{"id":14991,"date":"2016-08-17T16:13:21","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T20:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=14991"},"modified":"2016-08-24T15:11:15","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T19:11:15","slug":"lease-deal-to-turn-church-lot-into-go-parking-raises-ire-of-council-neighbours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/lease-deal-to-turn-church-lot-into-go-parking-raises-ire-of-council-neighbours\/","title":{"rendered":"Lease deal to turn church lot into GO parking raises ire of Council, neighbours"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church\u2019s decision to enter into a deal with Metrolinx to turn their parking lot over to GO commuters on weekdays should call their tax exempt status into question, argue some Councillors.<\/p>\n

Council members responded to the outcry of nearby neighbours last week after they learned of plans between the body that operates GO Transit and Our Lady of Grace (OLG) that is set to generate $15,000 a month for the parish, according to a member of the church\u2019s finance committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not collect taxes from them as they are a place of worship, but now they are an enterprise,\u201d said Councillor John Abel at last week\u2019s Council meeting. \u201cIf they are going to get into commercial parking then they should be assessed a tax. It is a place of worship, but it can\u2019t be both. If they are now a parking lot and charging money, that is assessment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least investigate and bring that forward. As soon as they start getting a commercial lease in there, I think that takes away from that exemption and they should be paying property taxes on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a sentiment Councillor Wendy Gaertner said was a valid one, before the matter was left with Town Staff to investigate further.<\/p>\n

The sharp response came after residents living in the Town\u2019s Northeast Heritage Conservation District came forward during open forum to express their concerns on the impact the deal will have on the surrounding neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

Dan Revington, a resident of Fleury Street, said he and many of his neighbours were \u201csurprised and dismayed\u201d at the decision, particularly as the surrounding community was not consulted.<\/p>\n

\u201cA GO parking lot is not compatible with the character of a heritage district,\u201d said Mr. Revington. \u201cIt is going to increase traffic in the very heart of the Heritage District, which is also contrary to the plan. I think it is reasonable to expect there will be a substantial increase in traffic. Our Lady of Grace is quite an odd location for a GO Transit parking lot. It is not going to be convenient for the GO commuters it is intended to serve.\u201d
\nMaple Street resident Christine Mora offered similar doubts. An adjacent neighbour to the existing parking lot, she said she wasn\u2019t aware of the plan until orange signs were erected at the beginning of the month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went through a whole traffic calming procedure ten years ago in order to deter cars into our neighbourhood,\u201d she said, adding she is also worried about security at night. \u201cWe\u2019re a small street with 11 houses and now it is proposed to draw 150 cars into our neighbourhood each and every day and leaving that day. 300 extra cars coming down our 11-house street every single day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need lighting all night long because GO is allowing access to this parking lot 24 hours a day. We are a residential neighbourhood and we will be lit up like a Christmas tree from all the church lights that will be on all night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to the public comments, Aurora CAO Doug Nadorozny said Metrolinx is facing pressure from the upcoming construction of an underpass at the Aurora GO Station and the OLG deal is expected to be a temporary one \u2013 but how temporary at this point is anyone\u2019s guess. Town Hall found out about the deal the same way as residents did, he added, noting there was no formal consultation with the Town either.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur assessment of what we know leads us to believe we don\u2019t have any jurisdictional control,\u201d said Mr. Nadorozny. \u201cThe Province is able to do what it wants in relation to zoning bylaws\u2026so there is not much we can do. The only consultation we know of was a little consultation done by the church itself and its congregation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council members, however, were left unsatisfied, calling for an evaluation on just what they can do to address the situation.
\nCouncillor Abel led the comments, criticising Metrolinx for a lack of consultation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are sitting here and this is marching right into our area,\u201d he said. \u201cNo one is in favour of it and we know nothing about it,\u201d he said. \u201cI think before anything takes place, we should be properly informed and options should be discussed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillor Tom Mrakas offered a similar view, added last year\u2019s efforts to get Canada Post to the table over their installation of community mailboxes worked for Aurora.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to speak up now,\u201d he said, calling the situation \u201cmind boggling.\u201d \u201cFor me, personally, I say we go and take down those signs until they start consulting with us. When they consult to us and we come to an agreement, and the agreement is parking is going to be there, we will put the signs back up. If we have the authority to take those signs down, we should do it. It is just incredible they think they can just come in and do what they want without consulting with the Town. I think it is embarrassing that Council finds out about this from a resident. <\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate it is two private enterprises making a business agreement, and I get that, and they can do that, but there are certain aspects we need to look at. The fact that it is in the Heritage District, I look at it as far as, what if residents decided to start renting out their driveways? Would they just be allowed to do it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Councillor Michael Thompson: \u201cIt speaks poorly of their ability to work with other municipalities and I would hope that we have been working diligently upon this since it first reared its ugly head and trying to do something to address the issues. There are a lot of angry residents who are asking what we have been doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church\u2019s decision to enter into a deal with Metrolinx to turn their parking lot over to GO commuters on weekdays should call their tax exempt status into question, argue some Councillors.<\/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-14991","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\/p3D2k4-3TN","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-03 04:26:36","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\/14991","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=14991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}