I made a mis-statement at a meeting on Wednesday.. I said, we have three golf courses in Aurora.
We actually have six .When Westhill is built on either side of Leslie there will be seven.
Aurora Highlands and Westview have eighteen holes plus nine.That represents, in area, three golf courses.
St Andrews on St John's Side Road is fourth , Magna is fifth and Beacon Hall sixth.
That's a large chunk of geography out of a small urban node..
We have three woodlots in public ownership. Sheppard Bush. Jack Woods bush on Vandorf Sideroad and Case woodlot on HendersonDrive.
We acquired full ownership of Case woodlot last year with a purchase of $750,000. that takes us out to Bathurst Street .
Trilliums will soon be in bloom and visible from the road.
The McLeod woodlot is in ownership of the Oak Ridges Moraine Trust. In a couple of years it will be ours to use. Right now, we are only shelling out for maintenance.
High Tor Farm on Bathurst Street is owned by Heritage Ontario and for all intents and purposes sits idle and unmaintained for the benefit of immediate neighbours.
The Ontario Hospital farm is also idle.Isn't farmed. Pays no taxes. We need the space bu we can't use it. .
For the purpose of this post, golf courses are the subject.
A premium is paid for a residential lot backing on to a golf course. .
For six months of the year, a course is simply a beautiful rolling vista of peace and quiet.
Undeveloped as they are, free of the combustible engine, no negative contribution whatsoever emanates to our environment.
The production, care and maintenance of green manicured grass is the important element. All effort is devoted to the task.
The tiny white ball,must have premium conditions to complicate complete mastery of the game
Otherwise, there would be no challenge. There would just be a parade of people from morning until night walking or in carts, hitting the little hard ball with sticks from hereto there and following it to wherever it happens to fall.
Grass is the essence of the industry. To accomplish the desired objective, certain works must be accomplished. Shade must be controlled. Grass does not do well in shade.
Shade bespeaks trees. Trees must be trimmed, sometimes removed completely and replaced by smaller trees and vegetation.It's a feature of the industry.
But Oh La!
It cannot be allowed. Homeowners who bought homes abutting golf courses and paid a premium for the advantage are deeply offended by loss of trees in their vista.
A stronger Bylaw to prohibit the "injury and destruction" of trees is demanded and after much labour, discussion and contemplation,it has been provided.
But it's not enough. Along comes our Aurora Gladiator Marge Delahunte in the person of Susan Walmer to rally all notable environmentalists, to lecture and harangue lowly "Rube" Councillors as to their duties and stewardship of the environment.
Not only should golf courses not have liberty to attend to their industry, but no individual in the community should be permitted to remove a tree more than three inches in girth without obtaining a permit.
Not even a dead tree should be removed without first being examined by an expert, hired by the town, to determine the reason why leaves have disappeared , branches are bare and breaking off and bark is peeling and littering the ground around.
Town staff must be on hand with probes and calipers to determine the obvious. The tree is either less than three inches in girth or after fifteen years of struggle to stay alive, and dying in full view inch by inch, has at last given up the ghost, is but a sad skeleton of its former glory and must be cut down and summarily removed.
Providing of course, the owner can find the hundreds, if not thousands of dollars necessary for the task, after paying the town as much for the benefit of a useless and redundant diagnosis.
Well ..you know... golf courses are well equipped to fight their own battles. No doubt, they have friends in high places in favorable positions to understand their needs and intervene if need be.
But I will be damned, if I listen to some shell of a kernel who demands that a dead as a door knob tree needs to be confirmed by an expert at my expense before it can be removed, also at my expense.
That Marge Delahunte character, without the wit, and nothing else but an abundance of political calculation, can take a hike as well.
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