Columns
November 29, 2008 01:56 AM
Marney Beck
Few geographic places in Richmond Hill have stirred controversy as passionate or as long as the prime corner of Yonge and Major Mackenzie.
And for longtime residents it must seem like deja vu to hear that town officials are - yet again - discussing whether a civic centre should be built at that location.
Can’t picture the site?
Think ‘toboggan hill’ and picture happy children flying down a hill on the southwest corner of Yonge and Major Mackenzie, with parents standing on top stamping their feet in the cold, holding a hot chocolate while watching the kids having fun.
Yes, that site, which since the 1980s has been seriously considered, then shelved, as the location for our Town’s municipal offices.
In that decade, when the old town hall offices at Yonge and Wright - currently restored as part of the new theatre - were deemed to be too small and too old to accommodate a growing and modern town staff, plans were commissioned and architects’ drawings made for a new building at the prime location in the geographic centre of town.
By 1987, council of the day hired architects to design a $35-million centre to house municipal offices, a new library and a theatre.
There was even a ground-breaking ceremony in September 1988, although pointed questions from residents and some councillors were asked about the already-escalating pricetag topping $50 million.
So it seemed safer for our politicians to build public-use facilities on or near that choice location. First it was the $7-million Lois Hancey Aquatic Centre.
When a recession hit in the 1990s, welfare cases soared, jobs were lost and industrial and commercial space stood empty in Richmond Hill.
In fact, Beaver Creek alone had one million square feet of vacant office space.
If that all sounds too familiar and unbelievable, The Liberal did many stories on that economic situation, and the resulting public outcry that many residents wanted a brand new civic centre postponed. There were letters to the editor about ‘white elephants’ and an Angus Reid survey of 200 residents in 1990 showed concerned councillors that taxpayers didn’t want the Town to borrow money to build a new multi-use civic centre.
Then mayor Bill Bell made a compromise announcement in mid-1991. The Town would purchase an eight-storey building on East Beaver Creek Road from Captain Developments for $20 million and stay there for three years to see if the economy improved enough to make a new civic centre on Yonge Street affordable.
In the meantime, to put Richmond Hill’s ‘stamp’ on that prime location, a brand new $12-million central library would be built there without borrowing money.
It seemed a good financial compromise, but then there was a hue and cry from taxpayers saying that town offices and the seat of government was too far away, situated in the furthest south and east corner of Richmond Hill.
But locating Town offices and council chambers in Beaver Creek helped stimulate growth and development there, and in 1994 the option to sell back the town offices to the developer was extended another five years, and it seemed town staff and politicians were officially staying in their highrise tower.
So how can I write about this with such authority? Because I remember.
I was editor of The Liberal in the ‘80s and up to 1991. I well recall all the letters to the editor and front-page stories and public discussion about where the town offices were located, what taxpayers should or could pay, and if we could support a combined theatre and civic centre.
Fast forward to the year 2008, and we’re poised to open and enjoy a lovely new theatre, built - if you’ll pardon the motto pun - ‘a little north a little nicer’ from the Yonge and Major Mackenzie location.
But it seems the controversy about the civic centre site is still swirling and town politicians, yet again, will have to make a financial decision in the middle of an economic downturn.
Try $107 million for a nine-storey office tower, reflecting pool and civic square gracing 9.5 acres. And pros and cons aired by politicians trying to do the right thing during a recession, yet still plan for our growing future ...
Dare I say, the more things change, the more they stay the same?