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mercedes benz repair specialist 172 bullock drive unit 31 markham 4z18660 stouffville weekender financial services lite beit choice jfete term gjc 1 yr 375 3 yr 50 5yr 5625 rates subject to change gics rrsps mutual funds life insurance annuities rrifs tax preparation mortgages 137 main st n q markham 4712311 vol 13 no 7 a metroland community newspaper s 15 town council wowed by 150 million development by joan ransberry staff reporter a 150 million adult lifestyle community made up of 900 homes and an 18hole champi onship golf course will be built on 370 acres at aurora road near hwy 48 in ballantrae if local council gives the plan the go ahead whitchurchstouffville coun cil gave the proposal a wow response when it was unveiled tuesday meanwhile the plan will go under public scrutiny very soon the forhan group acting on behalf of developer schickedanz bros ltd will host a public information meet ing on april 1 at 7 pm at the ballantrae community centre the ball for one of the largest developments in whitchurch a model of the clubhouse for the proposed ballantrae golf and coun try club the public can view all the plans on april 1 in ballantrae construction of the first 60 homes could begin in the spring of 98 the plan is to build about 62 homes ayear itll take between 10 and 15 years for the last house to be built consultant bob forhan sr said at a news conference thursday of the 900 homes 80 per cent will be onestorey bungalows while the rest will be link homes the units in the condomini umstyle housing develop ment designed for retired and semiretired people 50 years and older will be in the 190000 to 280000price range home sizes range from 1200 to 2000square feet the developer will pay 15 million in lot levies once com plete the development will generate 3million ayear in tax dollars for the town of whitchurchstouffville said bob forhan jr most of the home buyers are please see page 3 stouffvilles history started rolling wednesday afternoon when the developer filed his application at the local munici pal office the plan does not include commerical develop ment the par72 7000yard golf course will be built first work on the course could begin in a years time the golf course will be laid out around the perimetre of the property to buffer the residential areas residents polled on single city by kathleen griffin staff reporter more than 50 per cent of residents do not want to see york regions nine municipali ties amalgamated into one city in an informal poll the weekender called 200 people in markham and whitchurch- stouffville and asked them if they wanted to see the region as one big city fiftytwo per cent said no twentynine said yes nineteen were undecided and while the survey itself is not scientific in terms of prop er polling checks and balances the weekender has found in the past that polls of this sort are often a pretty fair indica tor of residents opinions the residents indecision mirrors that of the regional mayors who have been grap pling with the issue for more than two years they cant decide on whats best for yorks municipalities one city three cities or what could be a futile attempt to keep the status quo at our last meeting it was pretty obvious no one could agree on the best route for the region said regional coun cillor fred cox chair of the regions governance commit tee a lot of us know these changes are coming but we are now forced to leave the hows and whens up to pre mier mike harris we simply even after all this time cannot get agreement in our polling the common denominator seemed to be a lack of awareness about just what amalgamation would mean the results of an informal poll of 200 markham and stouffville resi dents showed 52 per cent of the people polled are not in favor of amal gamation 29 per cent agree that the nine municipalities should be merged and 19 per cent are undecided see have your say on page 3 skipping school jeduthun lattiboudiaire 6 left jumps rope for the heart and stroke foundation with jennifer muir 9 and other stouffville christian school students at the stouffville missionary church on tuesday morning photosjoerd witteveen