{"id":24111,"date":"2019-06-28T11:47:13","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T15:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24111"},"modified":"2019-06-28T11:47:22","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T15:47:22","slug":"urban-design-guidelines-concerning-for-some-council-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/urban-design-guidelines-concerning-for-some-council-members\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban design guidelines concerning for some Council members"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Urban design guidelines, which could give planners a\nblueprint on the kinds of building materials\nand aesthetics that would be welcome in Aurora\u2019s stable neighbourhoods could be\ntoo restrictive, according to some Council members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While much of the recent Stable\nNeighbourhood debate around the Council table centred on striking the right\nbalance when it comes to the size of potential new builds in Aurora\u2019s\nestablished communities, some of the talks have focused on a set of Urban\nDesign Guidelines that are due to be presented to Council at a later date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUrban Design Guidelines are a\nplace-making tool consisting of a set of written guidelines, illustrated plans,\ndiagrams and images of buildings and places,\u201d said Andria Sallese of the Town\u2019s\nPlanning and Development Services Department in the report before Council. \u201cThe\nStable Neighbourhood Urban Design Guidelines will be used as a tool to help\nensure new development is compatible with, and respects and reinforces, the\nstudy area\u2019s existing stable neighbourhoods. The Guidelines will also promote\nthe contextual response that supports architectural and streetscape continuity,\nwhile allowing for and encouraging flexibility and diversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Urban Design Guidelines were\nfloated by Council as a means of steering the look and feel of new builds\nslated to go into stable neighbourhoods, but Councillor Michael Thompson said\nnew policies could run the risk of being too restrictive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beginning the discussion at the\nCommittee level, Councillor Thompson said he hasn\u2019t heard a lot of concerns\nfrom residents when it comes to building materials. Instead, much of the\nfeedback has been around building size, massing and footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do share some of the concerns\nand when I read through the proposed urban design guidelines, I am concerned\nthey will be used ultimately as a means to restrict people\u2019s ability to build\nthe home they want,\u201d said Councillor Thompson. \u201cThere will be choices they will\nnot be allowed to pursue because of that determination will be made as to\nwhether or not those are acceptable materials. I am concerned that once you put\nthat into print it becomes an issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUp to this point, I think the\nDepartment has managed to do a fairly good job at approving plans and bringing\nforth for Council\u2019s approval, or through their own department, of managing that\nprocess and engaging the builders themselves and making suggestions to improve\ncompatibility. To me, I am not sure we need the Urban Design Guidelines. I\nthink it might create more issues for us than it resolves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Thompson added he\nunderstood that the Guidelines were already being used on planning decisions\ndespite them not being approved or finalized by Council. They are already\nguiding the decision-making process, he argued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, I don\u2019t\nwant to stifle design; I want to encourage it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Wendy Gaertner, on the\nother hand, said she believed that Urban Design Guidelines were needed, and\nwhat was also needed were these Guidelines coming back to Council for future\ndiscussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Mayor Tom Mrakas supported\nCouncillor Thompson\u2019s viewpoint, with caution, saying he didn\u2019t want to be\n\u201crestrictive\u201d because these Guidelines could ultimately end up policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know what is going to\nbe in front of us once staff bring it to us,\u201d he said. \u201cLet\u2019s see what [they]\nbring to us and make a decision at that point. I would at least like to see us\nhave that opportunity to see what staff are going to present us in those\nguidelines before we outright say no to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These sentiments continued into\nlast week\u2019s Council meeting with members largely agreeing to wait to see what\nthe guidelines are before making a decision, including Councillor Thompson who\nsaid following discussions with Town Planner David Waters he wanted to \u201creserve\njudgement\u201d until the final report.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Urban design guidelines, which could give planners a blueprint on the kinds of building materials and aesthetics that would be welcome in Aurora\u2019s stable neighbourhoods could be too restrictive, according to some Council members.<\/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-24111","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\/p3D2k4-6gT","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 22:43:59","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\/24111","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=24111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}