{"id":16601,"date":"2017-02-22T17:09:19","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T22:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=16601"},"modified":"2017-03-01T17:38:31","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T22:38:31","slug":"library-square-moves-forward-to-next-phase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/library-square-moves-forward-to-next-phase\/","title":{"rendered":"Library Square moves forward to next phase"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The next phase in coming up with a design for the future of Library Square received the green light at Council last week following a contentious debate.
\nConcept plans for the future use of the large swath of land on Victoria Street, currently occupied by the former homes of the Aurora Public Library and Seniors\u2019 Centre, which Council recently decided to raze, are due to come before Council by the end of March following the timeline approved on February 14.
\nWork on the concept plan will be carried out by FOTENN Consulting, the firm which developed concept plans for Aurora\u2019s \u201cCultural Precinct\u201d which left many elected officials feeling cold.
\n\u201cWhen direction was given by Council to move forward with the demolition and to suggest a process to move forward with the ultimate design, we looked at the unfinished work that FOTENN has already been engaged for and there was a possibility of some overlap with the new process [they] had already been basically contracted to do,\u201d said Aurora CAO Doug Nadorozny. \u201cWe gave them the opportunity to consider the next steps and fulfil the work within their existing contract only and that is why this makes it clear that within their existing contract they would only complete the first steps and, if Council was pleased with the work and wanted to extend that work, there would be a decision later for Council to decide whether or not to engage them to do any of the following three steps. This is merely an opportunity to use them for work they already started and was stopped prematurely.\u201d
\nCouncil was not unanimously pleased with the work done thus far, however, approving the next steps on a vote of 6 \u2013 3. Voting against the plan were Councillors John Abel, Wendy Gaertner, and Jeff Thom.
\nCouncillor Abel, a vocal critic of FOTENN\u2019s previous work, which suggested a parking structure to be built between the Aurora Public Library and Cultural Centre, a mixed use building for Library Square including residential, a pedestrian corridor connecting Library Square and Town Park alongside Trinity Anglican Church, and a significant overhaul of Town Park itself, said it was time to get a fresh perspective.
\n\u201cWe should be doing an RFP,\u201d he said, suggesting the contract should be re-issued with a focus on urban design. \u201cIf we\u2019re doing something really good and we\u2019re giving $20,000 to FOTENN, for me it is like a big dinner and we\u2019re going to make it with leftovers. We should be allowed to explore other designers and architects going forward. I think we have exhausted what\u2019s there. We can draw what we can from it, but I think it is time after all these years to now engage an RFP process so we can have some great ideas and some great designs.\u201d
\nCouncillor Gaertner was of a similar view, suggesting the right way forward was moving ahead with a firm that \u201cdoes nothing but specialize in downtown revitalization projects.\u201d
\n\u201cI think that where the mistake was made right in the beginning,\u201d she said. \u201cFOTENN has a great reputation [but] downtown revitalization is not their specialty. That is what I can tell from the research I have done. I think we owe it to our public to put forward the best possible design and, to me, the best possible design has to come from planners that spend their whole career doing this.\u201d
\nAdded Councillor Thom: \u201cIf we want to move through these six steps and we want to get an expert on urban design, urban squares and the revitalization of downtown, I think we have to look at an urban architect of some kind and we could start that right now.\u201d
\nThey were, however, in the minority.
\nFor most other members of Council time was of the essence in order to deliver a final design for Library Square before the end of this Council term and, at the end of the day, it was important, they said, to allow FOTENN to take the feedback they received from Council and the public alike and finish the work they started.
\n\u201cWe have a responsibility to let them finish the work,\u201d said Councillor Michael Thompson. \u201cIf you think about it, they did what we asked: we hired them to conduct engagement sessions, gather all this feedback and present us with an initial concept plan. It wasn\u2019t the concept plan and things went sideways at that time because that concept plan didn\u2019t mirror the vision that collectively we shared around the table. We never gave them the opportunity [to do something with that feedback] and there is a responsibility for us to at least allow them to carry on\u2026to March and April so that we can then make a decision on whether or not that is the right thing for us or not. I respect those who say they just don\u2019t think FOTENN will be able to capture the vision they have and that\u2019s fine, and if that\u2019s your feeling, by all means vote against the motion.\u201d
\nCouncillors Paul Pirri and Tom Mrakas echoed these sentiments, with Councillor Pirri saying concept plans are just that \u2013 building blocks that can be further developed. Councillor Mrakas also noted that it is important for FOTENN to provide options.
\n\u201cIf they haven\u2019t captured what we want, we can say we\u2019re not happy with this,\u201d said Councillor Mrakas. \u201cIt might even just be a matter of just tweaking a little bit of what they present us. I am confident they will take what we\u2019re asking for and they will give us something we\u2019re looking for. I think, at the end of the day, it will be something we can be proud of as a Council, and I think the community can be proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The next phase in coming up with a design for the future of Library Square received the green light at Council last week following a contentious debate.<\/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-16601","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\/p3D2k4-4jL","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-25 06:00:00","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\/16601","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=16601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}