{"id":31211,"date":"2022-04-28T20:43:57","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T00:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=31211"},"modified":"2022-04-28T20:47:06","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T00:47:06","slug":"apartment-plan-for-yonge-and-irwin-still-has-outstanding-issues-councillors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/apartment-plan-for-yonge-and-irwin-still-has-outstanding-issues-councillors\/","title":{"rendered":"Apartment plan for Yonge and Irwin still has outstanding issues: Councillors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Official Plan amendments for a six-storey apartment building at the southwest corner of Yonge Street and Irwin Avenue could move forward this week, but some Council members say there are still too many unanswered questions on the plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At issue is a 136-unit apartment complex which has neighbours on Irwin and Machell Avenues concerned not only about construction impacts to their community but traffic issues as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are issues neighbours have voiced to Council and, from the perspectives of Councillors Rachel Gilliland and Wendy Gaertner, they remain largely unaddressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have to say I am not in favour of this,\u201d said Councillor Gaertner. \u201cI think there are too many unresolved issues, in particular stormwater management, so I will be voting against this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Gilliland also voiced her objections, but focusing on ongoing traffic issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI realize that one of the issues is you can\u2019t have a traffic light on Irwin and Wellington just because it is in such close proximity to Wellington,\u201d she said. \u201cMy suggestion was maybe Machell and Wellington would be a good place to have that light. I just know that right-hand turn is going to be literally impossible and I can foresee that down the road. The [proposal] has good development and such, but I just don\u2019t see any change whatsoever from the last time we had a public meeting or any Council input about the traffic concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the Region is the one that\u2019s responsible, I really do think we need to advocate for this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Director of Planning Marco Ramunno said that municipal engineering staff have reviewed the application, the review indicates \u201cthe proposed development will operate at acceptable levels\u201d and that \u201cthere is capacity on those surrounding roads to accommodate this traffic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo road improvements are required nor are traffic signals warranted at either Irwin or Yonge,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are issues there because of the offset with Catherine Avenue just to the north and the distance between the existing Yonge signalization. There are two routes in and out for full access points to accommodate the development. From a traffic standpoint, there aren\u2019t any issues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Region, added Mayor Tom Mrakas, has distance and traffic volume requirements when it comes to signalled intersections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have long-advocated for many signalized intersections,\u201d he said. \u201cThis one in general, especially with the intersection of Yonge and Wellington, we have looked at many different ways and configurations to make the intersection more appealing to traffic flow, but ultimately a lot of things that get put forward, whether it is a signalized intersection at Machell and Yonge, it\u2019s one from the experts\u2019 opinions, from the engineers and the traffic analyst, it is not warranted at this time and that is a constant thing we\u2019re hearing from the Region.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barring a signalized intersection, Councillor Gilliland said there were further alternatives that should be considered and once again brought forward her idea to help alleviate traffic in the area by extending Machell Avenue northward through Town-owned land to connect with Aurora Heights Drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI made some comments\u2026to look into perhaps extending Machell Avenue up to connect through Aurora Heights\u2026 and perhaps this would direct vehicles to an actual light they can utilize,\u201d she said. \u201cAt the time, [the response was], \u2018We\u2019ll look into it and see,\u2019 and I am just curious as to whether or not that is something that was considered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cExtending to Aurora Heights could be a viable solution to safely exit because I can foresee this going to be an issue. It is disappointing to me it meets all the traffic requirements for this development; if they are checking all the boxes\u2026it is hard for me to argue not being in favour of the application, but I am disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Ramunno said extending Machell has not been ruled out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt informed our recommendation to Council on this application,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is certainly something we can continue to explore in the future, but with respect to the development application, the existing access points are sufficient to accommodate the proposed development.\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":"

Official Plan amendments for a six-storey apartment building at the southwest corner of Yonge Street and Irwin Avenue could move forward this week, but some Council members say there are still too many unanswered questions on the plan. At issue is a 136-unit apartment complex which has neighbours on Irwin and Machell Avenues concerned not […]<\/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-31211","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\/p3D2k4-87p","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 06:02:51","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\/31211","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=31211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}