Alan Pickersgill - The View From Here

(April 21) - There is no sense crying over spilled milk. You just have to mop it up, stop it from damaging the floor too badly and make sure the next jug doesn’t spill as well.

The Hanlon Creek Business Park is spilled milk. The jug was dropped 30 years ago. That we didn’t notice the mess until recently says more about the past than the present or the future.

Back then, the environment wasn’t the passionate concern it is today. A lot of people cared, but not as much as now. The milk spilled when no one was looking. We can’t be Erica and go back in time to steady the jug. The damage has been done. We can limit the impact. We can’t prevent it.

It is not all bad anyway. The jobs that will be attracted to the area tomorrow will make a healthier contribution to our city than the jobs that are leaving today. We can save the salamanders while we put supper on the table. We just need to pay attention to several things at the same time.

Smart growth looks at three measures of community health – environmental, social and economic.

All are equally important. Where would Guelph be today if people had surrounded that maple tree and prevented John Galt from swinging his axe in 1827? Or, after the downtown core was full, would development of the Exhibition Park neighbourhood have been considered sprawl? Would protection of wetlands and water tables have stopped the development of Dufferin Street?

The problem is not growth. Uncontrolled growth is. The scale and the rate at which it happens is scaring the bejeebers out of us, and so it should. The development industry has taken control of the process. It has effectively eliminated the checks and balances on greed. The people need to take the process back and democratically manage the impact of growth. If we don’t, we will lose both the salamanders and our ability to put supper on the table.

While our attention is focused on the business park, we run the risk of not noticing another jug teetering on the edge of the shelf. If this one falls, the mess will be mighty. A cloverleafed Hanlon Expressway is a catastrophe waiting to happen.

In a way, Mike Salisbury was correct. Changes to it are inevitable. Lise Burcher also got it right when she said doing nothing is not an option.

Yes, the Hanlon is already there and yes, it was never properly finished. It will not be improved by compounding the mistakes made when it was built.

As surely as death follows life, a cloverleaf at Clair Road will make it inevitable that another will be built at Woodlawn Road. If you don’t believe me, wait 20 years and have another look. Or go over to Kitchener now and drive down the Conestoga Parkway. That’s what we’re looking at with the Hanlon. If we're not careful, the two will be joined one day.

Yes, the Hanlon needs to be improved. We can’t let it sit forever as a frustrating strip of pavement. But what is our community definition of improvement? I don’t believe it can be found in the Ministry of Transportation plans. A decision will be made at the city council meeting next week. It might set in motion a new chain of inevitable future decisions that will be out of our control. Or it might put the jug back on the shelf until we rethink the design of the kitchen.

When it was discussed at the community development committee last month, Karl Wettstein wondered if we want a paradigm shift.

I’ll say yes.

# posted by Alan Pickersgill @ 6:00 PM