{"id":28057,"date":"2020-11-19T18:49:54","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T23:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=28057"},"modified":"2020-11-19T18:50:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T23:50:00","slug":"business-park-set-to-move-forward-with-auto-dealerships-self-storage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/business-park-set-to-move-forward-with-auto-dealerships-self-storage\/","title":{"rendered":"Business park set to move forward with auto dealerships, self-storage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The next phase of Smart Centres\u2019 footprint in Aurora near Wellington and Highway 404 is set to move forward next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council is poised to give the final sign off on amendments to the Town\u2019s Official Plan to pave the way for the development after signalling their approval at the Committee level earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their approval will allow new uses on the site, which was previously designed for specific use as a business park. Changes include two auto dealerships, including a new BMW showroom and a multi-storey self-storage building, SmartStop, which also offers flexible office space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A retail block of three buildings on the southeast corner of Wellington and the future Goulding Avenue, just east of Leslie Street, is also part of the revised plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smart Centres currently owns more than 110 acres of land in Aurora and has built over 575,000 square feet of space, said Allan Scully, Vice President of Development for Smart Centres, pitching the amendments to Council, noting that last year they paid more than $2.7 million in \u201clocal property taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Scully said he supported the recommendations put forward by staff, which reflect comments previously raised by lawmakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe BMW dealership and the SmartStop will be the only additional uses permitted on the business park lands by way of this application,\u201d he said, adding that the parcel of land in question is 32.5 acres, with the two buildings accounting for only four-and-a-half acres. \u201cThere is ample room on site to build out the business parklands as envisioned by the Town. \u201cWe have started construction of Goulding and this internal road on the hope that this Committee and Council will approve the application. To meet BMW and SmartStop\u2019s timelines, we need to complete the road grading work prior to winter so we can then come back in the early spring to complete Goulding and commence construction on the buildings themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The value of the two deals, he said, amounts to $7 million and both BMW and SmartStop need to be part of the plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can tell you we are in advanced discussions with a local tech firm who are interested in locating on the lands immediately east of the proposed Smart Stop,\u201d Mr. Scully added. \u201cWhile I do understand they are looking at one other site which may or may not be in Aurora, I am hopeful, I am confident we will be successful in bringing them to this site and keeping them in Aurora, but again without Goulding Avenue we won\u2019t be able to proceed with this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once complete, he concluded, the development could bring in $2.96 million in property taxes each year based on current rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Council approved the application at the Committee level this month, the approval did not come without question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Wendy Gaertner, for instance, said she was \u201ca little wary\u201d of such a large chunk of the development being allocated to retail as the land was intended on bringing \u201cgood jobs\u201d (defined as full time jobs with pensions) to the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe whole point of a designated business area is to attract those jobs that will, at least it was Aurora\u2019s intent, to attract jobs that are full-time with benefits and pension,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is not what\u2019s going to be happening here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Waters, Planner for the Town of Aurora, said there has been \u201cdebate\u201d over the definition of a \u201cjob\u201d within the context of employment lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t really depend on benefits and what have you,\u201d he said. \u201cI think what is important to remember in this development is the official plan target is 40 jobs per hectare. This development is going to contribute over 100 jobs per hectare to the Town\u2019s economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Michael Thompson, on the other hand, said he was in support of the application and said that the intent of the land has evolved over the last 10 years since the Official Plan was approved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe hope was as they expanded the lands to the eastern part that it would bring in more office buildings before more retail and really that is what brings us here today. I am sure that the applicants have tried their best to attract employment jobs and office settings and so forth to the lands, but as we have talked about last time and the time before this, it is not an easy challenge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re left to deal with what is before us tonight. From my perspective, I appreciate the work that staff and the applicant have done. As we all know, this application came to us in February under the Planning Act, we have 120 days to render a decision. We\u2019re well past that, but the applicant and staff have continued to work to address some of the concerns raised by myself and other members of Council and it is before us tonight to make a decision. I appreciate some of the changes they have made to make it a little more acceptable \u2013 in my eyes \u2013 and to adhere to some of the concepts and tenets we talked about back in 2010 in terms of how much retail there is going to be and [making sure] we still had room for future office.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Support was also offered by Councillor Rachel Gilliland, who singled out the flexible office space as a \u201cforward-thinking\u201d measure in light of COVID-19, as well as Councillor Sandra Humfryes who saw the benefit in construction jobs that will come from the build, and Councillor Harold Kim who cited the potential for further offices in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at 100 jobs per hectare, also the possibility of a tech company headquarters being located here and the applicant is saying they are confident in that,\u201d added Mayor Mrakas. \u201cI am looking forward to that coming to fruition. When you look at what is estimated, it is the taxes that would be coming in off this property. $2.9 million a year in taxes. We always talk about\u2026an employment or a commercial-base to alleviate the burden on the residential portion of the tax base, this is important to help provide that alleviation to the residents. The ratio between the employment and commercial\u2026 this is going to go a long way in helping that. It is encouraging to see, I\u2019m looking forward to it, I am looking forward to a lot of jobs coming into the area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The next phase of Smart Centres\u2019 footprint in Aurora near Wellington and Highway 404 is set to move forward next week. Council is poised to give the final sign off on amendments to the Town\u2019s Official Plan to pave the way for the development after signalling their approval at the Committee level earlier this month. […]<\/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-28057","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\/p3D2k4-7ix","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-16 09:19:49","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\/28057","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=28057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28057\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}