{"id":24568,"date":"2019-08-29T16:48:53","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T20:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24568"},"modified":"2019-09-05T19:31:19","modified_gmt":"2019-09-05T23:31:19","slug":"aurora-could-soon-get-first-pot-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-could-soon-get-first-pot-shop\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora could soon get first pot shop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Aurora could soon get its first retail cannabis store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than six months after Council\u2019s 6 \u2013 1 decision to\nopt in on retail cannabis sales, the first Aurora application was drawn in a\nlottery held last week by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The local applicant drawn in the August 20 lottery is Grant Wilson, with the listed address of 15243 Yonge Street, Unit 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilson\u2019s application was among 4,864 vying for a place on\nthe winner\u2019s list, and was ultimately one of a successful 42.  He will now have until Wednesday, August 28,\nto formally apply for a cannabis retail operator license.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results of last week\u2019s draw caught the attention of\nmunicipal staff who, according to Mayor Tom Mrakas, are considering the\npossibility of a retail cannabis store on the southeast quadrant of Yonge and\nWellington, from the perspective of traffic, parking, and other factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it is premature to say whether it would be a\ngood location or not,\u201d says Mayor Mrakas, who voted in favour of opting in. \u201cI\nthink as we get closer and we see if it is actually going to become the\napplication, then maybe we can have a more in-depth conversation about what\nwill be happening\u2026with a store in the Downtown Core.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, I don\u2019t see too many issues. It\nis a centrally located area, it is not around a main residential corridor, so a\nlot of the issues I think some people brought up in the conversation on whether\nwe should opt-in or opt-out, I don\u2019t see those concerns with this specific\nlocation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the conversation on whether Aurora was going to\nopt-in or opt-out, with Aurora and Whitchurch-Stouffville ultimately being the\nonly two York Region municipalities to give the thumbs-up to the plan, Council\nmembers and some residents suggested the Town\u2019s industrial areas, whether on\nIndustrial Parkway or in the Leslie Street business parks, would be a conducive\nlocation for a retail pot shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether or not he saw a potential cannabis store in\nthe heart of the historic Downtown core in the middle of multimillion-dollar\nprojects ongoing towards Downtown Revitalization, Mayor Mrakas said he didn\u2019t\nsee it having an impact one way or another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe revitalization of our Downtown Core is going to be\nthrough Library Square, more restaurants, and more unique businesses coming\nin,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think one store is going to change that aspect of it,\nwhether in a positive or negative way. Would it be ideal if it was in an\nindustrial area? Yeah, it would be ideal, but then you would have other\nresidents that would feel it is a difficult location to go to. There are\nplusses and minuses to every location, and that is why I think it is imperative\nthat we sit down (as Council) with Town Staff and let\u2019s have those\nconversations, see what our thoughts are and if we want to put in any comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we have any issues with the location being proposed,\nwe can follow the process, put that through, talk to the residents in the\nmeantime as well, and see if the residents in the area have any issues, [along\nwith whether] the residents of the Town overall have any issues with the\nproposed location. We can submit comments to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission\nof Ontario when the time comes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it stands now, Mayor Mrakas is recommending a \u201cwait\nand see approach\u201d to see the details of the application once it comes in. When\nthose details are available local lawmakers will look at that, consider the\ncomments received, and render some of their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce we do that, we will have a better understanding of\nwhat\u2019s happening and whether that location will be approved or not.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yonge and Wellington storefront listed as address of first Aurora-based application for a retail cannabis license in last week’s Provincial lottery.<\/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_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-24568","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\/p3D2k4-6og","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 10:38:58","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\/24568","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=24568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}