{"id":18228,"date":"2017-08-30T16:59:31","date_gmt":"2017-08-30T20:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18228"},"modified":"2017-08-30T16:59:31","modified_gmt":"2017-08-30T20:59:31","slug":"inside-aurora-location-location-location","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-location-location-location\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: Location, Location, Location"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n

The big news in Town last week was the announcement that a second hotel might be built in Aurora.
\nAlthough both structures are still on the drawing board, and some time away from receiving guests, that\u2019s two more places for visitors to stay within our borders than we\u2019ve had since Howard Johnsons closed a few years ago.
\nThe most intriguing revelation in all this was the proposed location of the second hotel; just a stone\u2019s throw from the first one.
\nTrue, it\u2019s near the highway, but you\u2019d think that the new hotel might want a bit more elbow room from its competition, and that they may be able to find a spot a little further away within Aurora\u2019s 50 or so square kilometres.
\nAt the very least, instead of being perched out on the very edge of the municipality, where to be honest, there isn\u2019t a lot of anything, the owners would prefer it to be a little closer to downtown, whether that be Yonge or Bayview or Library Square, or wherever downtown Aurora is considered these days. At least somewhere where there are cultural, recreational and other venues that might attract those wanting to stay overnight.
\nOn the other hand, looking at the history of other developments in Town, perhaps their preferred location this isn\u2019t so surprising after all.
\nIt seems that no matter where any sort of new infrastructure is proposed in Town, local residents offer resistance.
\nSome recent examples include the new seniors\u2019 residence on Yonge Street planned to help fund the United Church development.
\nThis, as well as other proposed condo developments have been met with concerns about height, blocked views, increased traffic and generally being too big and out of place for the local neighbourhood.
\nThe Highland Gate golf course redevelopment has had to deal with fears of having too many houses, minimal setbacks, not enough green space, and even too much lighting in the new park.
\nRestaurants with drive-throughs have had complaints about traffic congestion, engine idling and litter.
\nConcerns have even been raised about the potential redevelopment of the Ontario government land on Bloomington.
\nAlthough these are more recent examples, this sort of NIMBYism isn\u2019t anything new in Aurora. While you don\u2019t hear much about them anymore, for a few years there was a huge outpouring of angst from residents whenever a cell tower was proposed within sight of a neighbourhood.
\nThat\u2019s not to say that in many cases residents don\u2019t have valid concerns and well thought out alternatives, and in the end, compromises on both sides usually result(ed) in these projects moving ahead to everyone\u2019s benefit.
\nBut one can see how, based on the experiences of their predecessors, new businesses might be a bit leery of setting down roots in our community.
\nThat\u2019s what makes the location on Leslie out on the edge of Town so perfect for a new hotel. While it may not be close to whatever attracts their eventual customers to Town in the first place, it\u2019s far from residential properties, and related concerns.
\nCertainly no one seems to have raised any red flags so far about this proposal.
\nSomeday demand could be such that a third or even fourth hotel ends up in Aurora. If so, it wouldn\u2019t surprise me to see all of them clustered within sight of each other.
\nUnless, of course, by that time that area near Leslie has become surrounded by residential areas. In which case, any new hotel may face opposition that its predecessors didn\u2019t have to contend with.<\/p>\n

Feel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston The big news in Town last week was the announcement that a second hotel might be built in Aurora. Although both structures are still on the drawing board, and some time away from receiving guests, that\u2019s two more places for visitors to stay within our borders than we\u2019ve had since Howard Johnsons […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"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":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4K0","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 04:24:38","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\/18228","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=18228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}