{"id":25991,"date":"2020-02-21T18:07:34","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T23:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25991"},"modified":"2020-02-27T23:08:19","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T04:08:19","slug":"council-calls-for-better-public-engagement-on-official-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/council-calls-for-better-public-engagement-on-official-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Council calls for better public engagement on Official Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Council has called on municipal staff to improve public\nengagement as just a handful of residents came out to Council Chambers last\nweek to provide input on the Town\u2019s revised Official Plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aurora is currently engaged in an Official Plan review,\nthe results of which will act as a blueprint for municipal growth through 2041.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The February 11 meeting was intended as a way to receive\nfeedback from members of the public on how they would like Aurora\u2019s future\nshaped before this feedback is sent back to staff for the development of a\nworkplan. But, when just one member of the public stepped up to share their\nvision, Council raised questions about the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf this is an exercise in checking a box off because the\nPlanning Act tells us we have to have a Public Planning meeting, I think we\nwould all agree we\u2019ve failed miserably,\u201d said Councillor John Gallo addressing\nhis Council colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Tom Mrakas and Councillor Michael Thompson were not\npresent for the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Gallo went on to note that it didn\u2019t make\nsense to have the Public Planning meeting on updating the Town\u2019s Official Plan\n(OP) before the Town had retained an outside consultant, as planned, to engage\nmembers of the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am here to listen to the public and I am prepared to\nget up and leave because that\u2019s done,\u201d he continued, following the resident\u2019s\npresentation. \u201cI have plenty of time to speak into this microphone and engage\nin what I believe we should be doing with this process, but if we\u2019re here to\nlisten to the public to guide this process, we\u2019ve failed miserably and I will\nunderline that. I have a whole bunch of questions, but I don\u2019t know the value\nto them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although staff pointed out that more than 300 residents\nhad been engaged in the OP process through several means, including \u201cplanner\npop-up events\u201d that had been held at various municipal events throughout 2019,\nand a further \u201cdozen\u201d residents attending an open house on the matter just prior\nto that evening\u2019s meeting, Councillor Gallo said the process was flawed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want the public engaged in a significant way,\u201d he\nconcluded. \u201cI ran on that and I\u2019m standing by that. I\u2019m disappointed we\u2019re here\nand the chambers are virtually empty on a very important issue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a sentiment shared by many around the table,\nincluding Councillor Sandra Humfryes who said although she was disappointed by\nthe turnout, staff had done what they could to engage the public to this point\nand further \u2013 and, it is hoped, more fulsome \u2013 consultation would take place\nonce steering committees are in place to guide the OP review down the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[We need to state] this is the future of your Town, how\nyou want the Town to be, how you want to live here, and this is how you provide\ninput,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to take it seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Rachel Gilliland offered similar concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really feel that staff is trying to do their job to\nget public engagement\u2026and feedback, but I think my bone of contention is just\nwhere are they going to get this information,\u201d she said, suggesting the public\nneeds to have more information made available to them in order to provide a\ntrue opinion to Council. \u201cEven though this is the kick-off [meeting and] I\nunderstand it is very preliminary, it would be really good to know there is\ngoing to be another meeting that is formal, or something to give public\nfeedback to also provide a copy to the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation\nAuthority, York and all [surrounding communities because] I feel there is much\ncontent we can provide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also speaking to the matter was Councillor Harold Kim,\nwho chaired last week\u2019s meeting. He stated that there is rarely a huge turnout\nin Council Chambers as far as members of the public at large are concerned and\n\u201ccontext\u201d was needed in the debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe put out a Citizen Budget for online surveys, we\u2019ve\ndone that for many years, and we don\u2019t get that much of a response, so to\nactually get 300 [responses from the planner pop-ups] I think that is quite an\naccomplishment,\u201d he said. \u201cAlmost assuredly, we would like to have more\nfeedback. I don\u2019t want to harp on staff and the lack of response we have had,\nbut relative to similar types of events, I think this is quite good. Unless\nwe\u2019re building a sidewalk or monster home, you\u2019re not going to pack this room\nand you\u2019re not going to get email or survey responses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, Council decided another Public Planning\nmeeting would need to be held to solicit input from residents, voting to hold\nanother session after the consultant is hired and their own public consultation\nis compiled and sent to staff for a review and report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI still think if there\u2019s not a huge risk in delaying our input to the municipalities and the Region, if we could try when the consultant\u2019s on board to try and engage further public input, see what the next public planning meeting holds,\u201d said Councillor Humfryes. \u201cIf it is the same turnout, we\u2019ve done the best we could. If not, and we have a fulsome turnout, then we have [done so] without risk and it gives [the Town a chance] to really come out and share their thoughts and ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Council has called on municipal staff to improve public engagement as just a handful of residents came out to Council Chambers last week to provide input on the Town\u2019s revised Official Plan. Aurora is currently engaged in an Official Plan review, the results of which will act as a blueprint for municipal growth through 2041. […]<\/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-25991","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\/p3D2k4-6Ld","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 13:58:23","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\/25991","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=25991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}