{"id":23470,"date":"2019-04-04T19:53:08","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23470"},"modified":"2019-04-04T19:53:17","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:53:17","slug":"getting-things-done-protecting-stable-neighbourhoods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/getting-things-done-protecting-stable-neighbourhoods\/","title":{"rendered":"GETTING THINGS DONE: Protecting Stable Neighbourhoods"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Mayor Tom Mrakas<\/strong>

At the Public Planning meeting this past Wednesday, Council discussed, once again, the issue of how best to protect stable neighbourhoods through potential amendments to zoning bylaws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Residents have raised concerns for well over a decade about\ninappropriate infill development and the impacts it has on their\nneighbourhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are concerned about the \u201c\u2026 growing trend of dwellings being\nsignificantly renovated, enlarged, or replaced by new dwellings, which are\noften quite large and very different from the existing surrounding built form.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Past Councils have considered how to address this issue. In 2006,\na working group was struck to make recommendations to Council. In 2008, staff\ntook those recommendations and developed an amended zoning bylaw that\nspecifically addressed height, setbacks and lot coverage in three stable\nneighbourhoods \u2013 Town Park area, Hillview and Temperance street. Unfortunately,\nthe Council of the day voted against this amended bylaw protecting stable\nneighbourhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, here we are 10 years later discussing literally the same\nthing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Council is moving forward, taking steps to listen to residents\nand take action. At the Public Planning Meeting, Council heard from many\nresidents who made their views known; ranging from there should be no\nrestrictions on what can be built to recommending extreme restrictions limiting\nthe size of homes to what currently exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council listened to the views expressed and considered the staff\nreport and consultant\u2019s report that sought to address concerns raised over the\npast decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As residents know, zoning bylaws exist to set out the\nrequirements as determined by our Official Plan regarding how, where and what\ncan be built. They set criteria about setbacks, and height, and lot coverage,\nnumbers of units etc. These restrictions are reviewed periodically to ensure\nthat they meet the needs of our community as we grow and evolve. And that\u2018s\nwhat this Council is doing. Revising and refining the zoning bylaw to address\nspecific issues as they relate to infill development in existing stable\nneighbourhoods. Though our current Official Plan does afford some protections for\nidentified Stable Neighbourhoods, Council identified that more is needed to\nmanage the change in four specific neighbourhoods \u2013 Aurora Heights, Regency\nAcres, Temperance Street and Town Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any proposed changes, however, must be forward looking to ensure\nthat we enact infill zoning bylaws that make sense for our Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe the recommendations presented by the consultant are\nfair and balanced. They meet the stated objective of achieving a balance\nbetween development control, and the flexibility to allow innovation and\nongoing investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council in the majority agreed with the recommendations and\ntaking the next step towards final approval. Council will be meeting in General\nCommittee to review the draft amended Bylaw and design guidelines and to, finally,\nput in place the tools we need to better manage infill development in our\ncommunity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is all for this week. As always if you would like to get\ninto contact with me please feel free to contact me anytime by phone\n905-727-3123 ext. 4746 or by email tmrakas@aurora.ca and if you would like to\nsign up for more newsletters and council updates then please visit\nMrakas.ca\/contact to join the growing list of Aurorans that are staying\ninformed.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mayor Tom Mrakas At the Public Planning meeting this past Wednesday, Council discussed, once again, the issue of how best to protect stable neighbourhoods through potential amendments to zoning bylaws. Residents have raised concerns for well over a decade about inappropriate infill development and the impacts it has on their neighbourhoods. They are concerned […]<\/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":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-66y","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 16:58:57","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\/23470","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=23470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23470\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}