The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

ecoooniisl sun slouftdjc tribune thursday uly 15 1999 5 york region towns asked to back bid to freeze development by rick vanderlinde staff writer aurora council is once again threat ening to put the pinch on growth this time its over provincial legisla tion councillors say will force existing taxpayers to pay for residential growth possibly raising taxes by 13 per cent council passed a resolution last month telling the provincial tories it would put all new development on hold until growth pays for itself its a position aurora council hopes will be adopted by other york region municipalities aurora politicians blame changes to the development charges act that require some growthrelated costs tobe passed on to existing residents torcing existing residents to help pay for growth is an unacceptable obligation the resolution introduced by deputy mayor john west last month says forcing existing residents to help pay for growth is an unacceptable obligation all future residential development should be put on hold until such time as there is a resolution to the financial cost to our citizens the resolution states v but mayor tim jones said a move to freeze development could end up hurt ing taxpayers too jones said without growth the towns tax base will stagnate placing the cost of future megaprojects such as the 48million library on the backs of existing taxpayers new tax assessment is responsible for the fact we havent had a tax increase for the past nine yearsj jones said just because you stop growth doesnt mean your expenses disappear jones added municipalities can still strike their own deals with developers j such as frontending the cost of infra- j structure to support new development j under hew development charge reg- j ulations developers cant be forced to j pay for new town halls or the entire cost j of soft services such as new arenas arid libraries p- jones said he agrees new homeown ers who pay the cost of development charges through house prices shouldnt pay the entire cost of a new library i obviously that will be to the benefit of every resident he said council is expected to debate the i development freeze and alternative 1 solutions at its aug 25 meeting i t a report commissioned by council says the town will pay an extra 23 mil- i lion to 34 million oyer the long term if 1 alternatives arent found i i jones said he hopes blaming provin- i cial legislation isnt a backhanded j attempt by some councillors to close the towns borders to new residents jones said opposition to a pian to pipe lake ontario water to aurora is another smokescreen designed to stop residential growth i wonder if like the water this is just another vehicle by some to stop us from growing jones said lesjtlt can aflfigefanyone rgalmfe rough white cells in the blood it is considered rious blood forming isiucfelboiulh come in now for the best selection on previously v 30 off handbags and fashion accessories snh 50 off womens iiis0dwhi mmsmm hs1 mm h5 clearance offers exclude factory outlet arid clearance centres iiiiiions ism