{"id":31888,"date":"2022-09-08T18:44:19","date_gmt":"2022-09-08T22:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=31888"},"modified":"2022-09-08T18:44:21","modified_gmt":"2022-09-08T22:44:21","slug":"aurora-votes-2022-access-downtown-revitalization-and-residential-development-are-issues-driving-ward-2-candidate-lajeunesse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-votes-2022-access-downtown-revitalization-and-residential-development-are-issues-driving-ward-2-candidate-lajeunesse\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora Votes 2022: Access, downtown revitalization, and residential development are issues driving Ward 2 candidate Lajeunesse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A fully accessible community that goes beyond the east-west divide is a vision Daniel Lajeunesse has for Aurora, and it is a dream he hopes to bring to life as Councillor for Ward 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lajeunesse, currently a member of the Town\u2019s Committee of Adjustment and previously a Council candidate in the 2018 Municipal Election, is looking to run a very different election campaign this fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last go-round, he had one sign which he took with him to various events and locations around Town to spread the word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time, however, he\u2019s assembled a team, a strategy and, yes, more signs, to help win a place to represent his neighbours at the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you asked me a year ago, I probably would have said no,\u201d says Lajeunesse on what prompted him to toss his hat into the ring for a second time. \u201cBut, on the Committee of Adjustment (which looks at planning applications and minor variances), Ward 2 has seen a lot of cases come to it, a lot of wheeling and dealing with developers but\u2026the last thing we [want to be] is a rubber stamp agency anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developers, he says, \u201cfrequently\u201d come to the Committee and say that even though members have done their due diligence, if they vote against whatever proposal is before them, they will appeal to Ontario\u2019s Local Planning Appeals Tribunal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lajeunesse wants to see more support from Council towards the Committee of Adjustment so the development community takes local planning more seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are some good bylaws at least in terms of intent but what is driving me\u2026is the intent isn\u2019t necessarily followed by developers,\u201d he says, placing residential development at the top of his top three priorities. \u201cIt is simply an understanding of the bylaw and the execution of it are a little different. I want to tighten and make sure the intent of the bylaw is what is executed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere has to be some intelligence in how we develop and where we develop. We don\u2019t want condos to start appearing within our residential neighbourhoods and it has to have a logical flow in terms of that development. As much as we would love to maintain the population as it is, I know there are some provincial mandates that force us to expand and, since we don\u2019t have that control, we can at least control how that development is done, where it\u2019s done, what it looks like, and we control those options on what we build and where we build it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aurora\u2019s historic downtown core is a \u201cvital part of the community,\u201d he says, and making sure it reaches its full potential is his second priority. It needs to be remembered that the section of Yonge Street that goes through the core is a municipal rather than regional road and the Town can \u201ccontrol what we see here and try to get people here\u201d \u2013 including promoting what he describes as \u201cdaytime businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is making it more of a destination location,\u201d he says, noting there are few opportunities within Aurora to just grab an ice cream and go for a walk in the community. \u201cYou usually just drive to that location, have an ice cream and leave. We should have something more vibrant. Worse than spending money is not using what you\u2019ve spent that money on, so let\u2019s leverage those (downtown) investments and make sure you\u2019re not just having locals come to Aurora Town Square, Yonge Street, etc., but try to get some visitors here as well to enjoy its beauty, put a little more money in our coffers and, as a result, keep our taxes down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTown Square is an interesting piece of real estate we now have. Whether you like it or not, we do have it and if you use it properly and have a proper plan on how to use it, we can leverage it in order to bring people to the downtown core.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this goes for residents on either side of the railway corridor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Province continues to move towards all-day two-way GO Train service, it is important \u2013 and his third priority \u2013 to ensure that the Town isn\u2019t further divided by construction, or divided even after the project is completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t plan this properly and negotiate with the Province and the Region, we could end up with two towns for a small amount of time and it would be horrible if Ward 2 wouldn\u2019t be able to go to the new Farm Boy, Longo\u2019s, Sobey\u2019s or Walmart because they\u2019re afraid to be stuck in traffic every 15 minutes,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connectivity is a driving force for Lajeunesse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently tapped by Magna founder Frank Stronach to be part of his team behind the Sarit, Stronach\u2019s new battery-powered small vehicle, he says he has a deep appreciation for many forms of active transit, trails, cycling infrastructure and more, all of which he hopes to advocate for if he\u2019s successful in his Council bid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are major issues and also some small issues and I will deal with it in the same way I deal with my professional life where you have multiple projects going; some are more important than others but it doesn\u2019t mean that you can\u2019t address multiple things at the same time.\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":"

A fully accessible community that goes beyond the east-west divide is a vision Daniel Lajeunesse has for Aurora, and it is a dream he hopes to bring to life as Councillor for Ward 2. Lajeunesse, currently a member of the Town\u2019s Committee of Adjustment and previously a Council candidate in the 2018 Municipal Election, is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31889,"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-31888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/2022-09-08-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8ik","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-27 04:51:54","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\/31888","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=31888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}