{"id":17346,"date":"2017-05-24T15:50:47","date_gmt":"2017-05-24T19:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=17346"},"modified":"2017-05-31T12:13:43","modified_gmt":"2017-05-31T16:13:43","slug":"a-baby-step-forward-for-library-square","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/a-baby-step-forward-for-library-square\/","title":{"rendered":"A “baby step” forward for Library Square"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The long-awaited redevelopment of Library Square is set to take a \u201cbaby step\u201d forward this week with Council set to approve beginning a design process of what will replace the old public library and seniors\u2019 centre buildings on Victoria Street.
\nSitting at General Committee last Tuesday, Council members voted to throw out two concept plans prepared for the area by FOTENN which outlined extensions to the Aurora Cultural Centre and Victoria Hall, along with various parking lot and water feature configurations, and going forward with a new RFP for design services.
\nAt the same time, they also approved a $500,000 budget, funded from Council\u2019s Discretionary Reserves, to demolish the two buildings and finance the detailed design process.
\nThe move came after stakeholders from the Aurora Public Library, Aurora Cultural Centre, and the surrounding community came to the podium to express concerns over the plan, particularly the thorny parking issue which is always in short supply at the current Library building.
\nMany of these concerns were shared by Council who decided to reaffirm their overall vision for the area, but starting fresh with new designers to realise that vision.
\n\u201cWe all support the idea of the development of the area, and I think we all support the idea of moving ahead but, understandably, there are concerns and everyone wants to be cautious in the approach,\u201d said Councillor Michael Thompson. \u201cI think this is a baby step forward.\u201d
\nGoing into last week\u2019s meeting, staff recommended Council endorse the first of two concepts presented by FOTENN, which included 76 parking spaces north of the Aurora Cultural Centre, along with a water feature.
\nThis suggestion, however, was almost dead in the water as Library reps raised concerns over moving existing parking away from the Library itself, along with the challenges of providing adequate accessible parking. Although lawmakers said they liked certain components of each plan, a hybrid model was not necessarily on the table.
\nPlans, as presented, ignored provisions for the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and needed a serious re-think, contended Councillor Wendy Gaertner. The plan, she said, was taking away parking right next to the library, replacing it with a larger parking lot on the footprint of Library Square, yet the plan suggests this parking lot space at some point be converted to a new building down the road.
\n\u201cI want someone to come to us and say, \u2018Okay, I know you want a gathering space, I know you want a civic square, you may want a water feature or a place where people can sit and relax, you want to make better use of your Cultural Centre and really encourage the Library to be a hub,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI want someone to come to me with a design. I don\u2019t want to endorse an idea that, to me, we\u2019re really no farther along if you\u2019re looking at it in the practical sense. We\u2019ve got a concept plan that doesn\u2019t work so now we have to work on the concept and keep bringing it back.\u201d
\n\u201cI would like to see a hybrid between the two options,\u201d said Mayor Geoff Dawe. \u201cI think generically there are some great elements I here. I like the extension of the Church Street School and I think it has some fabulous potential to highlight things we don\u2019t have an opportunity to highlight at this point. As long as we understand we all have some individual items we would like to see \u2013 or not see \u2013 we\u2019re moving forward in a generic sense.\u201d
\nCouncillor John Abel was among the Councillors who said they were happy Council was \u201cmoving forward\u201d on Library Square, but he was still waiting to see the \u201cbuy-in\u201d from the surrounding community that what was on the table was a great idea.
\nHe said he was keen to move forward \u2013 this time without FOTENN \u2013 and put out another RFP to get fresh ideas, with a particular emphasis on solving the parking problem
\n\u201cLet\u2019s go for an RFP right away, get a fresh idea and go out to design,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can have something within a quarter and work with our stakeholders to get some ideas and go forward from there. I think this missed its mark. FOTENN has been with us now for two years. We have got our money\u2019s worth and I am not complaining about that.\u201d
\nLooking at the two options before Council last week, Councillor Tom Mrakas said, at first blush, he was in favour of the second option, which included a roundabout drop-off space for Library users, but, as the days wore on, he saw the practical aspects of Option 1.
\n\u201cI do agree that there are some components from both that make sense [and] I think we need to continue looking at this from a high level,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have a vision. We have stated it many times here at this table. We have heard it from the public, we have heard it from the residents, we have heard it from community partners and what they want over a 20 year span and we decided what this vision is going to be before. We said we needed more community space and we said we needed a civic square.\u201d
\nThe next step, he said, was moving forward with the demolition and then discussing the uses at the detailed design process.
\n\u201cThen we can finally make a decision on Library Square,\u201d he concluded. \u201cI am looking forward to moving forward and continuing the revitalization of downtown.\u201d
\nAdded Councillor Sandra Humfryes: \u201cI am so happy we\u2019re at this point and once we get past here we can move onto that next step for the design phase and I am looking forward to that. This is not perfect at all and we have a lot of work to do, but it is a step in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Demolition and designs inch forward after Council rejects two proposals for redeveloping the Victoria Street lands. <\/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-17346","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\/p3D2k4-4vM","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-24 11:33:55","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\/17346","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=17346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}