Letter to the Editor Submitted for publication to Stouffville Sun-Tribune on Oct.

20, 2012

Stouffville in Five years? Becoming a complete community Stouffville is a great place to live. The recent Stouffville Conversations at 19 on the Park gave space for each of us -- new and old-time residents -- to share our best Stouffville experiences, to identify pressures from without (e.g., provincial legislation for the moraine; impending federal airport plans), and then also to look forward and identify our hopes for the next five years. It was a very positive atmosphere. The hopes mentioned circled around becoming a more complete and integrated community. A Chamber of Commerce model to better connect people was suggested by one table group. Our table highlighted the importance of Memorial Park as a magnet, with inviting, civic space in an expanded library, and bike paths from all-four corners of town luring us naturally downtown. A complete community also needs mixed forms of housing spaceespecially more affordable options like apartments--for it to function well. Finally, a vision stated more than once in the form of a question: How do we develop our local economy so that more of us can walk, bike or take transit to work locally? The connections between economic, civic and social spheres became obvious as we talked. The themes connected well with recent reports from the business community: *Social: In June, a town report based on extensive interviews with business owners indicated that more affordable housing (i.e., apartments) and better transit are key to their ability to attract and retain the employees. *Civic: In 2009, the town committed itself to attract the creative class and grow a knowledge-based economy since 2009 (manufacturing has seen almost no growth since 2001). Investment in the library-withering with the lowest per capita funding [p.152] in the province for our size community--and especially its expansion, is a critical quality of life recruitment tool to lure this demographic/sector. Yet expansion has been postponed annually since the 2007 Five Year Forecast for Whitchurch-Stouffville-out of respect for the taxpayer. The Stouffville Conversation, together with the business communitys Un-Conference (both held last week) reminded me that our economic, civic, and social spheres are each critical for the other. All of us need to appreciate that. I think those gathered at the Stouffville Conversation got it: these were not mere taxpayers who give tribute for services and for whom lower taxes are the highest good. Rather, these were full-fledged citizens, gathered to envision a complete community, and dedicated to strengthening its fabric for their own families and all of their neighbours. -Arnold Neufeldt-Fast Stouffville, Ontario