{"id":24113,"date":"2019-06-28T11:49:02","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T15:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24113"},"modified":"2019-06-28T11:49:12","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T15:49:12","slug":"sports-field-shortfall-to-rise-by-nearly-20-in-not-too-distant-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/sports-field-shortfall-to-rise-by-nearly-20-in-not-too-distant-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Sports field shortfall to rise by nearly 20 in \u201cnot too distant future\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Aurora has been short on sports fields for nearly a decade, and\nthis shortfall is only expected to get worse in the \u201cnot too distant future,\u201d\naccording to Town Staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a report in front of Council this week, 19 sports\nfields on lands currently owned by the Stronach Group (otherwise known as the\nMagna Fields) will be lost to local sports groups in the coming years, pending\nthe redevelopment of the property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will only make a bad situation worse, according to Town\nStaff, who are laying the groundwork for a new study looking at developing a\nfield development strategy for the Town of Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA comprehensive field development strategy is needed to help\nensure that the Town is properly positioned to meet the existing and future\noutdoor sports field needs for the community,\u201d said John Firman, Manager of\nBusiness Support for the Town. \u201cThis will help maximize opportunities with\nexisting assets and provide informed recommendations for the\nacquisition\/development of new assets. Thorough consultation with all\nstakeholders will ensure that all relevant input is considered in the\ndevelopment of this strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDuring Council deliberations and discussions with various sport\nfield user groups regarding the development of the Hallmark Lands, Council\nidentified the need for a comprehensive outdoor field development strategy.\nWith conflicting information from user groups and extensive research required\nto properly develop a strategy, staff recommended an independent consultant be\nretained to conduct this research in [developing] a strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn addition to existing challenges in meeting community sports\nfields needs, other contributing factors towards the need for a comprehensive\nstrategy include the fact that almost half the sports fields are owned by third\nparties with no guarantee of the future availability to the Town. We also know\nthat the 19 fields on the Stronach Group property will be lost in the not too distant\nfuture and will need to be replaced.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study will look at the inventory of existing fields and\nspaces, the needs of community user groups as well as future demographic\nprojections. The results will make recommendations on repurposing some existing\nassets, possible land acquisition opportunities, \u201calternative strategies\u201d for\nmultiuse assets, and recommendations for the replacement of third-party fields\nexpected to be lost down the road. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Mr. Firman notes that recommendations in each of these areas\nwill be coming forward to Council this fall, local lawmakers gave the tentative\ngreen light to beginning the outdoor field development strategy last week,\nalong with signing off on $55,000 earmarked for the project within the 2019\nBudget. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was such a huge topic for us [and] a huge problem for us\nthe last term,\u201d said Councillor Wendy Gaertner. \u201cWhen I was reading the report,\nI thought $55,000 sounds like an okay amount of money to try and solve this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is already clear Aurora doesn\u2019t have enough land, said\nCouncillor Gaertner, predicting that will be one of the report\u2019s findings, but\nshe questioned whether two-storey sports fields could be considered as part of\nthe report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While she said she has seen some examples of this for tennis,\nRobin McDougal, Director of Community Services, said she was not aware of\ntwo-tier developments that might meet Aurora\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe acknowledge the fact that land is limited, so that is why [this study will look at] other partnership opportunities [like] school board relationships,\u201d said Ms. McDougall. \u201cWe know from an investment perspective replacing a natural turf with an artificial turf, we can significantly increase its usability and functionality. That is something we may be needing to look at, wherever there may be an investment in a soccer field, whether it be a partnership with a school or not, I think the artificial turf is a route we may need to consider. To replace those lands we\u2019re going to lose, particularly when Magna fields come offline.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To that end, Councillor Gaertner said she was \u201cshocked\u201d by the\nnumber of fields Aurora is set to lose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is really concerning,\u201d she said, before asking whether the\nCommunity Services Department had an idea on when this loss would come to pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t heard any particulars around the dates of when those\nlands will move forward for development,\u201d said Ms. McDougall. \u201cWe\u2019re just\ntrying to be progressive and get ahead of it, if we can.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora has been short on sports fields for nearly a decade, and this shortfall is only expected to get worse in the \u201cnot too distant future,\u201d according to Town Staff.<\/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-24113","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\/p3D2k4-6gV","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 21:44:01","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\/24113","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=24113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24113\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}