{"id":33540,"date":"2023-09-07T19:05:41","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T23:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=33540"},"modified":"2023-09-15T12:36:09","modified_gmt":"2023-09-15T16:36:09","slug":"housing-crisis-to-dominate-september-as-council-returns-from-summer-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/housing-crisis-to-dominate-september-as-council-returns-from-summer-break\/","title":{"rendered":"Housing crisis to dominate September as Council returns from summer break"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Finding solutions to the ongoing housing crisis will be top-of-mind for local lawmakers this week as Council returns to Town Hall following the summer recess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the issues set to come to the table is bringing forward a formal Housing Pledge, which, once submitted to Queen\u2019s Park, will see Premier Doug Ford grant Aurora \u201cStrong Mayor\u201d powers by October 31, as well as a motion from Mayor Tom Mrakas later this month that could see some moves to accelerate housing development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Housing Pledge before Council will commit the Town to \u201cfacilitating\u201d the construction of 8,000 new homes by 2031.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Town of Aurora recognizes the importance of addressing the current housing crisis and has demonstrated leadership and commitment to promoting housing supply and affordability by adopting a motion that directs staff to include modernized housing policies in the Town\u2019s updated Official Plan that clearly articulates and defines the Town\u2019s strategies and actions on affordable and attainable housing,\u201d reads the draft, with Mayor Mrakas as the signatory. \u201cThe Town is committed to the intensification of its Major Transit Station Area (MTSA) and Downtown Promenade core and aims to provide diverse housing opportunities for residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAurora also acknowledges it has an important role in facilitating the construction of 8,000 new homes by ensuring we have an updated municipal planning framework to guide development. We undertake to provide efficient and streamlined processes to facilitate the timely review and approval of development applications and permits. The Town of Aurora has made and commits to making investments in technology and process improvements, all to meet the housing target. Achieving the target relies on partners that are integral in reaching this goal and delivering housing. To be successful, more initiatives and partnerships are required between all levels of government, the home building industry, and the trades sector to increase the supply of housing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To meet the goals of the housing pledge, the draft document calls on developments currently in the pipeline, as well as those that are proposed, to \u201cfollow through to construction, which requires accelerated action and funding from all levels of government to support the delivery of complete communities \u2013 through upgrades to infrastructure, rapid transit, schools, hospitals, and social services.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLocally, we need to create a robust network of community amenities, parks, trails, active transportation, and fire protection services to meet the needs of residents as the community grows. The Town is committed to the development of a complete, healthy, and balanced community and looks forward to working with partners across all sectors to achieve this common goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAurora Council promises to continue to advocate for a framework to deliver the infrastructure needed to build complete communities and meet Aurora\u2019s municipal housing target. This framework must reflect the principle of growth paying for growth and not shift the burden of growth to property taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building on this pledge is a motion from Mayor Mrakas set to come before Council on September 26, calling on the Town to move towards \u201cpre-zoning\u201d some pockets of land to facilitate their development, in concert with the anticipated approval of the Town\u2019s refreshed Official Plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Town of Aurora is making a commitment to the Province by pledging its active role in facilitating the construction of 8,000 new homes by the year 2031,\u201d says the Mayor in his motion, tasking the Town to \u201cengage in pre-zoning of lands situated along key thoroughfares.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this case, those key thoroughfares are identified Leslie, Bayview, Yonge and Wellington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis initiative will extend to cover Strategic Growth Areas, such as The Promenade and the MTSA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He calls for these corridors and designated growth areas to be pre-zoned \u201cwith due consideration for suitable building heights and densities. This pre-zoning shall be designated \u2018As of Right,\u2019 thereby streamlining the development process for residential units.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Finding solutions to the ongoing housing crisis will be top-of-mind for local lawmakers this week as Council returns to Town Hall following the summer recess. Among the issues set to come to the table is bringing forward a formal Housing Pledge, which, once submitted to Queen\u2019s Park, will see Premier Doug Ford grant Aurora \u201cStrong […]<\/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_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-33540","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\/p3D2k4-8IY","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-14 12:53:51","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\/33540","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=33540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}