{"id":29695,"date":"2021-07-22T23:40:42","date_gmt":"2021-07-23T03:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=29695"},"modified":"2021-07-22T23:58:07","modified_gmt":"2021-07-23T03:58:07","slug":"better-transitions-needed-to-protect-stable-neighbourhoods-from-surrounding-intensification-councillor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/better-transitions-needed-to-protect-stable-neighbourhoods-from-surrounding-intensification-councillor\/","title":{"rendered":"Better transitions needed to protect stable neighbourhoods from surrounding intensification: Councillor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Better planning rules are needed to ensure there is a clear transition between Aurora\u2019s \u201cStable Neighbourhoods\u201d and areas of high intensification, according to Councillor Wendy Gaertner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Gartner put forward a motion last week calling for stronger guidelines around the intensification of Aurora\u2019s Major Transit Station Areas (MTSAs) \u2013 namely areas surrounding the Aurora GO Station \u2013 that also abut stable neighbourhoods like the Town Park area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Existing guidelines, she said, \u201cdo not provide the specificity required to guide decisions on appropriate development\u201d in this particular area and a clear plan was needed for \u201carea intensification with appropriate transition to adjacent Stable Neighbourhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe do have the Promenade Plan, but even the Official Plan consultants said that we need to tighten up or put more in about shoulder areas,\u201d she told her colleagues last week. \u201cWe need to have a more fulsome plan of what we want to see in this area. It is a very important area because of the GO Station and it is a very important area because it borders on a large Stable Neighbourhood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the motion passed Council unanimously, it didn\u2019t come without question \u2013 including from Councillor Michael Thompson who wanted assurances that going forward any such plan would be carried out in conjunction with work already underway to update the Town\u2019s Official Plan and Promenade Plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI see this as a natural result of going through our planning policies and refreshing them as we are doing right now,\u201d he said. \u201cCertainly, it is very much top of mind and we\u2019re cognizant of it both from the Provincial mandate (for intensification) as well as potential applications before us and I would rather go through it in the proper process dealing with it through the Official Plan (OP) and any revisions we make to the Promenade Plan as a result of the OP.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But given that planning applications are before Council for this area in particular, some Councillors agreed that it was important to have guidelines in place sooner rather than later and rather than waiting for the OP review to be complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe did have some residents come to Council and state their piece about shouldering on Stable Neighbourhoods and pointing to Council on how we\u2019re going to protect them and how it shoulders,\u201d said Councillor Rachel Gilliland. \u201cCouncillor Gaertner makes a really good point and while I recognize that intensification should occur [near the GO as part of the MTSA] having those guidelines and how it transitions [to] specifically a stable neighbourhood makes total sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want the developer wasting their time, planning and staff doing all this hard work, thinking, \u2018this is a great plan\u2019 and then we have pushback\u2026 I do think it is important to have some sort of a plan so at least developers and staff have some sort of guideline or some way to address that transition without ambiguity [around what is appropriate]. Right now, it is very confusing as to what is and what\u2019s not. I think this is a very helpful tool.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the perspective of Town Planner David Waters, developing these guidelines shouldn\u2019t be done on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy preference is to have this type of plan prepared as part of the review of the Promenade Plan because it shouldn\u2019t be done in isolation; it should be done together with a review of the policies of the plan so we can prepare a development plan or tertiary plan we can present to Council, which is essentially one way of potentially developing the Promenade. It is not the be all and end all [but] it just shows one version of how we could develop the Promenade Plan based on the policies of the document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will look at the existing policies regarding interface with the Stable Neighbourhoods and there\u2019s even the direction in the current plan regarding environmental protection as well. We will look at those and make improvements to them.\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":"

Better planning rules are needed to ensure there is a clear transition between Aurora\u2019s \u201cStable Neighbourhoods\u201d and areas of high intensification, according to Councillor Wendy Gaertner. Councillor Gartner put forward a motion last week calling for stronger guidelines around the intensification of Aurora\u2019s Major Transit Station Areas (MTSAs) \u2013 namely areas surrounding the Aurora GO […]<\/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-29695","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":"2026-05-11 06:05:33","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\/29695","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=29695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29695\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}