{"id":37879,"date":"2026-04-02T16:10:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=37879"},"modified":"2026-04-02T16:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:12:14","slug":"proposed-leslie-and-wellington-development-raises-questions-about-sarc-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/proposed-leslie-and-wellington-development-raises-questions-about-sarc-use\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed Leslie and Wellington development raises questions about SARC use"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A proposed subdivision of 74 townhouse units on the northwest corner of Leslie Street and Wellington Street East, adjacent to the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex, raised questions around the Council table last week due to plans for an access point to the homes through the SARC\u2019s driveway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At issue is a plan for 74 townhouse units \u2013 42 standard and 32 back-to-backs \u2013 with a right-in, right-out access point from Wellington Street, and another access point through the municipally-owned SARC driveway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Council members praised the development bringing new residential units to the community, particularly some back-to-back units attainably priced starting at $699,000, questions raised at last week\u2019s Public Planning meeting touched upon density and how the SARC access might impact an already-busy public space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan calls for 163 parking spaces for the 74 units, including 15 visitor parking spaces, and some Councillors expressed worry that overflow parking from the development would naturally flow to the SARC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn terms of the SARC, I tried to understand maybe the rationale behind it and some of the pros and cons to it. I did a little bit of a cursory [look] to try to understand if there\u2019s anything similar in the Town and the only thing I could think of is the Mosaics Avenue subdivision just behind the old Canadian Tire off Murray,\u201d said Ward 5 Councillor John Gallo, who said he wasn\u2019t sure if he was for or against the proposal, but trying to understand the impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also raising questions was Ward 4 Councillor Michael Thompson who said back-to-back townhouses with only one allocated space per unit has created parking issues elsewhere in Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe already hear enough about people saying that they\u2019re using the garage for other things than parking their cars. The practicality of it all makes me think that some of these homeowners are going to use up those visitor parking spaces as permanent, which means\u2026 where are they going to park? They\u2019re going to park at the SARC,\u201d said Councillor Thompson. \u201cIf the road is open to the SARC, it definitely will encourage them to park in the SARC. In fact, it actually might be closer for them to park in the SARC than park in any of those visitor spots. I\u2019m concerned with only one unit, one parking space available for the back-to-back townhomes in the north because I think it\u2019s going to lead to a problem\u2026. I look at all the driveways, I look at the configuration, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any on-street parking, either. Where is everybody parking? It\u2019s going to be at the SARC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe already have concerns about some of the other developments about parking in the SARC and now all of a sudden we could be running into a future issue [with] residents at large wanting to use that facility will have limited parking spaces because of the developments that are happening and going there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The benefit of access to the SARC to the developer was clear, said the Councillor, but there needs to be a \u201cbenefit to the community at large.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concerns were echoed by Ward 3 Councillor Wendy Gaertner who said if she was one of the homeowners in question she would park as close as possible to the SARC lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really don\u2019t think that they\u2019re going to go as far as the east area of the SARC lot, which is true, is often quite empty, but not when there\u2019s a lot of activity at the SARC,\u201d she said, adding she also had concerns about liability for the Town if the parking lot became an access point for the subdivision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council members agreed that the SARC driveway should be considered by the Region for a future signalized intersection to control traffic flow. But, as this is not yet being considered by Regional Council, the Town could have to go it alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs far as the traffic light, absolutely we need one in this area at some point, but I don\u2019t think the Town should be paying for it,\u201d said Mayor Tom Mrakas. \u201cI think that both developments, there\u2019s one that\u2019s going to be on the south side [of Wellington] and this one can fully fund the installation and implementation of that signalized intersection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Councillor who was less concerned about the access point was Ward 2 Councillor Rachel Gilliland who suggested she would have liked more vertical density in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGiven the fact that it is a condo-type community, it\u2019s not unusual [to have] no parking on the street and rely on visitor parking,\u201d she said. \u201cIn fact, there is a bit of an advantage that of course we have the SARC around the corner, but I don\u2019t really foresee that being something that will be abused. Is it something we should be concerned about and speak about today? Absolutely. Do we want to make sure the developer realizes that we want to ensure that the minimums are being presented today and that’s not something that you’re going to be building the foundation of your application on? Absolutely. Is it a reason for me to say that I feel this application wouldn’t be something good to move forward to the next community to hold? I’m not going to hold them to that. I do appreciate the comments around the table on this, but I certainly would not want to hang my hat based on some of those comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think my biggest bone of contention right now is ensuring that we have some good amenity space and green space for the families that are there because it is something that is very near and dear. We want to make sure that families have a place for the kids to play and walk their dogs, and that is really the biggest bone of contention for me.\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":"

Subdivision could share SARC driveway as entrance point<\/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":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37879","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\/p3D2k4-9QX","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 23:08:16","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\/37879","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=37879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37880,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37879\/revisions\/37880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}