{"id":24129,"date":"2019-06-28T11:59:17","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T15:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24129"},"modified":"2019-06-28T11:59:26","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T15:59:26","slug":"protecting-residents-in-older-neighbourhoods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/protecting-residents-in-older-neighbourhoods\/","title":{"rendered":"Protecting residents in older neighbourhoods?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Councils\nhave tried to protect older neighbourhoods in past years and failed. The\ndifference this time is that Aurora has new Planning Policy in place since 2012\nin our Official Plan (OP). It includes many protective Fundamental Principles\nand Development Policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ontario Planning Act mandates Councils\nto review all zoning by-laws for compliance with OP updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Aurora did a \u201cComprehensive\nReview\u201d, the Zoning By-laws for our older \u201cStable Neighbourhoods\u201d were never\nincluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I brought this to Council\u2019s attention in\nOctober 2017. I thought we could correct this oversight quickly and easily\nbefore the new building season arrived. We had so many residents dismayed by\nthe negative effects of the new very large homes. Their quality of life,\nincluding loss of privacy, sunlight, air flow, streetscape and mature trees,\nwas at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For over 18 months and 10 Meetings so many\nresidents came to Council to keep asking for help. (For two of these Meetings\nresidents very opposed to change came forward).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What protection did residents ask for?\nReduce the allowed lot coverage to less than 35% so house size will be more in\nkeeping with existing homes. Reduce allowed height so new homes will not tower\nover them and limit light and privacy. This is clearly in keeping with OP\npolicies in Section 8. \u201cAll new development within the \u2018Stable Neighbourhoods\u2019\ndesignation shall respect and reinforce the existing physical character and\nuses of the surrounding area, with particular attention to the following\nelements: the building type of nearby residential properties, the heights and\nscale of nearby residential properties, the setback of buildings from the\nstreet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What did residents get? None of the\nprotections they pleaded for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What did Aurora lose? The character of\nmature neighbourhoods that make Aurora unique, less choice for residents who\nwant to buy smaller homes; and a decrease in affordable rental housing so\nlacking in our community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could not vote for zoning changes that\nwill not benefit the majority of my residents in these neighbourhoods and the\nwider Aurora community.
\n
\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Wendy Gaertner<\/strong>
Aurora<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Councils have tried to protect older neighbourhoods in past years and failed. The difference this time is that Aurora has new Planning Policy in place since 2012 in our Official Plan (OP). It includes many protective Fundamental Principles and Development Policies. The Ontario Planning Act mandates Councils to review all zoning by-laws for compliance with […]<\/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":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6hb","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 00:53:35","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\/24129","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=24129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}