{"id":25626,"date":"2020-01-10T17:35:12","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T22:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25626"},"modified":"2020-01-10T17:35:21","modified_gmt":"2020-01-10T22:35:21","slug":"new-official-plan-will-be-auroras-blueprint-to-2041","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/new-official-plan-will-be-auroras-blueprint-to-2041\/","title":{"rendered":"New Official Plan will be Aurora\u2019s blueprint to 2041"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Town launches review of municipal strategy<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

It\u2019s a New Year, it\u2019s a new decade, and it is time for a\nnew blueprint to guide Aurora into the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This winter, the Town is expected to continue the\ngroundwork in developing its new Official Plan, one which will act as a guide\nfor the Town for the next 20 years, through a series of public outreach events,\nincluding a Special Council Meeting on February 11 which will give members of\nthe public the opportunity to weigh in on how the Plan should be developed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next month\u2019s meeting is the next step in a lengthy\nprocess which has already included a series of \u201cpre-launch\u201d pop-up events to\nintroduce the public to the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Andria Sallese, Senior Policy Planner for\nthe Town of Aurora, this pre-launch consultation engaged more than 300 persons\n\u2013 but now it is time to step it up in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe 2020 Official Plan review will result in an updated\nOfficial Plan (OP) that will provide guidance for the municipality until 2041,\u201d\nsaid Ms. Sallese, launching the review in Council Chambers. \u201cThe current OP\nprovides guidance in terms of a time horizon to 2031.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last updated in 2010, the OP has been the subject of several\namendments in the ensuing ten years, and a new OP will bring the Town into\nconformity with a number of pieces of legislation that have been updated since\nthat time, including the Province\u2019s Official Growth Plan and the Oak Ridges\nMoraine Conservation Plan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYork Region is undertaking a Municipal Comprehensive\nReview to bring their Official Plan into conformity with the provincial plans\nand documents,\u201d said Ms. Sallese. \u201cWe anticipate Regional Council adoption of\nthe Regional OP amendment in 2021. The Region\u2019s Municipal Comprehensive Review\n(MCR) will provide policy direction to local municipalities like Aurora on\nmatters such as local intensification targets, major transit station area\ntargets, employment area conversions and employment density targets, as well as\nNatural Heritage Areas. We have about a year to update our Official Plan from\nthe date of the Region\u2019s approval.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twelve principles have been pinned down to help guide\nAurora\u2019s Official Plan review. They include: Promoting responsible growth\nmanagement; ensuring design excellence; building a greener community; providing\na range and mix of housing; providing appropriate community facilities;\nprotecting stable neighbourhoods; developing vibrant new neighbourhoods;\nadvancing the economy; building a successful downtown; establishing a linked\ngreenlands system; conserving cultural heritage resources; and providing\nsustainable infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThrough the Official Plan Review, we will be revisiting\nthe vision, the principles, to ensure that they are current and reflect the\nchanging needs of the Town,\u201d said Ms. Sallese. \u201cWe will be doing that with the\ncommunity and Council.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The process in doing so will happen in five stages. The\nTown is currently in the process of a Background Review and Analysis, and this\nwill be followed by a Growth Analysis which will explore residential and\nemployment growth since 2010 and moving forward towards 2041. The next step\nwill look at Complete, Vibrant & Healthy Communities and how this principle\ncan be facilitated through public policy. The process will be rounded out by\ndirection related to infrastructure and movement and, finally, implementation\nof the findings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA staff report early in 2020 will provide further\ninformation about how public consultation has both informed the work program\nand refined it,\u201d she said, before noting the public engagement sessions that\ntook place in 2019. \u201cWe envision the OP review being premised on a robust and\ninnovative approach to public engagement, using in-person and online forums to\nengage and capture broad spectrum of perspectives. Using this format, we have\nalready engaged over 300 members of the community, which given the preliminary\nstages of the Official Plan Review, I would say that is quite the success and\nit has been positively received\u2026 Staff continue to receive input through online\nsurveys on the work program. We are in the process of procuring a public\nengagement consultant for the study and in early 2020 we\u2019re going to host a\npublic open house to receive even more input from the public. That would be a\nstatutory meeting where we sent out formal notice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The path towards developing a revised new blueprint for\nthe Town of Aurora received widespread support from Council following Ms. Sallese\u2019s\npresentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have heard time and time again that our Official Plan\nis probably the most important document that a Town or a City can have,\u201d said\nMayor Tom Mrakas. \u201cIt is unfortunate that the Provincial Government might not\nfeel the same way because they have made changes that ultimately take our\ndecision powers, our authority on how we move forward and how we uphold our Official\nPlan out of our hands with the reversal of some of the rules on LPAT. (Local\nPlanning Appeals Tribunal)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne thing stuck out for me on the presentation, and that\nwas promoting responsible growth. We talk about it a lot and, to me, that is\nwhat this OP is about. It is about looking at how we can responsibly grow, not\nover-develop our Town, not stop development, but have that responsible growth.\nI hope through this process that we maintain our height restrictions, because I\nthink that is important for our Town. I have heard it time and time again that\nit is important for the residents of this community. I have heard it from the\nRegion where I have asked our Commissioner that if we are mandated to grow to a\ncertain level through the Province and the Region, can we maintain our height\nrestriction yet still meet those targets? The answer was yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am hoping through this process that we stick to those\nheight restrictions because, to me, that is what is going to keep Aurora\nAurora. I am looking forward to going through this process [to] ensure Aurora\nstays Aurora.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a New Year, it\u2019s a new decade, and it is time for a new blueprint to guide Aurora into the future.<\/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-25626","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\/p3D2k4-6Fk","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-12 07:33:19","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\/25626","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=25626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}