{"id":24356,"date":"2019-08-02T11:55:54","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T15:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24356"},"modified":"2019-08-08T09:03:09","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T13:03:09","slug":"town-enters-fight-to-protect-henderson-forest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/town-enters-fight-to-protect-henderson-forest\/","title":{"rendered":"Town enters fight to protect \u201cHenderson Forest\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

The fight to protect the so-called Henderson Forest, a\nheavily wooded, privately-owned property on Henderson Drive, against the\nbuilding of two large homes on portions of the land, got stronger last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a 6 \u2013 0 vote, with Councillor John Gallo not present\nfor the meeting, Council came out of closed door talks last Tuesday night and\nset in motion retaining external legal counsel to fight against the build at\nOntario\u2019s Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once retained, the Town\u2019s outside legal counsel will work\nto support a decision made by the Town\u2019s Committee of Adjustment this summer to\nblock the building of the homes at 672 and 684 Henderson Drive, a decision\nwhich was largely made due to environmental concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have decided to support the Committee of Adjustment\u2019s\ndecision of the refusal of those two applications,\u201d said Mayor Tom Mrakas\nfollowing the vote, which was greeted by cheers from ratepayers and other\nadvocates gathered in Council chambers to learn the decision. \u201cThere will be an\n(LPAT) hearing date and we will get those dates out when they are made public\nor, when they finalize them, and then everyone will be notified at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, we have an adjudicator from LPAT\nthat will basically be making the final decision on these two properties. We\nwill be there fighting vigorously to support he refusal but, at the end of the\nday, it is in the hands of LPAT at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it can\u2019t be predicted at this point which way the\nhearing will go, ratepayers said Council\u2019s decision was a step in the right\ndirection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo many people from all over Aurora and beyond have\nbecome engaged in this campaign,\u201d said Wendy Kenyon on behalf of the Henderson\nForest Ratepayers\u2019 Association. \u201cOne only has to look at the rich environmental\nidentity of these Moraine lands to understand why they need to be\npreserved. We\u2019re delighted that Council recognized this and has done the\nright thing. It was a good moment for the Town!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re delighted with Council\u2019s decision but,\nunfortunately, the fight to protect these Moraine lands is far from over. Last\nweek\u2019s vote was an excellent outcome but the final battle will be at\nLPAT. We\u2019re hoping that whoever hears the case will look beyond the \u2018smoke\nand mirrors\u2019 and recognize the unacceptable level of environmental damage that\nwould ensue if either of these monster homes is built. This campaign goes far\nbeyond the Henderson Drive area and reflects what communities are doing around\nthe province and on an even wider scale. If we don\u2019t take a local stance\non protecting our woodlands and our at-risk wildlife, nothing will change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ratepayers added they are hoping \u201call the work done\nby the community over the last two years will be put to good use\u201d when the\nTown\u2019s external counsel makes their case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have to win this so that these pristine woodlands and\nspecies-at-risk habitat are preserved for future generations to enjoy. It is\nthe only environmentally reasonable option.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The area in question was two lots, one of approximately\nfive acres and the second just under three acres. The landowner has proposed\ntwo builds on the northwest and the southeast of the complete land envelope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the last Committee of Adjustment meeting, planner Ryan\nGuetter, representing the landowner\u2019s consultants, told members that the\nproposals had undergone a number of changes since they were first filed based\non comments from both members of public and municipal staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Committee members, however, disagreed and voted down the\napplication in a unanimous decision of 3 \u2013 0 (with one member absent from the\nproceedings)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a duty to protect the land of this Town in which\nwe live,\u201d said Committee member Clarence Lui. \u201cThat is why this Committee is\ncomposed of residents of this Town. I share the concerns expressed by my\ncolleagues and members of the public over the impact on the ecological\nintegrity, including the number of trees that could be removed, the actual\nnumber of which is not yet known, together with the negative impact on\nwildlife, the significance of which, in my mind, is unclear\u2026 but the negative\nimpact will be permanent should the proposed development on the land [be]\npermitted to proceed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith respect to this particular application, the size of\nthe proposed building envelope at 916 square metres and the area of disturbance\nis troubling in my view. The proposed variance is not minor in nature.\nAccordingly, I move to reject the application.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fight to protect the so-called Henderson Forest, a heavily wooded, privately-owned property on Henderson Drive, against the building of two large homes on portions of the land, got stronger last week.<\/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-24356","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\/p3D2k4-6kQ","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 12:19:44","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\/24356","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=24356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24356\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}