{"id":15346,"date":"2016-09-28T16:45:56","date_gmt":"2016-09-28T20:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=15346"},"modified":"2016-10-05T12:59:31","modified_gmt":"2016-10-05T16:59:31","slug":"traffic-parking-plans-hit-roadblock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/traffic-parking-plans-hit-roadblock\/","title":{"rendered":"Traffic, parking plans hit roadblock"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Proposals to improve traffic flow and increase parking in Aurora\u2019s downtown core are expected to be in the spotlight this week after several plans got snarled in a Council jam last week.
\nDecisions on a proposal to turn Victoria and Mosley Streets into one-way traffic corridors and reduce Yonge Street to one lane of traffic in each direction to increase on-street parking were left in the balance following last week\u2019s General Committee meeting as local lawmakers grappled on the way forward.
\nStaff recommended Council roll the one-way traffic plan for Library Square, which has been championed by Councillor Tom Mrakas, to be incorporated into Aurora\u2019s Master Transportation Study to address current pressures on the area, while recommending Mayor Geoff Dawe\u2019s proposal to reduce traffic lanes on Yonge to the 2018 Budget Process.
\nAs far as the Library Square proposal goes, however, staff cautioned it might not achieve the goal earlier envisioned by Council to allow for more \u201cangular\u201d parking on the busy streets, with their analyses showing it would create only four additional parking spaces.
\n\u201cAn opportunity currently under development for this area is the Cultural Precinct, which is bounded by Yonge Street, Mosley Street, Larmont Street, and Metcalfe\/Church Street,\u201d said Jamal Massadeh, Traffic Analyst for the Town of Aurora. \u201cIn achieving the goal of a cultural hub, traffic, parking and pedestrian movement are critical aspects to consider. As the Cultural Precinct plan is currently under development, there is a risk that the proposed traffic management changes will influence undetermined outcomes for this area and may be premature. It would be more appropriate to allow the Cultural Plan to fully develop and incorporate traffic, parking and pedestrian goals and outcomes within the context of the current planning project.\u201d
\nThese recommendations, however, appeared to satisfy no one, least of all Councillor Tom Mrakas, who said staff\u2019s suggestion was not in keeping with Council\u2019s original motion to have a feasibility study on changing traffic flow.
\n\u201cPart of that motion was to direct staff to put this forward to the Town Park Area Resident Ratepayers Association in addition to having a public information session, and I have never seen that happen to date and I am wondering why that direction was not followed,\u201d said Councillor Mrakas.
\nAlthough CAO Doug Nadorozny said this was an attempt to get everything into one study and look at it in context, Councillor Mrakas was unmoved, stating he was looking for a feasibility study on whether the plan would work and \u201cnot an opinion piece stating everything is fine the way it is right now.\u201d
\n\u201cI appreciate you want to bundle everything, but we have another motion where the Yonge Street Parking Plan has been tied to it,\u201d he continued. \u201cAgain, this is the second motion the Yonge Street plan has been tied to; it was tied to Yonge Street restrictions the first time and somehow it magically appeared and is tied to this plan. I am a bit frustrated.\u201d
\nThis frustration, particularly with the re-emergence of the Yonge Street Traffic Plan, was shared by several other Councillors, including Councillor Michael Thompson who said they previously defeated the plan and brought forward a further motion to bring it forward in 2017 to allow staff to answer questions Council members and the public alike raised on how limiting traffic to two lanes would impact the area.
\nCompounding the issue, he added, was a disconnect in logistics and timing.
\nCouncil is set to advance the next stage of the Cultural Precinct Plan, which could significantly alter many facets of the Downtown Core later this fall. It does not make sense, he said, to look at equally significant traffic changes to this very area a year after Council potentially approves a precinct plan.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re making decisions based on Library Square and the Cultural Precinct [this fall] and then this parking plan won\u2019t come back to us for another year. I agree that I appreciate the attempts to make it more succinct but I think there is some trouble there when it comes to the logistics,\u201d he said. \u201cI am not convinced on the concept plan itself, but I would like to see some experts weigh in on it before I make a decision.\u201d
\nCouncillor Paul Pirri offered a similar view, adding: \u201cI appreciate staff trying to break down silos and we have talked about that on a regular basis, but I think this is a timing issue of what gets done before we get to this point.\u201d
\nSome Councillors, however, wanted to take a more holistic approach to addressing the matter.
\n\u201cWe need to proactively seize the initiative and work with foresight and vision towards solutions,\u201d said Councillor John Abel. \u201cI think there is a risk when we work in a fragmented process. It is not meeting the needs of our residents or community. We are picking at parts when really we should be looking at a major vision to go forward. I am of the opinion we should maybe consider looking down the road five years at exactly what [this is intended] for the area. We risk not making the best decisions [when we don\u2019t] look at the long term visions or solutions going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Proposals to improve traffic flow and increase parking in Aurora\u2019s downtown core are expected to be in the spotlight this week after several plans got snarled in a Council jam last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15346","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\/p3D2k4-3Zw","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 10:21:22","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\/15346","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=15346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}