{"id":30657,"date":"2022-01-20T19:33:26","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T00:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=30657"},"modified":"2022-01-27T19:06:11","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T00:06:11","slug":"attainable-housing-a-focus-in-towns-2051-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/attainable-housing-a-focus-in-towns-2051-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAttainable\u201d housing a focus in Town\u2019s 2051 plan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As home prices continue to soar, Aurora\u2019s growth plans through 2051 could include financial incentives for affordable housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council last week received an update on the latest drafts of the Town\u2019s Official Plan, one which will act as a blueprint for growth and development through 2051.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the public continues to contribute on how they would like to see the Town foster development and meet intensification and growth targets set by the Province of Ontario, affordable \u2013 or \u201cattainable\u201d \u2013 housing has become a key driver in the latest draft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Town heard that it will be important for the Official Plan to appropriately balance growth and intensification and natural spaces in order to protect Aurora\u2019s rich natural heritage features when adding development,\u201d said consultants in a discussion paper presented to Council. \u201c\u2018Gentle density\u2019 was discussed as an important piece to growth while respecting existing community character, which would allow for a mix of housing typologies while limiting building height and ensuring compatible built form. Tied to infill growth was support for housing prices on current and future residents, local employers and their employees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDeveloping the Town into a healthy, strong and complete community includes consideration for a number of inter-related elements, including providing accessible public spaces, supporting healthy lifestyle choices, providing attainable housing and protecting the Town\u2019s natural and historic character. We heard the need to improve accessibility and walkability, as well as active transportation opportunities through cycling infrastructure and better connections to key destinations, such as parks and natural heritage features. We also heard that urban design has a key role to play in planning and protecting the character of Aurora while ensuring development is carried out in a way that beautifies and enhances the Town, which includes support for public art. Additionally, the Official Plan has the opportunity to consider financial incentives and tools to improve housing affordability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opportunities for affordable housing could be found in infill development, said consultants, with examples including single-family townhouses, stacked townhouses and low-rise apartments and condos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCertainly there are different kinds of housing types that can be considered that are more dense and are considered, I think, good transitions from those low-density residential neighbourhoods that might be adjacent to the [Aurora] Promenade to higher-density built form,\u201d said consultant David Riley. \u201c[The list] is not to exclude any kind of housing types that might be appropriate such as duplexes or triplexes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reviewing the update, Councillor Wendy Gaertner said she was pleased the document notes that Town-wide policies have an important role in \u201csupporting a mixed range of housing that meets the diverse needs of households\u201d and that \u201chousing for all residents will continue to be an important aspect of planning for the future\u201d but wanted to make sure the \u201cmissing middle\u201d is addressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also asked for clarification on the difference between \u201caffordable\u201d and, as it is termed in the draft, \u201cattainable\u201d housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe whole \u2018missing middle\u2019 is missing here,\u201d said Councillor Gaertner. \u201cEverybody has been talking about that at different levels of government. The other thing that is missing here is the \u2018affordable\u2019 component. With respect to housing type, I don\u2019t really see that. I think we absolutely need to see that, otherwise we\u2019re just going to be having dark basement apartments and that is not really acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pressing further on where the term \u201cattainable housing\u201d came from, Mr. Riley said the term is becoming \u201cmore common\u201d in the planning world and is \u201creally meant to address broadly the notion that housing is becoming not affordable in the sense of CMHA affordability based on income levels, but attainable to everyone in terms of being able to afford rent or ownership.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Attainable\u2019 is kind of a broader thing for all of us and the term \u2018affordable housing\u2019 is more of that housing for people who have lower incomes, affordable ownership and affordable rent based on those CMHA benchmarks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added consultant Paul Lowes: \u201cIt is making sure our middle-income folks \u2013 our teachers, our nurses, our firefighters \u2013 can actually afford a home. They are not looking for affordable housing, they are looking for a home they can afford to live in and maintain in the municipality. We\u2019re certainly looking at the missing middle through the Promenade, the MTSA (Major Transit Station Area \u2013 Aurora\u2019s GO Station) and the municipality. The missing middle is the townhouses, the more ground-related homes that are missing. It\u2019s not those massive towers you see, it\u2019s the smaller forms that can be a broad range. Stacked townhouses can help that missing middle; walk-ups, smaller-scale townhouses. There\u2019s a broad range.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Gaertner nevertheless said more wording was needed in the draft to address the needs of the missing middle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a lot of people who have to rent and will always have to rent,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re looking at something like a duplex, a four-plex, you\u2019re talking about housing that can accommodate renter families where they have a back yard. Those are very important types of housing for renters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you look at \u2018gentle intensification\u2019 you can add another home if you have a long lot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

As home prices continue to soar, Aurora\u2019s growth plans through 2051 could include financial incentives for affordable housing. Council last week received an update on the latest drafts of the Town\u2019s Official Plan, one which will act as a blueprint for growth and development through 2051. As the public continues to contribute on how they […]<\/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-30657","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\/p3D2k4-7Yt","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-10 10:43:59","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\/30657","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=30657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}