansdowne Park, wants to stop the "special" city hall treatment of an "unsolicited, sole-source proposal" for redeveloping the park and restart a competitive process to determine what`s done with the site.
Earlier this week, a group of area developers submitted a plan to redevelop the park and municipal staff are currently reviewing it before making a recommendation on what to do.
Following this, city council will decide how to proceed.
The city is ready to kick $5 million into three McMaster University projects, including turning Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital into a teaching facility.
City councillors unanimously approved the move earlier this week, which stipulates that the region needs to pony up at least $5 million of the approved $10 million contribution for the projects.
1008YRHL Watermain nightmare upsets local businesses
Disruptions due to watermain breaks has business owners in the Yonge Street and 16th Avenue area of Richmond Hill fuming.
One of the town`s busiest intersections, Yonge and 16th has been disrupted no less than four times this year because of watermain breaks.
But upset motorists don`t have anything on the owners of McDonald`s, King Henry`s Arms and the Lone Star Cafe, located on the northwest corner of the intersection.
1008ONTR Ont. considers energy-efficiency reports for homebuyers
All parties in Ontario`s legislature agreed in principle last Thursday to a private member`s bill that would make it mandatory to provide energy ratings to potential homebuyers so they can assess the costs of maintaining residences.
The initiative, outlined in a bill introduced by Liberal member Phil McNeely, would be phased in over three years, starting in 2010, and apply to homes and small apartments. Under Bill 101, a builder or seller would have to get a rating report that informs buyers of the home`s energy efficiency to allow them to estimate costs. It wouldn`t, however, set limits or regulations on the amount of energy that can be used.
It`s a tired, if true, refrain you`ll hear again and again from pre-construction condo buyers: "What? Another delay? Oh, well, I guess the upshot is that it gives me more time to save money." It`s true that inevitable delays often bring the opportunity to bank a few more paycheques. But as the date to move into your home gets inevitably pushed back, so too does the reality that you`ll actually have to shell out those final deposits and lawyers fees become hazy. It`s distant, like the occupancy itself.
It`s a record investment in public transportation in Ontario.
But, against the backdrop of a global economic decline, it is becoming increasingly clear how few of the dozens of transportation improvements outlined in last month`s 25-year Metrolinx plan can be covered by the $11.5 billion the province has committed to spending.
It is also increasingly obvious that the municipal politicians on the Metrolinx board will be faced with the tricky prospect of selling their constituents on the regional rather than the local benefits of their plan.
Nuclear reactor designer Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. is hoping that high praise from China can improve its fortunes in the West.
Top AECL officials attended an event early Thursday morning in the Zhejiang province to mark the fifth anniversary of the Qinshan Phase III nuclear mega-project. It was in 2003 when the second of two Candu 6 reactors built by AECL began generating electricity from uranium fuel.
The new multimillion-dollar redevelopment of Lansdowne Park will die if the city does not accept three major elements of the plan, the proponents said yesterday.
Roger Greenberg and Jeff Hunt told the Citizen editorial board yesterday that the city must accept an open-air multi-purpose stadium, sign on to the retail component and banish the idea of an international design competition for the park, or the new Lansdowne vision would collapse.
The thing that should worry you about Ontario`s $500-million deficit is not the relatively small sum, but the fact that Premier Dalton McGuinty hasn`t a clue how to keep the provincial government from slipping deeper and deeper into debt.
Neither city officials nor the prospective buyer of city-owned land in the North Glanbrook Industrial Park are willing to say much at this time about plans for an indoor waste-recycling operation on Nebo Road.
1008RHL Richmond Hill Centre preferred for future Yonge subway stop
Councillors expressed their support last week for a preferred alignment into Richmond Hill Centre in the proposed Yonge Street Subway extension project.
Brought forward by the York Region Rapid Transit Corporation, different options, including one option of a subway line travelling right up Yonge Street, were cast aside in favour of a line that would run parallel with current GO Train railway lines, just east of the main street.
Whitchurch-Stouffville is officially ahead of the projected growth for mid-2008, according to a report released by the planning department.
Staff projected Whitchurch-Stouffville`s population to be 32,000 in June 2008. An external company (C.N. Watson) forecast a population of 32,646 by mid-2009, however town staff believe this will be met by the end of 2008. By 2011, it is projected the town`s population will sit around 36,800.
CLARINGTON -- When it comes to where growth should happen in Clarington, the Region`s view might not match Clarington residents` and that will be up for discussion at Monday`s council meeting. "It`s proposed that by 2051, Clarington would be one urban area from Courtice over to Newcastle village and obviously, that`s out of sync with what the feelings of our residents are," planning director David Crome told councillors last week.
Mark Twain`s famous maxim "Buy land, they`re not making it anymore" was never more prophetic.
But if the great American satirist were alive today, he might have coined a variation to account for the vast body of water at the foot of our great city: "Buy waterfront land, they`re not making it anymore."
1008ONTR When it comes to property`s paranormal history, it`s buyer beware
In the real estate field, when the value of a house is, or could be, affected by a history of murder, suicide, ghosts, hauntings or other unexplained happenings, it is said to be stigmatized. This may occur when the real estate becomes psychologically affected or tainted, even if the perception is based on non-physical, non-scientific or even irrational perceptions.
In the marketplace, the big issue has always been whether there is an obligation to disclose the nature and existence of the stigma to potential buyers.
London`s new suburbs will look and feel a lot more like older, more traditional neighbourhoods if city council adopts sweeping new housing development guidelines. Tonight, city council`s planning committee will be asked to endorse new "placemaking" guidelines -- grid-like streets and rear laneways instead of winding loops and broad front driveways, for example -- that will become part of the official plan.
1008BTFD
City/county boundary talks change focus to Paris
Brant County appears to be taking negotiations with Brantford on boundary adjustments and joint development on a new path by suddenly steering its focus toward Paris, and away from Cainsville.
"It`s a new request, one we haven`t considered before," Brantford Mayor Mike Hancock said in an interview Sunday.
He said the city is trying to establish a position on a pitch from county negotiators that they want to develop a tract of land in the south Paris area.
