Old Yonge Street proposal still misses mark, residents say

June 11, 2026 · 0 Comments

A plan to transform the southeast corner of Yonge Street and St. John’s Sideroad into a five-storey condo development, has come a long way in addressing residents’ concerns, but is still too big for the surrounding community, according to neighbours.

Residents of the Old Yonge Street community continued their opposition to the proposed condo development at last week’s Committee of the Whole meeting.

Since the last Public Planning meeting held to discuss the plan this past November, the proposal has been reduced from 152 to 148 residential units, on-site residential parking had been increased, and additional work on setbacks and buffers from the surrounding neighbourhood.

Neighbours, however, remain concerned about the size of the proposed building and the impact it will have on traffic on Yonge Street, Old Yonge Street, and St. John’s.

“The subject properties are located within the Regional Corridor,” said staff in the Committee report. “The Regional Corridor permits a maximum building height of five storeys.”

“The proposed applications facilitate the intensification of underutilized lands within the Regional Corridor,” the report continues. “The proposed density supports a ‘complete community’ and optimizes land use that is near a planned transit route. The development prioritizes sustainability and heritage preservation by incorporating measures to conserving the ‘Red House’ heritage asset…. The proposed amendments are directly supported by the Regional Corridor Policies, which identify Yonge Street as a primary intensification area intended to accommodate building heights of up to five storeys. By introducing a five-storey mid-rise form, the development provides an appropriate ‘missing middle’ housing scale between Yonge Street and Old Yonge Street.”

Some residents, however, offered a different viewpoint, stating that the property does not fit in with the Regional Corridor definitions.

Leta Dayfoot was one such neighbour who said the corridor is defined by an “arbitrary line” of 100 metres from Yonge Street and 80 per cent of the proposed building is outside the boundary. Also making it an outlier from the corridor definition, she said, was a lack of pedestrian connectivity where buildings within it must have an “uninterrupted walkway from the main entrance of the building to the sidewalks on Yonge Street.”

“How can the Town justify a five-storey building solely on the premise it is on the Yonge Street corridor while ignoring fundamental principles in the Town’s Official Plan, key fundamental principles properly adhered to, which would have resolved the valid concerns of surrounding residents and community?” Dayfoot asked.

Also opposing the idea of the Regional Corridor’s application to this project, was resident Conan Lear who said walkability was important. To that end, he also highlighted concerns over the increased traffic the proposal might bring to the community.

“I live on [Old Yonge Street] and I can tell you it is not a safe street to cross. The Town can hide behind the fact that two corners of that property is York Region and not our responsibility. Those residents are,” he said, advocating for a further sidewalk study.

Resident Anna Strunger was another delegate, and while she said the work to modify the proposal since it was last before the public on increased setbacks, landscaping, and tree preservation were to be recognized, the plan is an “over-intensification” of the site within the existing community.

“In my opinion, a lower rise development would be more appropriate and more compatible with the surrounding neighborhood character,” she said. “I’m also concerned about the adequacy of the proposed setbacks. While the applicant has increased setbacks since the original submission, the separation distances still appear limited considering the scale of a five-story building directly beside existing homes. The proposal requests numerous site-specific reductions and exceptions including reduced setbacks, reduced landscaping widths, reduced parking standards, reduced driveway dimensions and permissions for encroachments near environmental protection lands. Individually, these reductions may appear minor. Collectively, they represent a significant relaxation of established planning standards in order to maximize density on a constrained site.

“This raises an important question. If this level of intensification and exception is approved beside an established low-rise neighborhood, what precedent does that create for other stable residential areas in Aurora? I respectfully ask the Council to carefully reconsider whether this proposal truly achieves appropriate compatibility, transition and balance between intensification objectives and neighborhood protection.”

Following the delegations, Council members said while they were pleased with the efforts taken to preserve the heritage on site, including the relocation of the historic home, one of Aurora’s oldest surviving residences, to a new location on the same property, they shared some of the concerns voiced by residents.

“The applicant, planners, have been very diligent in listening to people over the last two times we’ve met, and items listed in this report….I like it when people want to work with us and with the residents in order to get something that is feasible and acceptable,” said Ward 1 Councillor Ron Weese. “The problem we have is if we’re going to be walkable and we have no sidewalk and we have no crosswalk, then everybody in that location is going to be bound, and the only way they’ll get out is by car or by going up to Yonge Street and trying to get on the bus. There’s not even a sidewalk on that side, so I am really worried about the walkability and the safety in there.”

Marco Ramunno, Aurora’s Director of Planning, replied there are plans to accommodate a sidewalk in the area in question.

“If this gets approved, their next step is to come in with a former site plan application, and that’s when we will accommodate for that sidewalk that’s along the frontage on the west side of Old Yonge from their southern limit to St. John’s.”

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter