{"id":19396,"date":"2017-12-20T14:18:10","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T19:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19396"},"modified":"2018-01-03T16:21:36","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T21:21:36","slug":"aurora-to-dig-deep-on-library-square","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-to-dig-deep-on-library-square\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora to dig deep on Library Square"},"content":{"rendered":"

Demolition on the former Fire Hall and Seniors’ Centre on Victoria Street on Tuesday.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Library Square has been nearly 20 years in the making, but Aurora Council turned a significant page in the project\u2019s long history last week \u2013 settling on a concept.
\nIn a 7 \u2013 1 vote on Tuesday night, Council decided to approve the second of two concepts planned for a new town square, which will be built in between the Aurora Public Library and the Aurora Cultural Centre.
\nThe concept plan will see Aurora dig deep, picking the \u201clowered square\u201d option which would place Library Square on the same level as the ground floor of the current library building.
\nAs a consequence, however, it will require digging deep around the base of the Aurora Cultural Centre to create a flat surface.
\nThe plan also calls for a new public building, an extension of the Aurora Cultural Centre, to be built on the site of the former Aurora Public Library Building on Victoria Street, and parking to surface the new Library Square complex to be built on the footprint of the former Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre, also on Victoria Street.
\nDemolition work on both buildings is currently ongoing.
\nOption Two was the option preferred by both The Planning Partnership, planners retained by the plan to come up with concept designs, as well as the Aurora Cultural Centre.
\nThe Aurora Public Library, on the other hand, preferred an Option 1 which would have raised Library Square level to the library\u2019s second floor, allowing for parking underneath the public square\u2019s platform and, importantly to them, parking closer to the library building itself.
\nNevertheless, Option Two won the day, albeit with a few tweaks from the previous week.
\nPresented by the Planning Partnership, these modifications allowed for a 9.3 metre laneway to be constructed on the north side of the Library, allowing for a loading area, and two varieties of accessible parking much closer to the busy community space than the planned parking lot off Victoria.
\n\u201c[Accessibility] is a really important criteria in all public spaces and the AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act] are very high and should be exceeded where possible,\u201d said planner David Leinster, outlining the modifications to Council.
\nHis presentation followed a delegation to Council by Tyler Barker, chair of Aurora\u2019s Accessibility Advisory Committee. Mr. Barker, who lives with cerebral palsy and requires a large motorized wheelchair to get around, questioned the \u201crush\u201d in approving a concept plan before all the concerns regarding accessibility had been fully addressed.
\n\u201cFrankly, staff and the able-bodied community mean the best intentions, but they do not see it with the accessible eyes I see it, or how many people that are in my situation see things,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is great that Concept Two has more parking, but if [the issue] wasn\u2019t brought up on Facebook, would that have been the case? I don\u2019t think so.
\n\u201cI understand everybody is trying their best here, but what\u2019s the rush? I am saying that not just for this item or item. I want Aurora to be the standard for accessibility. Why do they always say, \u2018It meets the minimum [AODA] standard?\u2019 Would you like the minimum standard on your home renovations? On your car? On your health care? I don\u2019t think so. We are one of the largest minorities in the world, so use us as a resource. We have a lot to give.\u201d
\nHis comments were noted by Council members.
\n\u201cI think the consultant has heard those comments and we have made a big improvement and hopefully we can make some more to make it just a little bit easier for everybody,\u201d said Councillor Wendy Gaertner.
\nAdded Councillor Tom Mrakas, speaking to Mr. Leinster, \u201cYou\u2019ve stepped up and made some alterations and revisions that have answered a lot of those concerns.\u201d
\nCouncillor John Abel, the lone Council member who voted against the concept (Councillor Jeff Thom as not in attendance, recovering from surgery), was not convinced.
\n\u201cIt would be great if the parking was where Yonge Street and everyone could get in the library very quickly and easily there, but that is not the case and that is a huge challenge,\u201d he said, also referencing the current shortage of area parking. \u201cYou\u2019re eliminating what has worked for years, barely, and we\u2019re just creating more to it.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Library Square has been nearly 20 years in the making, but Aurora Council turned a significant page in the project\u2019s long history last week \u2013 settling on a concept.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19410,"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-19396","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\/12\/2017-12-21-13.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-52Q","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 07:27:19","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\/19396","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=19396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}