OBSERVER NEWS |
No Frills gets parking expansion
» Loblaw, township reach out-of-court settlement deal
BY: STEVE KANNON
The No Frills store in Elmira will get its extra parking spaces, as Woolwich Township and Loblaw this week reached an out-of-court settlement.
The agreement will see part of the existing residential property to the south severed off to provide additional parking for the cramped grocery store site. The deal follows legal action and an Ontario Municipal Board appeal launched by Loblaw Properties Ltd. over council’s refusal last fall to allow the expansion.
In the end, the company got the compromise it proposed at the time: the existing house will be demolished, and a new 19-metre residential lot formed, with Loblaw, through its Doetrail Inc. holding company, required to build a new home within two years.
Doetrail’s initial plan for incorporating the property at 244 Arthur St. S provided parking for 191 cars, a significant increase from the current 86. That was subsequently scaled back to 131 to maintain an 18-metre-wide building lot between the parking lot and the next home to the south.
At that time, township planning staff countered with room for 114 cars, retaining the existing house on a lot 27 metres wide. Council ultimately opted for the status quo, prompting the legal fight.
The settlement ends that battle, though the formality of an OMB hearing, likely May 23, remains before any work can proceed at the site. Current plans call for a total of 125 parking spaces.
While the company got its additional parking area, the township held out for concessions it considered crucial to the deal, said chief administrative officer David Brenneman.
Topping the list were the retention of a viable residential lot with a house, and the township’s ownership of a one-foot buffer strip between the grocery store site and the new residential property. That provision eliminates the possibility of creeping expansion.
“We wanted to make sure, long-term, that’s going to remain a residential lot,” he explained.
Woolwich also capped the size of the store at its existing dimensions.
Recognizing the decision was a compromise, a cost-benefit analysis made a settlement more desirable than spending in excess of $100,000 to hash out the details in court, he said.
“Council was confident that, based on what was achieved, the greater community good was preserved and protected.”
Local students in good voice
» Riverside and Breslau PS contingents to take part in annual Kodaly Festival
BY: VANESSA MOSS
The halls of Riverside and Breslau Public Schools have been filled with the sounds of difficult music this year as students prepared for the 21st annual Kodaly Festival May 6 at the Centre in the Square.
Kodaly (pronounced “ko-die”) will see 20 Grade 4, 5 and 6 students from Riverside and 24 from Breslau join some 300 singers on stage; 300 other students will perform May 7.
“It’s an awesome opportunity to celebrate the arts,” said Jennifer Densmore, a music teacher at Riverside.
“The arts are really, really important and it’s a chance for the kids to share their love of music with others and I like to encourage that.”
The children will be accompanied by an orchestra made up of local teachers and administrators from the Waterloo Region District School Board, along with a guest choir from the Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate Institute.
Former music teacher Charles Payette will conduct for the second year in a row, leading the groups in a challenging repertoire, said organizer Mark McMath.
All 30 school choirs involved have been diligently practicing to learn and memorize the same 18 songs, some of which are in foreign languages.
“It’s a long-term commitment so, it’s kids that [are] keen and interested. It’s not just your typical little choir that sings at Christmas,” Densmore said.
The songs vary from modern to classical, with some pieces written in Italian and French.
Songwriter Gary Ewer composed an Ontario folk song specifically for the festival, “Hurry Up Harry,” which, along with “Hymn to Freedom” by Oscar Peterson, will make up the finale: always a crowd favourite.
“My mom comes every year just to listen because she loves the concert,” Densmore said.
When the festival was first created, the region’s public school music programs were run by music specialists trained in the Zoltan Kodaly methodology of music education. (A Hungarian composer who created the “do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do” training tool). As part of that curriculum, the board created the mass choir to allow certain students to expand their skills beyond the regular teachings, McMath explained.
The concert was designed to allow musicians to come together in celebration, he said.
Now, 21 years later, the 600 children involved continue to demonstrate that passion for music, and Densmore hopes the festival lives on.
“I’m really passionate about the arts and I think it’s important that kids are too."