{"id":3171,"date":"2013-07-17T16:34:36","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T20:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=3171"},"modified":"2013-08-14T14:28:57","modified_gmt":"2013-08-14T18:28:57","slug":"new-condo-plan-includes-more-units-parking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/new-condo-plan-includes-more-units-parking\/","title":{"rendered":"New condo plan includes more units, parking"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

It has been hailed as a revitalization project which will do wonders for Aurora\u2019s Downtown core \u2013 but area residents looking towards the new Centro Condominium as a much needed shot in the community\u2019s arm will have a few more neighbours to contend with.
\nCouncil approved a zoning amendment for the multi-storey, multi-use condominium this week which will see the previously forecast 74 apartment units and 95 parking spaces expanded to 95 units and 134 spaces.
\nThere are a number of factors that have come into play with the application, say architects. One is the smaller units in the building were snapped up fast compared to larger units, bringing about a reconfiguration of some of their smaller units, and digging a second storey below-ground for parking to contend with poor soil conditions.
\n\u201cThere are a number of different ways to address the mitigation that is necessary,\u201d said Andrea Bourra of the MMM Group on behalf of owners Kaitlin Group. \u201cOne of them is to go an additional storey lower and provide a level of parking as opposed to driving approximately 300 piles into the ground to provide additional support. Driving piles [causes] lots of time, lots of noise, lots of vibrations and the recommendation was to proceed with excavation to the additional level.
\nArchitect Stephen Mak said soils on the planned condo site are \u201cextremely unstable\u201d and not unlike having a layer of Jell-O below the foundation site.
\n\u201cBecause the Jell-O has compacted the layer below, we now have reasonably solid soil,\u201d he explained. \u201cBy taking out [the layer of Jell-O] it is very much at a similar cost to drive the piles but we get an additional layer of parking, we get better stability within the structure itself, and we don\u2019t have the noise and interruptions [that will disturb neighbours].\u201d
\nNeighbours will also be up in numbers when the building is completed and new tenants start to move in. Approximately 52 units had been sold when architects and planners made their pitch to Council and the lion\u2019s share of the remaining units were some of the larger suites.
\n\u201cThe additional units are being created by reconfiguring unsold units and parking stalls within the existing building footprint,\u201d said Ms. Bourra. \u201cThere is no change to the building footprint and the parking is being provided underground. As a result of this approach, there are no fundamental or noticeable changes for the most part to exterior elevations. You would be hard-pressed to take a look at the elevations and really be able to pick up much difference.\u201d
\nThe revised plan largely won the support of Councillors and some neighbours ahead of this week\u2019s Council meeting.
\n\u201cThe gestation period on this building seems to be longer than several elephants,\u201d said resident Gordon Barnes. \u201cThe good news is it is finally going to happen and I look forward to my property taxes going up because of its value in the Region.\u201d
\nCouncillor Paul Pirri voiced his support for developers reconfiguring the larger units into smaller dwellings for prospective buyers.
\n\u201cWe always hear the need for more affordable housing,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople can\u2019t just charge less for housing.
\nCouncillor Evelyn Buck agreed.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a significant location in Aurora and it is certainly going to transform the downtown.\u201d
\nFrom a transformational perspective, Councillors Michael Thompson and Wendy Gaertner raised a note of concern. Both had questions of how the additional residents would impact local traffic, including those trying to turn left onto Yonge Street and making traffic problems worse nearby at Yonge and Wellington.
\n\u201cThe traffic is already pretty bad,\u201d said Councillor Gaertner. \u201cI don\u2019t see how we can allow people to make that turn at that time in the morning. I am not going to vote against this, but I see this as potentially a large problem for us.\u201d
\nNevertheless, a traffic report had been submitted by the applicant indicating impact on area traffic from the changes would be minimal and the Town\u2019s own traffic analyst agreed with their findings, according to Glen Letman, Aurora\u2019s Manager of Development Planning.
\nThe plan passed Council on consent. <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been hailed as a revitalization project which will do wonders for Aurora\u2019s Downtown core \u2013 but area residents looking towards the new Centro Condominium as a much needed shot in the community\u2019s arm will have a few more neighbours to contend with.<\/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":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-P9","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 12:03:27","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\/3171","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=3171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}