{"id":24235,"date":"2019-07-11T19:04:01","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T23:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24235"},"modified":"2019-07-11T19:04:10","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T23:04:10","slug":"apartment-proposal-leaves-residents-worried-over-backyard-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/apartment-proposal-leaves-residents-worried-over-backyard-damage\/","title":{"rendered":"Apartment proposal leaves residents worried over backyard damage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Neighbours on\nAurora\u2019s Amberhill Way are concerned about property and environmental damage if\na six-storey apartment development just south of their property lines comes to\nfruition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At issue is a\n134-unit rental apartment building proposed for the northeast corner of John\nWest Way and Wellington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The site in question\nhas changed hands many times over the years, along with the visions each\nproperty owner has had for the site, but the latest vision, if it ultimately\nreceives the green light, could see significant changes to the property\u2019s\ntopography to accommodate the building\u2019s footprint. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to\nKatherine Bibby, Planner for the Town of Aurora, the developers\u2019 application\nwill require the removal of land near Amberhill property lines to create fill\nto support the build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar work began\non the site when the John West Way area was first being developed to\naccommodate both Town Hall and the street itself in the early 1990s, but was\nhalted shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, a\ncommunity has been built up around the valley, which could be a gamechanger \u2013\nand that is the hope of neighbours who turned out at last month\u2019s Public\nPlanning meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDue to the\nintroduction of fill to accommodate development, cut and fill balance is\nrequired to ensure the floodplain capacity is not affected by the application,\u201d\nMs. Bibby told Council. \u201cRemoval of the soil on the east side of the water\ncourse will ensure enough area is available.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lake Simcoe\nConservation Authority (LSRCA), she noted, is currently reviewing the studies\nproponents have provided and are expected to provide feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feedback, however,\nwas swift when the application was before Council. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While\nrepresentatives for the developers said filling was partially carried out in\n1990, that a further cut and fill analysis was approved for the site in 2015,\nand new plantings of trees and wetland plants would represent a \u201cnet gain to\nthe environmental system,\u201d neighbours were unconvinced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t understand\nhow there\u2019s no environmental impact on\ntransferring fill from one side of the river to the other,\u201d said John West Way\nresident Keith Ingle on impacts to the tributary of the East Holland River that\nflows through the site. \u201cHow will the river be protected? That is not clear\nyet. Maybe it is too early, but I for one don\u2019t think that you can avoid an\nenvironmental impact to build this structure. I think it is a very sensitive\narea and perhaps it should be something else [that is not] intensifying the\npopulation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other residents said\nthey appreciated the need for affordable rental units, but not in a land that\nwas \u201cenvironmentally special.\u201d More said they were particularly concerned that\ncut and fill on their side of the valley would lead to the erosion of their\nbackyards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe proposed cut and\nfill activities in the area [is] intended to be a very gentle grading\nexercise,\u201d replied Amber Palmer, representing the applicants. \u201cThe full grading\nexercise [in 1990] was not completed at that time and I would say about 50 per\ncent of the cut area was completed and 50 per cent of the fill area was\ncompleted. Back in around 2011, we did a survey of the area to verify how much\ncut and fill had been completed to determine whether or not additional work\ncould be completed under the initial application and it was agreed through\nstaff that that was the case. What we\u2019re proposing is very consistent with what\nwas initially proposed for this area. The cut is intended to be very minor, in\nparticular near the water course.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Councillor Wendy\nGaertner said she shared residents concerns, adding that a lot has changed in\nthe area over the past three decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am very\nconcerned,\u201d she said. \u201cThe approval given in 1990 was given in a whole\ndifferent world. That was 30 years ago and now we have climate change and\npredictions of severe rains and flooding. To me, it is very concerning and I\nalso don\u2019t like that the meadowland is going to be removed because the\nmeadowland is important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The application was accepted at the Public\nPlanning meeting and will come before Council at a future General Committee\nmeeting for further discussion and community input.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neighbours on Aurora\u2019s Amberhill Way are concerned about property and environmental damage if a six-storey apartment development just south of their property lines comes to fruition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24235","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\/p3D2k4-6iT","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 17:00:48","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\/24235","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=24235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}