{"id":15508,"date":"2016-10-13T12:12:32","date_gmt":"2016-10-13T16:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=15508"},"modified":"2016-10-13T12:12:32","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T16:12:32","slug":"southeast-cell-tower-inches-closer-to-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/southeast-cell-tower-inches-closer-to-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Southeast cell tower inches closer to reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

A new telecommunications tower will soon be on the landscape in Aurora\u2019s southeast quadrant
\nCouncil gave the formal thumbs-up to the tower, which has been relocated further away from a nearby residential neighbourhood than originally planned, to a joint effort between Bell Canada and Rogers.
\nCouncil signaled their \u201cconcurrence\u201d to the plan at last week\u2019s General Committee meeting, which is set to be ratified by this week, but that is more of a formality as Industry Canada is the ultimate deciding body.
\nSlated for construction on the north side of Bloomington Road just west of Bayview Avenue, the co-located tower is now 235 metres east of the original proposal floated by Rogers as early as 2014 and is now 300 metres from the closest residential property on Offord Crescent.
\n\u201cWe asked them to co-locate and it was a joint effort between Bell and Rogers,\u201d said Marco Ramunno, Aurora\u2019s Director of Planning. \u201cBell had an agreement with the landowners to the east, so the proposal is for Rogers to now co-locate on their tower.\u201d
\nAt approximately 40 metres in height, the new cell tower is planned to be a tripod rather than the straight tower on Bathurst Street just over the King line. Although Councillors gave their consent to the tower, it was not without some misgivings.
\n\u201cMost of the residents that this tower will be serving in that neighbourhood are all against this tower going up,\u201d said Councillor Harold Kim. \u201cIt seems like the beneficiaries are really the residents in Northern Richmond Hill. It just seems [like common sense] that if you\u2019re servicing a certain population the tower should just go there. It is hard to support something when it is really not serving your residents.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s available land and it happens to be on our side of the street, but it is not really serving our residents.\u201d
\nThe same problems were offered when the King tower was constructed, noted Councillor John Abel, who chaired last week\u2019s General Committee meeting.
\nCouncillor Wendy Gaertner, on the other hand, approached the issue from a different angle, sounding out staff on possible environmental concerns on the site that could arise from construction. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the property in question received some \u201cunknown fill\u201d and questions cropped up on whether or not the soil could be contaminated, she contended.
\n\u201cSince then, we have put in a fill bylaw and that bylaw is to moderate the kind of fill we\u2019re getting and that it is not going to compromise the environment,\u201d she said. \u201cMy two concerns are building a tower of this type is obviously going to take some earth out of the ground. If that earth remains on the property it is not an issue but if that earth is taken off the property whose responsibility is it to ensure that earth is tested and disposed of properly? If the earth is disturbed, the groundwater is potentially going to be disturbed and we have residents who have wells in that area. Who is going to ensure there is no effect on the residents\u2019 well water?\u201d
\nWhile the responsibility would ultimately land with the applicant, Mr. Ramunno said a further report to Council would outline how much the site would need to be altered to accommodate the tower.
\nFurther questions were raised on the future of the technology.
\nCouncillor Tom Mrakas, for instance, questioned whether a recently approved pilot project and partnership with Bell Canada for small cell technology on area lamp posts in select areas could be extended into this area, he was told by staff this would have little impact as small cell technology is intended to boost data rather than cellular coverage.
\nCouncillor Kim questioned whether the Region of York\u2019s Broadband Strategy, which is due to come forward this fall, could have any impact on Council\u2019s decision regarding this tower.
\nCouncil voted 5 \u2013 2 in favour of consent. <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new telecommunications tower will soon be on the landscape in Aurora\u2019s southeast quadrant
\nCouncil gave the formal thumbs-up to the tower, which has been relocated further away from a nearby residential neighbourhood than originally planned, to a joint effort between Bell Canada and Rogers. <\/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-15508","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\/p3D2k4-428","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 00:27:11","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\/15508","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=15508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}