{"id":29054,"date":"2021-04-02T00:02:15","date_gmt":"2021-04-02T04:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=29054"},"modified":"2021-04-02T00:02:19","modified_gmt":"2021-04-02T04:02:19","slug":"heritage-trees-top-of-mind-in-proposed-sidewalk-connecting-library-square-to-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/heritage-trees-top-of-mind-in-proposed-sidewalk-connecting-library-square-to-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Heritage trees top of mind in proposed sidewalk connecting Library Square to park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Protecting and preserving heritage trees in Aurora\u2019s historic downtown core were top of mind last week as Council considered a new sidewalk on Metcalfe Street intended to act as a link between Town Park and the new Library Square development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As The Auroran reported last week, Council is due to consider moving forward with design work for a new sidewalk on the north side of the street to serve pedestrians accessing the Town\u2019s Cultural Precinct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recommendation nixes a previously proposed pathway through the parking lot of Trinity Anglican Church and the property belonging to the apartment building lying immediately north of the place of worship. Instead, up for consideration is a 1.5 metre-wide sidewalk that would run for a length of 155 metres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Staff admitted there were some challenges to the proposal, including impacts to a private property on the southwest corner of Metcalfe and Wells Streets, and this property, particularly the heritage trees on site, raised concerns around the Council table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re all concerned with regards to the heritage trees on the property at the corner,\u201d said Councillor Michael Thompson at last week\u2019s General Committee meeting. \u201cI think that any design that comes forward needs to be able to satisfy Council and the residents that there will be no impact to those trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI do agree with the principle behind it in that we\u2019re trying to further the connections between Town Park and Library Square. It is something that has always been envisioned. It was in the Promenade Plan\u2026 but it was more of a mid-block connection that went up the middle. I am happy to explore this and have further conversation once some initial design work is done in-house and presented to us at Budget so we can have a fuller debate at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Sandra Humfryes offered a similar view. Walkability, she said, was important to the Cultural Precinct but she said she wanted guarantees the stand of large trees at the corner would not be damaged by any future sidewalk construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want a guarantee that they won\u2019t be affected,\u201d she said. \u201cI need that guarantee because it would be an absolute shame. Those trees are designated Aurora heritage and we certainly can\u2019t harm them. They are beautiful and we want to see them for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Gilliland went a step further and requested that a study by an arborist be carried out before any significant work is done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the arborist deems it is not going to be safe or it is going to\u2026damage the trees, then we have our answer,\u201d she said, before raising the issue of whether a sidewalk on the north side of Metcalfe is ideal to serve Library Square. \u201cI just don\u2019t see the droves of people that are going to be overtaking one side of the sidewalk that is not going to allow people to come to and from\u2026 Library Square. I just don\u2019t feel it is a priority right now. If we\u2019re going to move forward with some kind of inquiry, it would be more or less an arborist view of whether or not the trees would be at risk and that is as far as I think we should go at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, Councillor John Gallo agreed that the proposal does not follow \u201cthe most natural route.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf there was a mid-block connection, that to me would make the most sense,\u201d he said. \u201cI am still a bit on the fence on the necessity for this initial sidewalk. My preference would be that mid-block just seems the right way to go, but if the impact is greater than the benefit it doesn\u2019t make sense. I think just some more time should be spent [to find] an appropriate solution. I would be in favour of just pushing it to Budget and finding out the costs and moving forward. I think some more work needs to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Thompson responded that he didn\u2019t disagree with Councillor Gallo that a mid-block connection was ideal, but given the view a mid-block as previously proposed would have a negative impact on parking spaces serving apartment buildings on Wells Street, that the ideal might not be possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat is what I am hoping to get as we go to the next stage: have staff spend the time and the energy to create a fulsome report, be it through an arborist, through engineering, just to be able to satisfactorily answer everybody\u2019s concerns and\/or questions because\u2026I think it needs to satisfy beyond any doubt that the trees and the property will not suffer negatively,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Protecting and preserving heritage trees in Aurora\u2019s historic downtown core were top of mind last week as Council considered a new sidewalk on Metcalfe Street intended to act as a link between Town Park and the new Library Square development. As The Auroran reported last week, Council is due to consider moving forward with design […]<\/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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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-29054","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\/p3D2k4-7yC","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-09 13:00:51","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\/29054","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=29054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29054\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}