{"id":23404,"date":"2019-04-04T19:03:10","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23404"},"modified":"2019-04-11T20:42:04","modified_gmt":"2019-04-12T00:42:04","slug":"council-looks-for-area-specific-restrictions-in-auroras-stable-neighbourhoods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/council-looks-for-area-specific-restrictions-in-auroras-stable-neighbourhoods\/","title":{"rendered":"Council looks for area-specific restrictions in Aurora\u2019s Stable Neighbourhoods"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Area specific zoning bylaw restrictions designed to\nprotect Aurora\u2019s Stable Neighbourhoods will come forward to a future General\nCommittee meeting at Council, following issues identified by members of Council\nand the public alike last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council held a Public Planning meeting last Wednesday\nnight to review a series of recommendations for amendments to existing zoning\nbylaws, as well as design guidelines, aimed to ensure that future infill\ndevelopments in four communities \u2013 Town Park, Regency Acres, Aurora Heights and\nTemperance \u2013 are compatible with what is already in place in these established\nneighbourhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dozens of residents came forward to state their case to\nCouncil, most of whom suggested further changes to what was presented by\nindependent consultants retained by Town Hall to carry out an unbiased review\nof the issue and to draft a solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNeither side is happy with what\u2019ve done, and that might\nbe the right balance,\u201d conceded consultant Ron Palmer after presenting his\nfindings to Council. \u201cI still think we have heard such diverse public opinion.\nDoes the conversation continue? If the conversation continues, my fear is these\nneighbourhoods are left with existing zoning with no additional management\ntools in them. I still believe that the management tools that have been\nidentified are appropriate and that the metrics that are within them could be\ndebated forever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Council members were less sure the recommendations\nwere appropriate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his presentation, Mr. Palmer recommended a mix of 28\nguidelines and seven specific amendments to the Town\u2019s zoning bylaws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guidelines, he said, were designed to be flexible and\ncovered areas ranging from building height and massing, to gross floor area and\nfootprints of proposed buildings, garage and driveway widths, rear yard\nsetbacks, front entrance treatments and building materials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More concrete recommendations included setting the\nmaximum building height of nine metres from the current existing standard of\nten metres; that attached and detached garages be flush with or set back from\nthe front wall of existing dwellings; that detached garages should have a gross\nfloor area of 40 square metres and be counted towards maximum lot coverage;\nthat rear yard setbacks shall be a minimum of 7.5 metres or 25 per cent of a\ntotal lot depth, whichever is greater; and that detached garages may be located\nwithin the rear yard with an appropriate setback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zoning bylaw changes pertaining to the gross floor areas\nof new builds, however, was a stickier point for Council. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Palmer recommended the maximum floor area of any\ndwelling should be no more than 317 square metres (3,933 square feet), and the\nmaximum building footprint be no more than 236 square metres (2,540 square\nfeet), or a lot coverage of 35 per cent, whichever is less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Wendy Gaertner, however, said further work\nneeded to be done on setting specific rules on gross floor area in each of the\nfour identified stable neighbourhoods as a blanket rule would not work across\nthe board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn Regency Acres, we have homes that are 1,200 to 1,500\nsquare feet; you\u2019re going to put a 4,000 square foot house next to that?\u201d she\nasked. \u201cNo matter how you want to look at compatible or any other words, I\ncan\u2019t see how that could work or could be right. Aurora Heights is a little\ndifferent. I think they are probably closer to 2,000 square feet, but I don\u2019t\nthink that says exactly in the report. Town Park is all over the place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Palmer said he looked at the ranges and averages of\neach neighbourhood in question and came up with one number. He said Council\ncould change that approach to whatever they felt appropriate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Gaertner contended that the numbers for\nRegency Acres were \u201cskewed\u201d because data lumped Golf Glen, the area just north\nof Regency Acres which boasts larger homes than the older subdivision, was\nlumped into the equation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe residents have been saying this to us for months and\nI never really understood the significance of it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is just not\npossible, in my opinion, that Regency Acres and Aurora Heights could have the\nsame average lot coverage, just because of the difference in sizes of the\nhouses and the lots.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to this, Council members also offered\nreservations on design guidelines included in the report which, they said, ran\nthe risk of being too restrictive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere doesn\u2019t seem to be that inherent flexibility in\nterms of building materials,\u201d said Councillor Michael Thompson, citing the\nguideline recommending roofs of just cedar and asphalt to confirm with the\nexisting look in stable neighbourhoods. \u201cHow do we ensure that there is\ninherent flexibility in materials, colours, and so forth?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Rachel Gilliland was on a similar wavelength,\nadding: \u201cIt is important we use \u2018encourage\u2019 or \u2018may\u2019 rather than should use,\njust so it doesn\u2019t come off as scary or fear that you have to use cedar shake.\nI think we need to meet in the middle with that. I recall the last time when\nthe ratepayers were coming up and they were stating what they thought was\nrelevant to their neighbourhood that a three-metre driveway was really only\naddressed by Town Park area residents based on the fact a lot of the garages\nwere set back or built in behind. I wasn\u2019t happy about the fact it was\nblanketed across all four areas because they are very specific and I recall the\nconsultants suggesting that Town Park was in a very unique and eclectic variety\nof homes, but did have unique garages and setbacks. Those guidelines, in my\nmind, do need to be fine-tuned a little bit and softened a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But where these motions could be fine-tuned \u2013 whether at\nthe next General Committee meeting, or further Public Planning meeting \u2013 was a\nsource of debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would hate seeing this put on hold again,\u201d said\nCouncillor Gilliland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the other corner was Councillor Gaertner: \u201cI want it\nto be over, but I want to get it right,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat\u2019s an extra month?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, Council voted 4 \u2013 2 (Councillor Sandra\nHumfryes was not present) to go forward to General Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel we have found and have struck a balance and that\nis what we\u2019re looking to do,\u201d said Mayor Mrakas. \u201cI also do believe that, as\nelected officials, as a Council, it is our duty to look at how we grow as a\ncommunity. We have restrictions for our downtown core, for commercial\nbuildings. We don\u2019t allow more than six storeys, five plus one in areas. We\nneed to make sure that how we grow is how we see it ten, 15, 20 years down the\nroad, not just today. That is our job. I believe that this report has stuck\nthat balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is our job to move forward, make the decisions\nbecause that is what we\u2019re elected to do \u2013 make decisions and not to put it off\nto the next day. Do I think it is right? I do think it is right. Do I think\nthat some of the guidelines that are being presented in there that the language\nneeds to be softened? 100 per cent. But we can do that by continuing to move\nforward and going to GC we can make those decisions. I am in favour of what\u2019s\non the floor right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Area specific zoning bylaw restrictions designed to protect Aurora\u2019s Stable Neighbourhoods will come forward to a future General Committee meeting at Council, following issues identified by members of Council and the public alike last week.<\/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-23404","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\/p3D2k4-65u","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 22:36:32","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\/23404","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=23404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}