{"id":11046,"date":"2015-06-17T18:54:29","date_gmt":"2015-06-17T22:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=11046"},"modified":"2015-06-17T18:54:29","modified_gmt":"2015-06-17T22:54:29","slug":"tree-cutting-restrictions-on-golf-courses-will-have-to-wait-until-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/tree-cutting-restrictions-on-golf-courses-will-have-to-wait-until-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"Tree cutting restrictions on golf courses will have to wait until fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another move towards getting rid of an exemption for golf courses within Aurora\u2019s tree protection bylaw will have to wait until the fall.<\/p>\n

Council voted down a motion from Councillor Wendy Gaertner last week which would have laid the groundwork for a discussion on whether or not golf courses should be faced with the same restrictions on removing trees from their properties as homeowners and other business owners.<\/p>\n

Although Council recently voted to bring the entire tree bylaw up for review later this year, Councillor Gaertner\u2019s motion called for portions of the bylaw related to golf courses be brought forward for this week\u2019s General Committee meeting for consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in total agreement with the motion to bring forward a proposed amendment to the tree bylaw to remove the exemption for golf courses,\u201d said resident Isabel Ralston, appearing before Council in support of the motion. <\/p>\n

Ms. Ralston has been an active proponent of removing this exemption for nearly five years. She was one of a handful of Beacon Hall residents who raised alarm bells during the last term of Council over large swaths of trees being removed from the property.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs preparation of the draft tree protection has been an expensive process, including expensive consultations, we recommend, at the very least, the clause related to the golf course exemption should be addressed as soon as possible,\u201d she continued. \u201cAlthough the other tree issues, such as the protection of heritage trees, are important\u2026the magnitude of potential tree removal on golf courses is huge compared to the other issues. It is a fact that that thousands of trees in Aurora [on] golf courses currently have zero protection and can be removed at any time without any notice. <\/p>\n

\u201cSecondly, and perhaps most importantly, because Aurora golf courses are exempt from the tree bylaw, systemic destruction of trees can occur in order to make golf courses more viable for developers. Removing this exemption would allow the Town and the residents the opportunity to be notified and be involved in decisions regarding tree removal on golf courses. This would thereby reduce any potential non-transparent preparation and grooming of golf course for future development.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Council did not speak against the particulars of exploring an exemption for golf courses, some said they were puzzled by the \u201curgency\u201d of bringing the matter forward this week. Timing, said Councillor Gaertner, is always important when it comes to the \u201cpotential destruction of anything\u201d and it was equally important to look at this \u201cas soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking first against the motion was Councillor John Abel. Although Councillor Abel works at a golf course, he said he would be in support of tree permitting on golf courses but, first, it was important to consult and engage \u201cthe principals involved.\u201d Moving the matter into this week would not provide the time to do that, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important we engage them and get their perspective on what this is,\u201d he said. \u201cI have no issue with Council being aware of what they are doing on their lands when it comes to trees and I don\u2019t think golf courses would be either. [By next week] how are you going to be able to manage all that consulting to get a good, satisfactory, effective [consultation] for all parties concerned? It just defies our commitment to community engagement and communication.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Councillor Gaertner\u2019s perspective, nearly four years of discussion on this matter was long enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have consulted with everyone,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have consulted with golf courses. They have been to the meeting. They can come back to the meeting. We have done a huge amount of consultation and I think we can go forward with this now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without a clear answer on why this was an urgent matter, however, Councillor Abel compared the issue to \u201csmoke and mirrors\u201d, noting that rushing things often raises issues between Council and residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have golf courses that are in full session, they\u2019re busy, the staff are working very hard,\u201d he said. \u201cTo say they have to come to the table in two days to be consulted is not realistic or fair. I have got to hear what it is why we have to do this. If there are hundreds of thousands of trees being taken down as we talk, that\u2019s what I need to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other Councillors were just not content to pick apart a single component of the tree protection bylaw when the whole thing is due to come forward in September. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be taking bits and pieces out of this because it will never be completed,\u201d said Councillor Michael Thompson. \u201cIf we\u2019re going to deal with it, bring it all back and then we will go through the process, go through all the reports, and we will take another stab this term at redoing the entire thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another move towards getting rid of an exemption for golf courses within Aurora\u2019s tree protection bylaw will have to wait until the fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2Sa","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-18 09:41:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11046\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}