Work starts up again on Yonge & Industrial property, raising eyebrows at Town Hall

August 6, 2014 · 0 Comments

By Brock Weir

Alarm bells were raised at Town Hall earlier this week after work began again on a piece of property in the south end of Aurora that was subject of scrutiny last summer.

Bylaw officers were on the scene Monday morning of a construction site on the west side of Yonge Street near Industrial Parkway South after trucks began removing topsoil, or fill, from the site, according to Neil Garbe, CAO for the Town of Aurora. Staff intercepted them and asked them to cease.
The end goal from the Town’s perspective is to remove the soil dumped there last year, but timing is everything.

“We have laid charges previously and we’re working through the case right now through the court system to put a framework agreement in place guiding how the restoration of that site will take place,” said Mr. Garbe. “They will have to remove the fill at some point, so I think they just jumped the gun on it. They were waiting for a road access permit from the Region, which I understand they got, so they were anxious to get started.

However, what we would like them to do is do it during business hours and that it be done under supervision so that we can monitor what is going on at the site and make sure it is [restored] back to its original state.

Stop work notices were issued on the site in question back in July 2013, after what the Town of Aurora and the Region of York described as “illegal” clearing and cutting. The land had been under close watch after 1.5 hectares of trees were removed from the site, which is on the Oak Ridges Moraine.

Legal proceedings were then commenced by the Region and the Town against the property owners, which is still before the courts.

“We’re certainly working towards an understanding of how we want things done, and this was certainly outside those boundaries,” said Mr. Garbe. “Whether we need to press another site alteration charge or not is still a question. We will be looking in the next day or two at working with the owners and trying to bring resolution to the whole situation.”