{"id":16002,"date":"2016-12-07T17:01:58","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T22:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=16002"},"modified":"2016-12-07T17:01:58","modified_gmt":"2016-12-07T22:01:58","slug":"public-input-validates-nearly-20-years-of-feedback-councillors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/public-input-validates-nearly-20-years-of-feedback-councillors\/","title":{"rendered":"Public input \u201cvalidates\u201d nearly 20 years of feedback: Councillors"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Knocking down the Victoria Street buildings that used to house the Aurora Public Library and Seniors\u2019 Centre were themes that came to the forefront in breakout groups last week as nearly 60 members of the public came out for a roundtable discussion on the future of Library Square and Aurora\u2019s Cultural Precinct.
\nHosted by Councillors Tom Mrakas and Michael Thompson, and attended by Councillors John Abel, Wendy Gaertner, Sandra Humfryes, Harold Kim, and Paul Pirri, it provided residents with the opportunity to sound off on their visions for Aurora\u2019s Downtown Core before Council convened a workshop on December 5 in the hopes of reaching a consensus on what to do with the area.
\n\u201cI think the meeting will show that residents have been saying the same thing over and over and we\u2019re all looking for the same thing in the downtown: creating a vibrant downtown and it is time for Council to take action and make decisions,\u201d said Councillor Mrakas at the start of the meeting. \u201cWe want to have that last input to be able to correlate between the years from all the different studies and all the different task forces to show that common themes run throughout the years.\u201d
\nAdded Councillor Thompson: \u201cI think there is going to be a common theme about creating some sort of unique identity for Downtown. I think we will hear about restaurants and cafes and bistros, a little bit of an entertainment area and some of those will be the same common themes we have heard many years before, but part of the thought process was the old Kevin Costner movie, Field of Dreams, that if you build it they will come. We want to make sure they will come if we build it.\u201d
\nSplitting up into break-out groups led by Councillors, members of the public considered what it would take to revitalize the area. In a group led by Councillors Kim and Pirri, the demolition of Library Square was among the very first issues brought up, along with parking, a water feature, and doing a land transfer deal with the owners of the Bacon Basketware site on Wellington Street West to transform the former Fleury Foundry into a destination not unlike Toronto\u2019s Distillery District.
\nIn another group led by Councillor Abel, the \u201cwalkability\u201d of the core was highlighted, along with providing more reasons for people to stay and \u201chang out\u201d in the core.
\nThey touched upon a theme explored more in-depth by Councillors Gaertner and Humfryes\u2019 group, including \u201cconnectivity\u201d and providing a space that would draw youth.
\nAdditional suggestions included focusing on drawing in a grocery store as, it was offered, going to get groceries is one of the primary reasons people living in the core shop elsewhere, a variety of restaurants and caf\u00e9s, and shared spaces.
\n\u201cWe need places to live, places to drink, and spaces to eat and spaces to play,\u201d said Councillor Abel, summing up his group\u2019s thoughts.
\nAdded Councillor Gaertner: \u201cThe Town has to put money into it and show the business community and the development community that we\u2019re serious about this.\u201d
\nFollowing the public conference, Councillor Thompson said their findings \u201cvalidate what we have been hearing time after time after time.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Knocking down the Victoria Street buildings that used to house the Aurora Public Library and Seniors\u2019 Centre were themes that came to the forefront in breakout groups last week as nearly 60 members of the public came out for a roundtable discussion on the future of Library Square and Aurora\u2019s Cultural Precinct. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16003,"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-16002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/2016-12-08-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4a6","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 03:27:09","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\/16002","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=16002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}