“Good evening, my name is Janet Haslett-Theall and tonight I am delegating on behalf of Chartwell Maplegrove Residents association, Joshua Creek Residents Association, Oakville Lakeside Resident Association, Clearview Oakville Community Alliance, Trafalgar Chartwell Residents Association and  West River Residents Association,

We begin with our sincere appreciation for the significant effort of the Town Staff who worked on the South Central Land Use study and the Master Parks and Recreation plan. They have lived up to their commitment to a comprehensive Public consultation process and made themselves available for additional questions and concerns of a large group of residents with a wide range of views.  Thank you for listening and understanding the significance of the impact these recommendations will have on our neighbourhoods.

When we began this process each of the neighbourhoods in South East Oakville had a wide range of views on how the school lands and OTMH could be used. In the past year we have had numerous discussions with our residents, Town staff and other resident associations. We have shared our wishes, evaluated many options, listened and debated. We have reflected on the impact the loss of three neighbourhood schools, the pending change with the Hospital and the need for a community hub within our community.

In evaluating the Staff’s final recommendation we stepped back to assess if when implemented would it achieve our common goals.

These goals are:

• First and foremost we all want a multi-generational community centre with parkland and a medical facility. We recognize that these services are best located on the Hospital Lands based on the size and activities it will provide.
• We all expect residential development to respect the character of the surrounding neighborhoods unique to each property.
•  We expect that the Old OT building can be partially incorporated into the new community centre, therefore preserving a link to the history and culture of the area.
• We expect that future development will be done in compliance with Livable Oakville and for the Hospital Lands in particular at 29 units per hectare. If there are to be changes to a higher density on any specific part of the land, then we expect further negotiations’ with the immediate community especially on the design of that increased density.
• We appreciate the importance of active parkland to making Oakville truly livable and expect development will provide and preserve green space.
• We are all concerned that development of these lands be done in a timely manner minimizing residential disruption and eliminating vandalism of vacant schools / lots.

We support the Staff plan in principle; it achieves many of our goals.  Our concern is ensuring that development respects the unique character and heritage of each of our neighbourhoods AND meets the defined standards of Livable Oakville including density provisions.

In conclusion we express our continued appreciation to the Town Staff for their efforts in balancing all of our goals. We look forward to participating in future meetings regarding density and detailed designs from developers for the residential development and community centre.”