{"id":15577,"date":"2016-10-19T17:05:08","date_gmt":"2016-10-19T21:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=15577"},"modified":"2016-10-19T17:05:08","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T21:05:08","slug":"tough-love-for-owners-of-vacant-and-derelict-buildings-could-spur-renewal-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/tough-love-for-owners-of-vacant-and-derelict-buildings-could-spur-renewal-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Tough love for owners of vacant and derelict buildings could spur renewal: Council"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

It\u2019s time to get tough on absentee landlords who are sitting on vacant buildings going steadily downhill, according to Council.
\nCouncil last week approved laying the groundwork for a new bylaw which could put stiffer regulations on landowners to keep their properties up, in the interests of getting new businesses into the space and stimulate downtown renewal.
\nThe result of a motion from Councillor Tom Mrakas, it is intended to give some more \u201cteeth\u201d to Aurora\u2019s existing building bylaws.
\n\u201cThis is about\u2026giving staff the tools required to look at how our buildings, especially in our Downtown Core\u2026and how we can encourage absentee landlords to give them a push [to keep their properties up] so they are not another eyesore on the Downtown Core, or to help promote them and get them leased, so they are not a blight on the Town,\u201d said Councillor Mrakas, noting other municipalities such as Hamilton have vacant and derelict building bylaws to regenerate growth.
\n\u201cI was walking down [Yonge Street] a couple of weeks ago and meeting some of the business owners, and some of the buildings are in rough shape, vacant, and need to be pushed to be reopened. A lot of times, the way I look at absentee landlords is they all have a mortgage on them right now so they have no problems with sitting on it and allowing them to sit there. They are in no rush to sell it\u2026but I think it is our job to ensure within the Town we have ways to make everything look good. We take pride in our Town and I think this helps.\u201d
\nWhile Council members asked for more information on what other municipalities are doing to combat this issue, they largely agreed it was time for something to be done. Citing numerous examples of heritage buildings over the last decade that have had to be knocked down due to neglect and being beyond the point of repair; or, in the words of Councillor Mrakas, \u201cdemolition by decay.\u201d
\n\u201cGiven the number of derelict buildings we do have, and we don\u2019t have as many as other municipalities, it is our responsibility to keep all of our properties safe and nice,\u201d said Councillor Harold Kim. \u201cI think any motion to enhance or create that gives staff and the Town more authority, and more teeth, is welcome.\u201d
\nFor Councillor Paul Pirri, however, a distinction needs to be made between a derelict and a vacant building. They are not always one in the same and, adding a dimension to any draft bylaw that might come forward, is the issue of vacant homes.
\n\u201cThere is speculation going around in the housing market and there is talk going around on imposing a tax on people who have vacant homes that are sitting empty and might be clean on the outside,\u201d said Councillor Pirri. \u201cThere has been conversations from a real estate perspective about imposing a tax and I have heard a 1.5 per cent of value per year. I just wanted to make sure we were looking at this from all perspectives and what kind of bylaw we would be getting back.\u201d
\nCouncillor John Abel was on a similar wavelength. Supporting the motion at hand, he cited one he put forward last year on vacant buildings in Town which would have put an escalating tax on landowners.
\n\u201cTheir tax would be increased and the longer [the buildings were in limbo] the more the tax would go up,\u201d he said. \u201c[Town Treasurer] Dan Elliott did his investigations and told me that enforcing a bylaw of this nature would not be allowed.
\n\u201cNothing grabs the attention of a landlord than when he starts having to pay more money. We\u2019re trying to draw the attention of the landowner that leaving a building in a derelict or unkempt way is not acceptable by our own property standards, nor is it reflective of our community, nor is it reflective of our strategy to attract and retain businesses.\u201d
\nCurrently, the Town of Aurora has provisions relating to vacant buildings that kick in after 90 days including the disconnection of services and the boarding of windows. There are additional provisions for heritage buildings. Components of the Building Code Act allow the municipality to do work on \u2013 and place a lien on \u2013 unsafe properties.
\nGoing further with this notice of motion will likely be conditional on provisions currently set out under the Province\u2019s Municipal Act.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s time to get tough on absentee landlords who are sitting on vacant buildings going steadily downhill, according to Council.
\nCouncil last week approved laying the groundwork for a new bylaw which could put stiffer regulations on landowners to keep their properties up, in the interests of getting new businesses into the space and stimulate downtown renewal.<\/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-15577","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\/p3D2k4-43f","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 21:48:56","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\/15577","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=15577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15577\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}