{"id":19236,"date":"2017-11-29T17:22:50","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T22:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19236"},"modified":"2017-11-29T17:22:50","modified_gmt":"2017-11-29T22:22:50","slug":"proposal-to-move-historic-home-for-10-storey-apartment-hits-council-speedbump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/proposal-to-move-historic-home-for-10-storey-apartment-hits-council-speedbump\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposal to move historic home for 10 storey apartment hits Council speedbump"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

It is among the few reminders of the small hamlets that formed what is now Aurora, and now a plan to move the \u201cRed House\u201d from its 170-year-old foundation at Yonge and St. John\u2019s Sideroad to make way for a 10 storey apartment development has raised the ire of Council.
\nCouncil, sitting at the Committee level last week, turned down an application from the current owners of the historic Red House, which most recently found new life as Oakland Hall restaurant, for several bylaw changes which would ultimately pave the way for the large-scale development despite the owners\u2019 plans to relocate the building just north to the nearby intersection.
\nSpeaking on behalf of his clients, Chad B. Jean-Baptiste of WSB Canada said his client first met with the Town on the proposal in July 2015, subsequently pitching their idea to Aurora\u2019s Heritage Advisory Committee in both August of 2016 and the subsequent April.
\n\u201cWe understand that height is an issue,\u201d he said. \u201cOur client will work to ensure we\u2019re well set back from Yonge Street and we\u2019re looking to address those types of concerns as part of the site design.\u201d
\nShould any part of this plan go forward, it is likely that height will indeed be an issue as current zoning bylaws allow for only three storeys in this particular area. At Council\u2019s first blush, however, height was the least of their worries \u2013 it was all about the heritage not just of the building but the surrounding area as well.
\nFirst to take aim at the proposal was Councillor Jeff Thom, who emphasised the importance of the building in \u201ccontext.\u201d
\nReading from the building\u2019s historical designation, he said the Red House, which formerly served as the studio for famed artist Dorothy Clark McClure is, along with Willow Farm across Yonge Street and the Partiger House on the east side of Old Yonge Street, is all that is left of Cosford\u2019s Corners, a small settlement which once boasted a number of prosperous farms, a blacksmith, carriage shop, and other amenities.
\n\u201cFrom our client\u2019s perspective, the context is important,\u201d said Mr. Jean-Baptiste, noting their proposal to move the house to the corner of Yonge and St. John\u2019s would add to the prominence of the building.
\nCouncillor Thom, however, was not convinced.
\n\u201cThere are no guarantees when moving a house that was constructed in the mid 19th century that it is going to be successful,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had an application on a designated house that was passed by the previous Council and previous HAC (Heritage Advisory Committee) on Wellington Street where the front fa\u00e7ade was supposed to be kept and [developers] guaranteed it would be perfect, and it had to be destroyed because they weren\u2019t able to maintain the structural integrity of the building. I want to make it clear the bylaw is specific to the contextual reasons\u2026on why this property is an important property to the Town.\u201d
\nThis was a view shared by Councillor Wendy Gaertner who said the HAC was clear they did not want to see the house moved.
\n\u201cI am quite sure, being at the meeting, the Committee was very opposed to having the Red House moved, so it seems to me like it was a wasted visit for the developer and the committee,\u201d she said.
\nOther Council members, on the other hand, were more willing to entertain the idea of at least approving this first step to enable the concept to be presented for future consideration and debate at a Public Planning Meeting.
\n\u201cWe often see a lot of developments, and I am talking about the United Church, where we took a significant heritage corner and changed that,\u201d said Councillor Abel. \u201cI am a bit puzzled [at the opposition because] that was the downtown core and this is the outskirts, but I appreciate the passion. It sounds to me\u2026they are moving it a little bit closer to the corner and it is going to be a little more prominent. This would, in my mind, follow exactly what we\u2019re supposed to do. We moved Petch House quite far and reassembled it to preserve that, so the idea of preserving it and putting it on the same property appeals to me.
\n\u201cI think it is our duty to allow them to at least get to that process and that is the planning meeting. We have been reminded almost every time we do this that it is not the merits of what it is [we\u2019re to be discussing] it is just to proceed with the application to the planning process.\u201d
\nThis idea was rejected by Councillor Tom Mrakas who said the merits of the application were already in the report and questioned whether Councillor Abel would have the same mindset if faced with a 20 storey application simply because they had already discussed their proposal with staff.
\n\u201cYou have to look at the merits, you have to make a decision on what\u2019s best,\u201d said Councillor Mrakas.
\nThe application was rejected on a 4 \u2013 2 vote with Mayor Geoff Dawe and Councillor Abel voting in favour of the application. Councillors Harold Kim and Paul Pirri were not in attendance.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is among the few reminders of the small hamlets that formed what is now Aurora, and now a plan to move the \u201cRed House\u201d from its 170-year-old foundation at Yonge and St. John\u2019s Sideroad to make way for a 10 storey apartment development has raised the ire of Council. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19193,"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-19236","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\/2017\/11\/2017-11-30-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-50g","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-01 08:44:52","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\/19236","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=19236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}