{"id":19699,"date":"2018-02-01T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19699"},"modified":"2018-02-08T11:11:28","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T16:11:28","slug":"monster-homes-a-growing-problem-or-much-ado-about-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/monster-homes-a-growing-problem-or-much-ado-about-nothing\/","title":{"rendered":"Monster Homes: A growing problem or “much ado about nothing”?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

An interim control bylaw to put a halt on new residential builds and additions that don\u2019t conform to standards in surrounding areas is set to be enacted this week in a bid to protect Aurora\u2019s \u201cstable neighbourhoods\u201d from \u201cmonster homes.\u201d
\nIf passed this week, the interim control bylaw will be in place for a year while a study is carried out on existing policies for protecting development standards in established communities. However, Council, after tentatively approving the measure at last week\u2019s General Committee, cautions that it might fall short of residents\u2019 expectations.
\nOnce approved the Interim Control Bylaw will prohibit new residential dwellings and additions to existing homes that exceed current development standards set out in current residential zones for the year. An amendment was made to the motion last week giving staff the authority to sign off on minor variance applications brought forward to the Committee of Adjustment but Council members were still divided over whether the interim control measures will hit the mark.
\n\u201cThe interim control bylaw does address one of the problems, which is granting extra height and massing for a home, and I know that is a problem on some of the streets in the stable neighbourhoods,\u201d said Councillor Wendy Gaertner, addressing concerns over \u201cmonster homes\u201d that have been expressed over the months since Council began looking at ways of addressing the issue. \u201cI think the way this [bylaw] is worded, we will allow residents to put additions on their home, that is not what we\u2019re trying to stop here; we\u2019re trying to stop the even larger builds.
\n\u201cIt does not prevent a developer from knocking down an existing home and creating something that does not fit in with the neighbourhood and causes adverse impact to the neighbourhood. In plain English, the zoning bylaw that exists will continue to allow the very large homes, some of you are calling them \u2018monster homes\u2019 or \u2018neighbourhood busting homes.\u2019\u201d
\nThis will continue, she said, until Council is able to fully look at current zoning bylaws in place to see if they fit with Aurora\u2019s Official Plan and go towards protecting older neighbourhoods. Chances are they won\u2019t, she said, and Council will \u201chopefully\u201d move to do more to protect stable neighbourhoods.
\n\u201cI think this is a first step and until we actually look at zoning bylaws that exist and talk about how we\u2019re going to change things, you will not have increased protections,\u201d she told the healthy crowd in the public gallery. \u201cThat is why the timing of this issue is very important. We have to try not to miss entirely this building season.\u201d
\nIt is important, she added, that something be in place by September when Council wraps up ahead of the October municipal election.
\nAlso calling the proposed Interim Control Bylaw a \u201cgood first step\u201d was Councillor Paul Pirri , who said he agreed it is \u201cnot going to solve everyone\u2019s problems\u201d in the end.
\n\u201cI intrinsically believe people have property rights,\u201d said Councillor Pirri. \u201cWe have set out some rules and regulations to say this is our zoning bylaw, these are the standards you have to live up to and I think, as a municipality, we have set those rules. Now, to turn around and say that you can\u2019t even build to our standards is not something I agree with. I am in favour of moving forward with what we have in front of us today. That will ensure our rules and regulations are being abided by, but I am not sure I would like to go much further.\u201d
\nWhile Councillor Paul Pirri was comfortable with this as a first step despite his reservations over anything more stringent down the road, Mayor Geoff Dawe was clear with his opposition.
\nAfter asking Planning Director Marco Ramunno how many applications, on average, come into Town Hall each year that exceed standards, and receiving a response of \u201csix to seven,\u201d the Mayor said this whole thing is \u201cmuch ado about nothing.\u201d
\n\u201cWe have six to eight houses a year and for that we\u2019re going through this interim control bylaw,\u201d he said. \u201cI think what we need to be doing is going back to what the Region is doing\u2026and looking at our entire Official Plan. If we truly want to protect our stable neighbourhoods, we have to look at it from a holistic point of view. This is not going to get us what I suspect a lot of people in this audience are looking for, or what they feel might be happening. It might be a start, it might not.
\n\u201cI think that\u2019s up to the individual person to determine. Council may remember that some people on this Council were aghast that we would actually forward a budget recommendation to the 2018 Council because it would not go over a term and that was just a recommendation to look at something. I do not support this.\u201d
\nBut, from the viewpoint of Councillor Tom Mrakas, the very measure on the table was the first step in a \u201cholistic\u201d approach to addressing the perceived problem.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re doing a study and that study is looking at how we can better protect those stable neighbourhoods,\u201d said Councillor Mrakas. \u201cThe interim control bylaw is to be put in place to make sure that while the study is happening that no one can come forward and ask for changes from what is allowed currently.
\n\u201cWhen I hear this is \u2018much ado about nothing,\u2019 really there [are] no facts when it comes to that. When we look at protecting our stable neighbourhoods, we need to do what we can and I think taking this approach is a good first step and combining it with the study is when it will come back. We\u2019ll take that look and decide how we\u2019re going to move forward. I am in full support of this. I think this is the way we move forward. I am not here to please the development community. I am here to please the residents of this community.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An interim control bylaw to put a halt on new residential builds and additions that don\u2019t conform…<\/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":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19699","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\/p3D2k4-57J","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 20:43:16","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\/19699","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=19699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}