{"id":19708,"date":"2018-02-01T12:26:37","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T17:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19708"},"modified":"2018-02-01T12:26:37","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T17:26:37","slug":"bong-shop-raises-questions-over-plaza-renovations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/bong-shop-raises-questions-over-plaza-renovations\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cBong shop\u201d raises questions over plaza renovations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

An application to spruce up a south Aurora plaza through the Town\u2019s Community Improvement Plan might go up in a puff of smoke after one Councillor raised his eyebrows over the presence of a \u201cbong shop.\u201d
\nThe Aurora Heritage Plaza, on the southwest corner of Yonge Street and Brookland Avenue, is set to undergo a renovation project of over $230,000, $15,000 of which they hope will come from Aurora\u2019s Community Improvement Plan (CIP).
\nThe CIP was established in 2014 to provide financial incentives to local businesses to improve their properties and stimulate redevelopment through a number of areas including improvement of signage and facades and the intensification of retail and commercial uses in the downtown core.
\nShould the application by plaza owners be approved at Council this week, a municipal infusion into the overall cost of the project will pave the way for the removal and replacement of a new canopy, replacing all shop front windows and doors and re-stuccoing the existing fa\u00e7ade and other exterior elements.
\n\u201cThe proposed work seeks to enhance the commercial use of the property by enhancing the existing fa\u00e7ade and contributing to an enhanced streetscape,\u201d said Nick Kazakoff, Aurora\u2019s new Economic Development Officer. \u201cThe proposed work would also meet the Aurora Promenade\u2019s objective of promoting investment in the private building stock of the Promenade as a complement to public investment in streetscape and other public realm, recreation and municipal facilities. The CIP encourages the improvements of such properties through building enhancements to promote occupancy, bringing sites into highest and best active use.\u201d
\nOccupancy, however, was at issue for Councillor Paul Pirri who questioned whether they were going to \u201cget rid of the bong shop that is operating out of there\u201d in the process, referring to The Laughing Buddha pipe store.
\n\u201cIt is within Council\u2019s right to ask that and we could make that a condition of the grant,\u201d said Marco Ramunno, Aurora\u2019s Director of Planning.
\nOccupancy was also an issue on the mind of Councillor Wendy Gaertner, who approached it from a different angle.
\n\u201cIt is a pretty unattractive strip mall at the moment, and they are going to make it a lot better,\u201d she said. \u201cBut, I assume because it is pretty unattractive, the businesses there are getting a pretty low rent, [and] it is nice to have a diversity in the Town.\u201d
\nConsidering residential units are on the upper floor of the plaza, she questioned whether Aurora has any control of the rents, predicting the cost to live in one of these units might shoot up once the renovations are complete. Mr. Ramunno, however, said Aurora does not have a mechanism in place to control rents.
\n\u201cI am in favour of improving the look of the strip mall, but I think it is probably going to increase the rents of the tenants,\u201d Councillor Gaertner continued. \u201cIf there is a bong shop there, which I wasn\u2019t aware, they are probably going to have to find another location. They are probably not going to be able to afford it.\u201d
\nFrom Councillor Michael Thompson\u2019s perspective, $15,000 coming from the CIP towards a $230,00 renovation is relatively little and he questioned the use of money set aside for the CIP supporting renovations that are going to happen regardless.
\n\u201cI understand the intent of the program is to help business owners do this, but if somebody is already going to do a complete refresh of the building, we\u2019re almost giving them $15,000 they would have otherwise spent,\u201d said Councillor Thompson. \u201cIf it is just us giving a business owner a $15,000 grant to defer some of his costs, then I don\u2019t think that is the intent of the program.\u201d
\nCouncillor Sandra Humfryes, however, disagreed, adding: \u201cI am happy they are taking advantage of our Community Improvement grant, but I don\u2019t want to make any strings attached. I want this to move forward. It might happen anyway, but I think it is going to be a huge improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An application to spruce up a south Aurora plaza through the Town\u2019s Community Improvement Plan might go up in a puff of smoke after one Councillor raised his eyebrows over the presence of a \u201cbong shop.\u201d<\/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-19708","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\/p3D2k4-57S","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 20:40:22","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\/19708","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=19708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}