{"id":34777,"date":"2024-07-04T17:34:54","date_gmt":"2024-07-04T21:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=34777"},"modified":"2024-07-11T16:47:30","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T20:47:30","slug":"affordable-housing-plan-up-for-public-review-following-tentative-council-approval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/affordable-housing-plan-up-for-public-review-following-tentative-council-approval\/","title":{"rendered":"Affordable Housing plan up for public review following tentative Council approval"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Members of the public will now have a chance to weigh in on the Aurora\u2019s Affordable Housing Action Plan after Council formally received the draft plan last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Affordable Housing Plan, as drafted, will serve as a \u201cblueprint\u201d to foster affordable housing options within the community through 2051 \u2013 a time that\u2019s expected to see significant population growth within Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan is guided by six key objectives: increase housing supply, promote housing affordability and stability, ensure complete community growth, streamline approvals, enhance partnerships, and \u201ccontinually monitor, assess and educate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building on discussions when first presented to Council at the Committee level earlier this month, lawmakers welcomed the chance for public consultation while also stressing that concrete action is needed going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to start this summer,\u201d said Marco Ramunno, Aurora\u2019s Director of Planning, on when outreach will begin, noting that consultation will begin with Regional Community Housing Service as well as Aurora\u2019s Accessibility Advisory Committee. \u201cAs we move forward, we will certainly include as many housing groups and providers [as possible].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCome September, after the summer break, we will hold open houses community-wide\u2026 for all residents to seek feedback and we will do a full public consultation with all groups prior to coming back to Council for final consideration on the draft and any suggested changes that come from that consultation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reviewing the recommendations within the draft plan, Ward 2 Councillor Rachel Gilliland said that while it contains \u201ca lot of action items\u201d, at the end of the day \u201cActions speak louder than words.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile I see this as a great plan, what we\u2019re actually going to do moving forward with that timeline really is key,\u201d she said, noting she would like to see \u201cred tape\u201d tackled and reduced. \u201cWe\u2019ve been talking about this forever and never really get anything done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One recommendation she questioned was an action item to include streetscape improvements in the Aurora Promenade (the Yonge and Wellington corridors in the Town\u2019s downtown core) as part of the plan and how it related to affordable housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These streetscape improvements, replied Ramunno, have been \u201con the books for a number of years\u201d and enhancing those streetscapes \u201cmay encourage some of those property owners to move forward with development opportunities to generate more housing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is also some infrastructure work that needs to be undertaken as part of that project that will support future development within that section of the Town,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Councillor Gilliland suggested that that work should be undertaken outside of the plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we all agree we want to see downtown revitalization and beautification. I just feel it is not appropriate here,\u201d she said, adding she wanted a detailed timeline for consultation and, ultimately, implementation. \u201cI believe we\u2019re in a situation where we want to speed things up and understanding what can Council do now as opposed to waiting for next year, two years, three years down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quick wins, replied Ramunno, include updating zoning bylaws around the Aurora GO Station, which has been identified as an area of intensification as a Major Transit Station Area (MTSA) by 2025 and this, he said, would help streamline housing approvals in this specific geographic area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI guess we will see what happens around the Council table and vote forward projects that come forward,\u201d said Councillor Gilliland. \u201cWe have had projects come forward that do emulate some of these action items but we have still held up these developments. I think people and the public need to pay attention to how Council does vote on projects that are good for the community when it actually aligns with this. I look forward to utilizing this action plan when we are talking about public planning meetings. If we are going to adopt this in principle, that this is something we should look to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the recommendations in the draft plan to boost housing supply is to permit four units per residential lot to \u201cincrease \u2018missing middle\u2019 and rental opportunities\u201d; increase density \u201cincrementally\u201d within the downtown Aurora Promenade area and the MTSA; undertake a study to look at opportunities to convert land designated for commercial and employment uses; looking at housing opportunities at \u201ckey sites,\u201d with 50-100 Bloomington Road West held up as just one example; and update zoning provisions to support housing creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the objective of Promote Housing Affordability and Sustainability, the Town will, should the Plan be implemented, develop an Affordable Housing Reserve Fund, funded through Community Benefit Charges or developers\u2019 contributions, to allow the Town to \u201cassist with affordable housing projects\u201d such as non-profit and co-op models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additional goals here include requiring affordable housing assessments for all new residential developments; implementing inclusionary zoning for the MTSA; prioritizing government-owned land for housing use; and exploring the \u201cbenefits and feasibility\u201d of modular and prefab construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To ensure \u201cComplete Community Growth,\u201d the draft plan suggests eliminating minimum parking requirements within the MTSA to lower housing costs; creating an Affordable Housing Community Improvement Plan, which would arm a municipality with tools to direct funds to \u201cincentivize\u201d the creation of affordable housing through grants, loans and tax breaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Streamlining the approval of developments is a key pillar in the plan. Recommendations here include a Community Planning Permit System that would allow multiple application processes to be consolidated into a single review; continuing to enhance the Town\u2019s online planning application system; prioritizing the approval of affordable housing developments; and waiving application fees for \u201ccritical housing opportunities,\u201d including emergency, transitional and supportive housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Members of the public will now have a chance to weigh in on the Aurora\u2019s Affordable Housing Action Plan after Council formally received the draft plan last week. The Affordable Housing Plan, as drafted, will serve as a \u201cblueprint\u201d to foster affordable housing options within the community through 2051 \u2013 a time that\u2019s expected to […]<\/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-34777","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\/p3D2k4-92V","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-23 18:13:01","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\/34777","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=34777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}