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stouffville suntribune thursday aug 5 2004 5 farmers mayor differ on stouffvilles future from page 1 street shares mr forsyths melancholy the best farmland is under houses he said mr grant with other fami ly members sold and then leased back their 150acre farm in 1987 to an ontario numbered company mr grant who still lives next to the farm thought it would be developed into a golf course and was saddened when he learned houses would be built on it to know that the soil is going to be pushed into a pile and the only thing its going to push up is somebodys lawn its hard to see mr grant said i wished i sold my house a long time ago so that i would nt have to see all this develop ment in my back yard but for mr grant and mr forsyth its more than the loss of good agricultural land theyre concerned the character of stouffville will change for the worse 1 wished i sold my house a long time ago so that i wouldnt have to see all this development in my back yard gary grant former farm owner i dont think we stouffville residents can really understand whats going to happen here mr grant said the change will be mas sive the character of the town will be gone well need to drive down obrien avenue or up church street to remem ber what the town was like well just be another town a small city he said my wifes always thought shed like to live in town i said if we sit here long enough well be in it the towns com- sue sherban smalltown feeling can remain in stouffville with growth mayor says ing out to meet me its the end of an era stouffville was once a great farming community mr forsyth said predicting the town will soon be just a bed room community of toronto the children growing up today are going to see a differ ent stouffville from what we dreamed it would be while acknowledging growth will be fast ms sherban said the smalltown heritage will remain impor tant that is the most impor tant part of the growing com munity she said i dont believe there will be a change in the actual feel of this community were still small we have the opportuni ty to be country to still have that kind of connectivity but you have to want it if youre going to wish it away then its going to go but if you are going to wish it to stay then i believe youre going to keep it theres no reason why you cant walk down our main street and say hi to your school friends or your neigh bours not all farmers look nega tively on the planned devel- opment frank hulshof 77 and his family have a 50acre veg etable farm on bloomington road east of hwy 48 he sells produce directly to the public and is pleased whitchurchstouffvilles pop ulation is going to grow i like people moving in the more cars on the road the more you sell he said its good for business mr hulshof is not con cerned with houses occupying farmland it doesnt bother me a bit he said theres lots of land this will stay as farmland for a long time yet he said refer ring to his farm while mr hulshof described the housing devel opment as progress he is not so keen to embrace it all a power centre of big box stores planned off hwy 48 south of ringwood road both ers him its going to kill stouffville downtown therell be no downtown at all he said just the opposite said ms sherban for the downtown area to thrive it needs a larger busi ness and industrial base around the town to provide the market it needs she said it doesnt bother me a bit theres lots of land this will stay as farmland for a long time yet frank hulshof farmer look at unionville its active and alive because of the corporate community that surrounds it not because of the residential base she said meanwhile mr grant looks wistfully at the fields he farmed until last august it really hits home when you take off your last crop and you know thats it he said its provided me with everything ive got in my life in a voice quavering with emotion he adds its just going to be really tough mercedesbenz newmarket proud sponsor of wild wild west magna hoedown 2004 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